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Third-Rail EMU Photos


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34 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

Is it me or does 012 have a tail light out?

 

It'll either the LED refresh rate vs camera shutter speed or the unit is Aux tripped and drops to 1 tail light to prolong battery life.

 

Dale

 

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12 hours ago, bude_branch said:

A final sequence of three pictures from West Kirby showing a simultaneous arrival and departure through, what to me, always seemed a rather unusual track layout.

It looks very old-fashioned, but probably served well until renewals prompted some rationalisation, we might hope. That 10 mph crossover would be a pain, but it may not have mattered much in that sort of location. Implausibly for one who is a bit Southern in outlook, I did visit West Kirby early in 1971, during the postal strike, which dates the visit. Breakfast on an early train from Euston had been a good start to a long day out! I greatly doubt my Fujichrome slides, albeit taken on a Nikon, have survived.

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1 hour ago, NickL2008 said:

Good morning,

 

Last week went to the Isle of Wight to see the last two class 438s in service on the Island Line whilst taking a short holiday away. After serving the line since 1989 these will soon be withdrawn from service now SWR have confirmed their plans for these units. Some of the results are below and the rest of the other photos are on my flickr. 

 

438006 at Vicarage Lane Crossing

 

Lucky sun at Ryde

 

Now departing Lake

 

438006 enters Shanklin

 

438008 arrives at Sandown

 

NL

I thought that only one of the units was now usable. You were certainly lucky not to have a replacement bus service as there have been many days when both units have been out of service. The 438's have certainly put in tremendous service and it will be sad to see them go but the new trains should be a big improvement. 

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1 hour ago, Chris116 said:

I thought that only one of the units was now usable. You were certainly lucky not to have a replacement bus service as there have been many days when both units have been out of service. The 438's have certainly put in tremendous service and it will be sad to see them go but the new trains should be a big improvement. 

 

Last Sunday apprently the line was without a service, so it was good to see both units out, sadly theres only two left now that work as 004 has been taken out of service

 

NL

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22 hours ago, John M Upton said:

Are the 442's actually doing anything other than rusting in sidings at the moment?  I don't recall seeing one under its own power since the end of March!!

No revenue-earning trips since Lockdown 1 but they do go out from time to time in order to keep crews familiar (which is probably cheaper than allowing competency to lapse and having to re-train the entire staff) and to keep to the "warm" part of the "warm storage" deal.  Not sure what re-training might be required for the new control arrangements but it remains fundamentally the same stock so probably a conversion course rather than from scratch.  

 

We have yet to receive any advice on their return to service.  Having seen the draft December timetable they may well be needed if the 444/450 re-livery program is to progress; that is currently restricted by Covid and the absence of units spared from traffic.  

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1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

Probably the last time you will see 313220 for a while

One down?   

 

There should be spare capacity in the 377 fleet for the time being as full service is still not returning on 12th December.  

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She has been sitting dead with one door stuck open in Worthing bay platform since about four this morning. 

 

313205 is attached, I think it will require moving at a very slow speed overnight.

 

Its repairable I reckon.

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6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

One down?   

 

There should be spare capacity in the 377 fleet for the time being as full service is still not returning on 12th December.  

Not sure if they have spare class 377's.  As we have Gatwick Class 387's working Brighton to ore services. Plus the London Bridge  to Eastbourne have 3  Gatwick units on it . That is one each way a day.

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5 hours ago, crompton 33 said:

Not sure if they have spare class 377's.  As we have Gatwick Class 387's working Brighton to ore services. Plus the London Bridge  to Eastbourne have 3  Gatwick units on it . That is one each way a day.

That is much more about giving the GatEx crews some work and will remain the case during the Airport rebuild because a 15-minute GatEx service cannot be provided with one or two platforms there out of use.  

 

Southern are not maximising train length in the same way that SWR are.  8-car main-line trains are still the norm (though with a few 12-car) and 12-car GatEx 387s on Victoria - Brighton fasts.  Therefore there should be spare capacity in the 377 fleet to use more along the coast even with the return to near-100% timetable, modified by the required Gatwick reductions, in a few weeks time.  

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I only visited the IoW once when the trains were blue-grey and it was a very bright day with strong contrasts.  A couple of pics of 485.044 at Ryde Pier Head and Ryde St johns (showing the disc that was used in place of a tail lamp). March 1985

 

 

rev 485044 Ryde Pier Head Mar85.jpg

rev 485044 Ryde St John Mar85.jpg

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I still find it a little hard to think of the IoW without its trains of Standard stock.  7-cars in summer.  4-car in winter.  They have been gone for a long time now and while traffic levels continued to decline and the 1938 stock was only ever intended to run as 2-car and 4-car trains it hasn't been quite the same.  Two carriages trundling up Ryde Pier (one of which is locked out of use these days as the guard is not permitted to walk between them any more) seems almost an apology but the passenger numbers are simply not there.  Steamers no longer arrive from Portsmouth with several hundred passengers two or three times an hour.  The catamaran brings in a few tens on many crossings and a couple of hundred at most on a peak summer sailing.  Mostly once an hour though twice on peak days.  

 

The 1938 stock will be missed, and I shall miss its passing because there is no opportunity for me to get there for a farewell trip, and I hope the D-trains revive the fortunes of the line, manage 4-car operation in summer and go on to succeed where some have hinted (dare I say hoped) they might fail.  

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11 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Two carriages trundling up Ryde Pier (one of which is locked out of use these days as the guard is not permitted to walk between them any more) seems almost an apology but the passenger numbers are simply not there.  

An interesting comment. When did they start doing this as I went to two trips on the Island in 2019 and used the electric railway to go to Shanklin and then back to Smallbrook Junction before spending the day on the steam railway. Then back to Brading and then Ryde Esplanade before spending the evening at the Speedway. On both trips at least one of the guards went between the two carriages while the train was moving and at no time did the train have one carriage out of use. On both trips the trains were full and the passengers would not have fitted in only one carriage.

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