Third-Rail EMU Photos

[phil_sutters]

I went down to the island on Wednesday on the trail of an older vessel - PS Waverley - but also snapped Island Liners and a few others - The Hovercraft included one destined for Japan, undergoing sea trials out of Ryde. 

 

Edited September 16, 2023 by phil_sutters

[Claude_Dreyfus]

At the risk of making this a hovercraft love-in, I managed to get a picture of the new craft, which I too heard was off to Japan soon (on the right).

 

 

I too managed to capture Waverley. Not a great picture as it was taken from the hover terminal (through a rather mucky window).

 

So to keep on theme, here is a picture of 377468 at Barnham on 15 September. It was operating a Brighton service until it was terminated due to point failure at Arundel junction. 

[phil_sutters]

15 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

At the risk of making this a hovercraft love-in, I managed to get a picture of the new craft, which I too heard was off to Japan soon (on the right).

 

 

 

I too managed to capture Waverley. Not a great picture as it was taken from the hover terminal (through a rather mucky window).

 

 

So to keep on theme, here is a picture of 377468 at Barnham on 15 September. It was operating a Brighton service until it was terminated due to point failure at Arundel junction. 

I have given your Waverley a bit of a go in Photoshop to overcome some of the mucky window's effect. I hope that's OK with you.

The Hovercraft photo is very nice. I took one from the top of a bus as I left Ryde for Newport, but it only captured a small bit of the Japanese craft. Have you ever been to the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-the-Solent? I was round that way last year, but at that time it was only open on Saturdays, I think. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by phil_sutters

[phil_sutters]

To get the thread back on track, waiting for the Mayflower special's passes each way through Hove, last Sunday, there was the predictable procession of 377s. There was a GatEx set parked up behind the station, but I couldn't see its number - probably the one shown above.

 

Edited September 18, 2023 by phil_sutters

[Claude_Dreyfus]

19 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

I have given your Waverley a bit of a go in Photoshop to overcome some of the mucky window's effect.

Thank you, much appreciated!

 

19 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

Have you ever been to the Hovercraft Museum at Lee-on-the-Solent? I was round that way last year, but at that time it was only open on Saturdays, I think. 

 

I have not been to the museum, but it is definitely on the list...

 

To keep to the thread, here are a few suburban pictures.

 

465035 heads into Victoria on 17 June 2023.

 

707035 at London Bridge with a Sevenoaks train. 9 March 2023

 

377442 and 377708 rest in the early morning at London Bridge. 15 February 2023

 

455805 at London Bridge having arrived with a suburban service. 27 April 2022

 

377704 arrives at East Croydon. This was actually an oddity, because this unit was used with 377613 on an Arun Valley service - 377704 formed the Portsmouth portion, whilst 377613 formed the Bognor train.

 

And here is 377613 at Puborough. Not a great image as it was getting late, but worth including due to its rarity. 5 May 2022.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Claude_Dreyfus

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

377704 arrives at East Croydon. This was actually an oddity, because this unit was used with 377613 on an Arun Valley service - 377704 formed the Portsmouth portion, whilst 377613 formed the Bognor train

Authorised but hitherto unknown to my knowledge. 
 

All 377 variants may go anywhere on the GTR third-rail network so far as I am aware. Each sub-class may couple and work with any other. The 5-car units are normally confined to London suburban duties and not normally paired with anything else. 
 

Very occasionally a 10-car train has found its way to Brighton and just once I believe to Littlehampton via Hove. One or two have been recorded at Eastbourne and sometimes as extra capacity when the Seagulls are playing at Amex Stadium (Falmer) but never on the Arun Valley and their appearance at Bognor and Portsmouth would also possibly be firsts. 
 

The return working would have been interesting. The two portions do not reunite with each other due to the differential running times. Which potentially means two up workings were 9-car formations with a 4-car unit joining the 5-car at Horsham. Control would need to intervene if one of those portions was an 8-car, as some are, to prevent a 13-coach formation which cannot be accommodated anywhere on the network these days. 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I believe 377/6s have ventured down the Arun valley once or twice before, mainly due to a rostering issue. There is a picture of 377620 on the route from back in 2015 somewhere on the web and a colleague of mine travelled on a 5-carriage set a few years back - the last train of the day to Chichester. I suspect this may have been the first visit of a 377/7 to Portsmouth though.

[phil_sutters]

A few snaps taken on a trip to Otford for a family event in 2021. The two 375s were probably the ends of the same train, as were the bits of the 465.

Edited September 18, 2023 by phil_sutters

[phil_sutters]

Last Monday, as I had a day when my other half was helping a friend clear out the caravan she no longer uses, and as TfL may be scrapping Travelcards, I thought that I would head back to London and snap some railway locations, some of which I have travelled through, without photographing anything much, and other bits I don't remember even visiting before. This is the first time that I have been on Clapham Junction's platforms without urgently needing to hop on the next train. This is of course prime emu spotting country. Please note there is an obligatory view with not just one but two buses on a bridge - but that must be one bridge where there is a very high likelihood of buses and trains converging on it at the same time.

Edited October 1, 2023 by phil_sutters

[Chris116]

You would have a job to take a photo of a train and that bridge at Clapham Junction without a bus being in the shot!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Bognor Regis late last night. All's quiet on a rail strike day... It's been almost 47 years since I last stood on this footbridge at the station approach. 

[John M Upton]

On 17/09/2023 at 18:53, Claude_Dreyfus said:

I believe 377/6s have ventured down the Arun valley once or twice before, mainly due to a rostering issue. There is a picture of 377620 on the route from back in 2015 somewhere on the web and a colleague of mine travelled on a 5-carriage set a few years back - the last train of the day to Chichester. I suspect this may have been the first visit of a 377/7 to Portsmouth though.

377620 was the first, Easter Saturday 4th April, it was sent in error on the 21:32 Victoria to Portsmouth & Southsea when it should have been on the 21:32 Victoria to Epsom.  My driver and I (I was a Guard back then) tried to point out the error to no avail.  It was trapped the other side of an engineering block on Easter Sunday which saw it running Havant/Portsmouth shuttles all day, attracting more enthusiasts than passengers!  On the Easter Monday it did a full day's Arun Valley circuit which is where I caught up with it Horsham:

 

377604 was the second, working the last train down the valley on 1st May 2015, started from Three Bridges with the only stock that could be found following an entire day of utter chaos when the third rail on the up fast fell over during the morning peak at Clapham Junction.  Caused havoc at Littlehampton when it arrived empties as they usually just deal in multiples of four...

 

And 377613 in April 2016 made it all the way to Southampton from Brighton at least twice!!

 

A 387 has made it to Southampton too, just the once, it was not supposed to be there though as they discovered later, thumbing through the Sectional Appendix which resulted in some rapid phone calls and the 387, by now on its second trip from Brighton towards Southampton being very hastily turned around at Chichester and sent back home in disgrace....

[St. Simon]

12 hours ago, John M Upton said:

A 387 has made it to Southampton too, just the once, it was not supposed to be there though as they discovered later, thumbing through the Sectional Appendix which resulted in some rapid phone calls and the 387, by now on its second trip from Brighton towards Southampton being very hastily turned around at Chichester and sent back home in disgrace....

 

Hi,

 

To be fair, 387s are allowed along that section as long as the E&P RAM is okay with it, but presumably nobody had asked them!

 

Simon

[phil_sutters]

Next stop Waterloo

[phil_sutters]

... and so on to Waterloo East

 

[John M Upton]

A quiet evening sauntering up and down the Arun Valley, here ready for the off from Bognor Regis:

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

458/4s have started test running.

Here we see 458407 and 458417 arriving at Branksome earlier his afternoon, after a trip from Bournemouth to Basingstoke and back.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

And a bonus shot...

Shortly after the previous photo, 50049 (with sister 50007 on the rear) bring in another refurbished unit down from Widnes - 458425. 

[phil_sutters]

Next stop Charing Cross - 

 

 

 

 

 

You won't be interested where I went next, but the DMU & DVT fans might - Is there a DVT appreciation thread? There is a DMU one. I can't believe there are fans of 68s. Enough clues?

Edited October 14, 2023 by phil_sutters
Wrong date on original batch of photos - now corrected

[Oldddudders]

They used to say, in the days when I would occasionally cover the job of SM at Charing Cross, that the mark of a bad evening on the South Eastern was having a train for Dartford in all 6 platforms. You have contrived to post 6 pics, none of which depicts a train to or even via Dartford. Impressive.

 

PS When I moved up a rung from being a Relief SM, I became SM at - Dartford....

[Siberian Snooper]

More than enough clues, thanks!

 

 

[phil_sutters]

1 hour ago, Siberian Snooper said:

More than enough clues, thanks!

 

 

See you on the other side of dark side!

[Rich_F]

On 12/10/2023 at 00:23, phil_sutters said:

Next stop Charing Cross

You won't be interested where I went next, but the DMU & DVT fans might - Is there a DVT appreciation thread? There is a DMU one. I can't believe there are fans of 68s. Enough clues?

 

Am I correct in thinking that there's only a few 707s left on SWR & they're imminently all with SE?

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, Rich_F said:

 

Am I correct in thinking that there's only a few 707s left on SWR & they're imminently all with SE?

You are

 

When I left SWR employment recently just six sets were nominally available for traffic. These should have been transferred to SE at the rate of two (i.e. one ten-car train) per fortnight meaning if any remain in traffic with SWR today their time is extremely short 

 

Under the re-negotiated terms the SWR lease was extended by 12 months on the 14 units not at that stage transferred to SE. That time has now expired. 

[phil_sutters]

My trip around assorted London stations ended at Victoria, with the clock ticking on my Travelcard, so there's only one shot with an emu in it. I suppose I could have snapped the Southern trains but I have masses of photos of caterpillars.