Third-Rail EMU Photos

[phil_sutters]

Oh! I forgot, wasn't a Southern 377 caterpillar I got to Brighton, it was a red Gatwick Express - two versions of the same train.

[John M Upton]

377313 put to bed for the night in Littlehampton outside shed sidings:

[John M Upton]

Arty middle of the night shot down Littlehampton:

 

[KeithHC]

Nice to see 313201 is going into preservation. May be John Upton will get to drive it again.

 

Keith

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, KeithHC said:

Nice to see 313201 is going into preservation. May be John Upton will get to drive it again.

 

Keith

As I recall he wasn’t keen before. 
 

In other news Saturday should see the final transfer of class 707 units from SWR to SE.

 

5Z20 should leave Waterloo platform 21 at 00.09 travelling via the Linford Street (“Eurostar”) Curve to Brixton thence Grove Park. At a later date re-livery and seat-cover changes will take place in Gillingham depot. 
 

SWR is theoretically short of stock. Several 458s have been converted, or are away for conversion, to 4-car main line units. Class 450 is being pressed into service on Reading, Windsor and a handful of other suburban duties by shortening main line services from 12 to 8-car or 8 to 4-car where demand allows. 

[John M Upton]

3 hours ago, KeithHC said:

Nice to see 313201 is going into preservation. May be John Upton will get to drive it again.

 

Keith

 

 

It will never run on the national network again, at best it will make 20 mph on the EKR, probably being shoved by a diesel.  It was by far and away the worst one of the lot in terms of driving and reliability.  It was only the fancy paint job that saved it.

 

Someone enthusiastically  said to me just before they were retired, they were really great, my response was, you don't have to drive the festering pile of scrap....

[Claude_Dreyfus]

5 hours ago, KeithHC said:

May be John Upton will get to drive it again.

 

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

As I recall he wasn’t keen before.

 

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

Someone enthusiastically  said to me just before they were retired, they were really great, my response was, you don't have to drive the festering pile of scrap....

 

Yup, I'd interpret that as being less than enthusiastic about the idea....

[Gwiwer]

10 hours ago, John M Upton said:

at best it will make 20 mph on the EKR

Not unless it gets SDO. The platform at Eythorne only holds two coaches plus the Sentinel. 

[phil_sutters]

11 hours ago, John M Upton said:

  It was only the fancy paint job that saved it.

 

In fact the Coastway vinyls would have been a far more appropriate and distinctive livery, if one was going to save one. The blue job wasn't even an authentic BR blue as the doors had to be painted differently for elf&safety reasons. Didn't they have pantos when they were blue?

Edited October 26, 2023 by phil_sutters

[Gwiwer]

17 minutes ago, phil_sutters said:

The blue job wasn't even an authentic BR blue

How authentic do you want it?

 

The 313s had pantographs when new and some retained then until withdrawal. 
 

They gained at least one iteration of revised seating. 
 

They were new with “pull to initiate” door handles which triggered the motor but which proved problematic. They could be grabbed at after closing - even with the train in motion - and if enough movement was detected the traction current was cut and the doors released. 
 

And as you say the application of blue/grey livery wasn’t original. Neither are the unit numbers in the the original large bold font.
 

 

[phil_sutters]

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

How authentic do you want it?

 

The 313s had pantographs when new and some retained then until withdrawal. 
 

 

I didn't mean the blue itself. It was the overall livery that was altered by the different coloured doors and so wasn't as authentic.

I don't recall seeing any 313s on the East Coastway with pantos, 377s yes. I must check back through my 313 album.

Later

I have checked now and found two snaps from 2010, but none since. One was 313 203, the other was a side view at Bishopstone, both in 2010 and both near Bishopstone. So they both could have been 203. Were those that were retired from other areas the ones that had them to their withdrawal?

Edited October 26, 2023 by phil_sutters

[C126]

16 hours ago, John M Upton said:

you don't have to drive the festering pile of scrap....

 

... or cross your legs for ages awaiting one's arrival near a lavatory.  Or perhaps I am just getting old.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, phil_sutters said:

Were those that were retired from other areas the ones that had them to their withdrawal?

The ones which stayed on the GN retained dual-voltage capability to the end. 
 

Thanks to the curious franchising arrangements they ran for the same TOC (Govia Thameslink Railway) as did the 313/2s on the Sussex coast. 

[John M Upton]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

The ones which stayed on the GN retained dual-voltage capability to the end. 
 

Thanks to the curious franchising arrangements they ran for the same TOC (Govia Thameslink Railway) as did the 313/2s on the Sussex coast. 

 

The ex London Overground ones that came down south were initially put into service repainted but still with pantographs and original 3x2 low back seating.  They were then sent off somewhere (Wolverton?) to have the full interior refurb and lost the pantograph.  A couple were used still in Silverlink purple for crew training, one allegedly did get used in passenger service for one trip in purple but no photographic evidence seems to exist.

 

If you are looking at photos of the earliest days of Southern 313 operations, they were initially restricted to the East Coast at first.  If they have manual blinds above the drivers windscreen and no Coastway decals on the Southern livery then it is pre refurb and the pantograph was still there.

 

By the time they were spread to the west coast, they were all refurbished.

 

As a result of the former Great Northern 313's coming under the same umbrella group (GTR - although you would be forgiven for thinking that Southern and Thameslink were two entirely separate companies as they have absolutely nothing to do with each other!)  any working 25kv system parts on the Brighton 313's were swapped in a deal with Hornsey Depot for dud parts, these being fitted to the Brighton ones to maintain the weight but not needed to be operational, Hornsey getting an easy supply of spare parts in return.

 

This of course means that 313201 has no operational 25KV capability at all and there are no working spares left, so the 'just stick a pantograph on it and we can use it on railtours' brigade of Internet "experts" are in for another disappointment there.

 

Not sure if I have shared this one before, here is 313108 (later 208 of course) just after arrival down south:

 

 

[Chris116]

I worked for LUL at West Brompton from the last days of Silverlink until May 2016 by which time London Overground was very well established. 

 

The service under Silverlink was dreadful with two three coach trains an hour if you were lucky and the favourites to be cancelled were the rush hour services.

[StuAllen]

Look what turned up at Blackfriars while I was waiting for my train home

[phil_sutters]

I thought for a moment that ONE was back in business.

[The Lurker]

On 31/10/2023 at 20:39, StuAllen said:

Look what turned up at Blackfriars while I was waiting for my train home

Funnily enough that unit was arriving at London Bridge this morning at the same time as my Southeastern train.

[The Lurker]

The 7.18 to Slade Green catches the pre-dawn light on 23 October.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

A 701 unit on test, fails to brighten-up a grey November Wednesday afternoon at Branksome.

[Darius43]

West Worthing this morning - en route to the Armistice Kentish Belle 😀

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Darius43]

 

EMU at London Victoria this morning.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[jbqfc]

a few from Tonbridge 

 

 

 

Redhill

 

John 

[phil_sutters]

Sunday visitor to Seaford

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by phil_sutters

[Siberian Snooper]

On 11/11/2023 at 18:27, Darius43 said:

 

EMU at London Victoria this morning.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

 

 

Is it an electric kettle? 😂