Third-Rail EMU Photos

[grahame]

Millbrook yesterday (7th Sept 2022):

 

[John M Upton]

Irony - yard on the right full of Ford Transit vans which used to be there for export from the factory a few miles up the line between Southampton and Eastleigh, now they make the journey from the very same yard the other way passing the site of said former factory.

[John M Upton]

The dual voltage 377/2's are bimbleing along the Coastway West quite a bit today:

 

[John M Upton]

And here is another one:

 

[phil_sutters]

Some way off to the east from a few different years.

[phil_sutters]

....and now for some pre-313 days. Of course we still get them on match days when the Seagulls are playing at home - alight at Falmer for the Amex stadium.

[John M Upton]

Well, I wasn't expecting this when I got sent out to cover a Bognor Shuttle...

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

A pair of 458s reversing at Branksome this lunchtime, on a Wimbledon to Bournemouth depot stock move.

[John M Upton]

Any sign yet of the Class 458 reconversion back to four car programme making any progress?  Seems SWR are fond of lots of announcements about rolling stock plans but somewhat light on actually doing anything, the multi million pound Class 442 debacle aside.

[phil-b259]

25 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

Any sign yet of the Class 458 reconversion back to four car programme making any progress?  Seems SWR are fond of lots of announcements about rolling stock plans but somewhat light on actually doing anything, the multi million pound Class 442 debacle aside.

 

I think two units are at Alstom's Widnes facility with work about to commence. Not sure on lead times or if more than two will be worked on as the programme ramps up.

 

[eastwestdivide]

A pair of 375s doing what they do at Chatham earlier this month. The recently-added additional bits of footbridge with lifts incorporate the same yellow brick as the original station building, looking OK in the sunshine.

 

[Gwiwer]

I went in search of 508s hoping to grab a few shots which could sit alongside their now-SWR class 455 trailers. 
 

But only class 507s turned up. 
 

Ah well. Not too bad for an after-work trip. I only had half an hour available and two of the three I needed turned up within ten minutes 😀

 

 

 

 

[Gwiwer]

On 10/10/2022 at 14:40, phil-b259 said:

 

I think two units are at Alstom's Widnes facility with work about to commence. Not sure on lead times or if more than two will be worked on as the programme ramps up.

 

According to emails from on high the project is on indefinite hold. 

[phil-b259]

2 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

According to emails from on high the project is on indefinite hold. 

 

Any rumours why?

 

Though I guess with ridership not yet having recovered to pre-pandemic levels it might be that SWR / the DfT think they can cope without them once the new Bombardier stuff eventually gets accepted into service.

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, phil-b259 said:

 

Any rumours why?

 

Though I guess with ridership not yet having recovered to pre-pandemic levels it might be that SWR / the DfT think they can cope without them once the new Bombardier stuff eventually gets accepted into service.

No rumours. Hard facts. 
 

The rolling stock cascade which should have followed from the 701 introduction has not happened and isn’t going to happen anytime soon. The fleet has not been fully delivered and none is close to entering service. 
 

SWR requires its remaining 707s which should have been with SE by now in order to maintain sufficient suburban train sets for the current (still slightly reduced but probably now permanent) level of service. 
 

They also require the remaining 458s to cover Windsor Lines duties which are now mostly Windsor and Weybridge-via-Hounslow workings. Most Reading duties are now 450s. 
 

On the main line there are more than enough 450s for the current (see comment above) timetable with 444s maintaining all Weymouth plus some Portsmouth / Haslemere / Alton services.
 

Main line traffic levels are such that aside from a handful of mid-week peak-time trains 12-car formations are not needed. Therefore shorter trains than before have created slack in the 450 rosters. 
 

Add in the financial aspect and there is no business case that I can see to spend millions on reverting the 458s to 4-car main line units. Aside from the conversion costs there would be a need to train every driver, fitter and ststion colleague on routes where these units have not worked previously. 
 

SWR took a big hit with the 442s having spent large sums to return (some of) them to service at a time when it seemed that no matter what you ran it wasn’t enough. There were more people travelling every week. 
 

That is not now the case. Suburban traffic is at around 75-80% of the immediately pre-Covid levels but main line weekday traffic remains nearer 60%. 
 

Ten-car 701s might seem a luxury but at 80% of previous levels and now with 8-car not 10-car trains in the main (because the 456s were disposed of as a Covid-related economy measure) they are as full as they were three years ago. It isn’t always possible to board the first train at certain stations.   
 

What could have been done was to re-seat the 450s - or at least some of them- with 2+2 seats recovered from the 442s for main line duties. It is the narrow 3+2 seating which gives rise to most complaints regarding these units on the main line. 
 

The 458s are in good enough condition to last until the 701s enter traffic. I have seen suggestions that the first to be inspected for reversion to 4-car formation was found to require much more work than anticipated specifically with regard to rotted panels and water ingress through window frames. That all costs money to

address. When there is no money around it may well be a case of muddling along for another year or so with the 455 and 458 fleets rather than spending on what might have become another “442 fiasco”. 
 

 

[Northmoor]

29 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Main line traffic levels are such that aside from a handful of mid-week peak-time trains 12-car formations are not needed. Therefore shorter trains than before have created slack in the 450 rosters. 
 

My 2d/wk commute experience is that 8-cars would be busy but not crowded, the back 4-cars are often pretty quiet (everybody can have a seat pair or bay to themselves).  However, since leisure travel has recovered so strongly, it would suggest 12-cars at the weekend will become a necessity for the foreseeable future; I can remember when the Sunday Basingstoke stoppers were usually a 4-VEP and usually at crush loading by Wimbledon!

[John M Upton]

One thing I encounter a lot being a proud member of "313 Squadron" is hearing the Enthusiast Grapevine regarding the 313's and their future.  The prosecution enters the following into evidence....

 

The other day I was told, sworn on a stack of grandmothers holding a stack of bibles that 313216 had already been withdrawn and was being pulled apart for spares at Lovers Walk.  Guess what I saw this morning....

Looks pretty much in one piece to me....

 

There really is a lot of spherical reproductive objects spread about as gospel truth by so called expert enthusiasts....

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Is someone a Wimbledon Park drawing smiley faces on the front of units in the dirt? See the 707 above and my photo of the 458.

[Gwiwer]

8 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Is someone a Wimbledon Park drawing smiley faces on the front of units in the dirt? See the 707 above and my photo of the 458.

Yes.  And they have been for quite some time.  It's been going on for a couple of years or more now.  

[Ncarter2]

On 12/10/2022 at 21:39, Gwiwer said:

The 458s are in good enough condition to last until the 701s enter traffic.

Let’s just hope they cancel the refurbishment plans for the 458’s permanently and they get withdrawn. From a track perspective, they are horrendous units, they would do the Pompey directs no favours. 

[rodent279]

444003 crosses the High St in Poole.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

EMUs in the landscape. Three class 377s cross over the Arun flood plain with the 1C37 13:34 Bognor/Portsmouth - London Bridge service on 30th October 2022.

 

[phil-b259]

On 12/10/2022 at 21:39, Gwiwer said:

What could have been done was to re-seat the 450s - or at least some of them- with 2+2 seats recovered from the 442s for main line duties. It is the narrow 3+2 seating which gives rise to most complaints regarding these units on the main line.

 

 

The only problem with that is you might find people end up standing for longer at busy times due to a lack of seats - and start demanding  longer trains again.

[Gwiwer]

As someone who worked on Australian railways for some years may I add that those double-deck trains operate with a far larger loading gauge than in the UK, are slow to accelerate and require lengthy station dwell times due to the number of passengers using just two double doorways per car. 
 

The concept is fine. It would not work under British conditions. As the SR learned from the Bulleid units. 

[John M Upton]

The office at midnight....

 

Forgot about this one I took a few months back. All set up and waiting for the off which wasn't for another twenty minutes, half midnight empties off Littlehampton, still time for a cuppa and a slightly dubious sausage roll...