Essex Express

[EddieB]

Not the best processed photos (I wiped the negatives to dry them with a piece of sponge that left scratches!) but hopefully of historical interest.

 

Beginning in 1972 the Southern Region trialled prototypes of a new generation of electric multiple units with air-operated sliding doors.  There was one two-car unit (numbered 2001)  and two four-car units (nos 4001/2), designated 2-PEP and 4-PEP respectively.  (One wag, writing in a letter to "Railway Magazine" suggested that PEP stood for "pack 'em perpendicular" due to the relatively smaller seating provision compared to the extensive standing room).  The four-car units were painted in rail blue, but the two-car unit was finished in unpainted aluminium.

 

After they had completed their time in passenger service trials on the Southern, the units were taken into departmental service.  A new set was put together consisting of one power car from each of the former 2001 and 4001 sets and matched with a new-build pantograph-fitted centre trailer for operation on 25kV lines.  The new three-car set was given the number 920001.  With the power cars retaining their liveries, it had the rather odd combination of one aluminium power car, another rail blue power car and a rail blue centre car.

 

Which brings us to Essex.  During the summer of 1975 the new unit was set to trials on the Essex main line and Clacton branch.  I first saw it passing Witham on 14th August (but missed getting a photograph), happily catching up with it on the following day while stabled at Clacton. 

 

Set 920001 went subsequently for further trials on the Scottish Region, before being withdrawn and scrapped around the mid-'eighties.  However it became the antecedant of classes 313-315, the last in particular the modern mainstay of Ilford, Gidea Park and Shenfield suburban services from Liverpool Street.

 

 

[BigBountyHunter]

Excellent post very interesting, i wished i had seen it come through Witham 

[CloggyDog]

Given the NSE class 315 or 313 in the background the photo is likely to be from the second half of 1986

 

Indeed yes, my apologies. Refurb'd 307 too.

 

I've dug out a couple more, will hoefully get a chance to scan them after the weekend.

[Guest]

Posting for no other reason than to keep the thread active. Being a Norfolk exile, I've nothing to contribute, but I am finding it fascinating. Must be all those years living alongside the Tilbury line...

[Southwich]

A photo of 90013 passing through Witham last month:

 

Witham Station 17/10/14 by southwichrailway, on Flickr

 

Thanks,

 

Will

[EddieB]

Witham again. 

 

On the day I failed to photograph the 920001 set pasing through (14th August 1975).  The branch to Braintree hadn't been electrified (hence the DMU in the bay platform).  312 106 in the opposite bay was either running trials or newly in service at that time (and as 312 786 would be transferred to the LTS section, until replaced by Electrostars in 2003).

 

 

 

[eastwestdivide]

Seem to remember that those 312s and their older cousins the 310s out of Euston rode very smoothly, at least back in the 80s.

Edited November 11, 2014 by eastwestdivide

[Titan]

I tended to find that fully laden the ride was quite good, but empty was decidedly lively!  I would not have thought an extra five tons or so of passengers per coach would have made that much difference when compared to the tare weight but still...

[Suzie]

312 was always a poor substitute for a 309 as far as ride was concerned. Hard to believe it was a Mk2 because the ride was nothing like a Mk2 loco hauled coach.

[eastwestdivide]

Ah well, "compared to what" is always a good question - my starting point was Kent suburban EPBs, so my expectations were pretty low! 

[EddieB]

I can't really comment on the ride qualities of the 310/312 units, as Ithink I only made a few journeys on them.  Amazing to think that they've now passed into history.

 

Anyway, in the interests of continuity, here's 312724 passing through Stratford on a service from Witham in June 2000.

 

On the same day, 90143 and 90148 double-heading a container train through Stratford.  In my limited experience, double-heading of class 90 was uncommon, but not rare, whereas the sub-class 86/6 electrics usually worked in multiple.

[EddieB]

Talk of ride quality reminds me of the occasion of a special working to commemorate the sesquicentenary of the Braintree branch. 

 

The branch line from Witham, which originally terminated at Braintree, was first opened in 1848.  A new station was opened at Braintree (in the Great Eastern "1865" style) when the line was extended through to Bishops Stortford in 1869.  Braintree reverted to being a terminus after passenger services to Bishops Stortford were withdrawn in 1952 and freight services in 1971.  The section from Witham to Braintree was electrified in 1977.

 

The occasion of the 150th anniversay was marked in 1998 by running the preserved unit 306017 up and down the branch.  I think it fair to say that the branch line wasn't maintained to main-line standards and the combination of a bumpy ride together with thickly (horsehair?) padded seats made for some amusement.  Imagine a bench seat across the end of the unit occupied by four rather stout and serious gentlemen, yogic flying in a manner reminiscent of those adverts for the Natural Law Party.

 

Here's 306017 passing Cressing on that day (4th October 1998).

 

[Titan]

I think the seats may have been coil sprung, I did not get to ride on them in service, but did hear tales of how when hurtling down Brentwood Bank you could watch an entire coach full of people bouncing up and down in unison like synchronised Zebedee's!!

[trisonic]

I don’t remember them being so bad and used them a lot. I think it was a combination of horsehair and springs.....certainly the seats were more comfortable than the latest shoddy crap...

 

Best, Pete.

[PhilJ W]

I don’t remember them being so bad and used them a lot. I think it was a combination of horsehair and springs.....certainly the seats were more comfortable than the latest shoddy crap...

 

Best, Pete.

I remember travelling by 306 fifty years ago when I started work in the City of London in my first job. The seats were like a Victorian sofa and quite comfortable, so comfortable in fact that couples used to take advantage of the semi-fast late evening service.

[Titan]

I remember travelling by 306 fifty years ago when I started work in the City of London in my first job. The seats were like a Victorian sofa and quite comfortable, so comfortable in fact that couples used to take advantage of the semi-fast late evening service.

 

So the bouncing was not train induced on that occasion? 

[lmsforever]

They were lovely units to ride on agree about the bouncing passengers weren't they nicknamed swingers?

[Satan's Goldfish]

Changing the subject slightly, if I was stood beside a random stretch of GEML in the 90s and saw 8 trains, 4 in each direction, what would they be for me to think 'yep, this is the GEML'?

 

My first inclination would to say an 86 push/pull in each direction, containers in each direction, and an nse emu in each direction as the major players. That's 6. Is there 2 obvious candidates I'm missing to make it the 8? Say tankers in one direction and parcels/tpo in the other? (but they're only once a day so not 'typical', those on their own wouldn't scream GEML at me.)

 

Any advance on that line-up?

[EddieB]

Changing the subject slightly, if I was stood beside a random stretch of GEML in the 90s and saw 8 trains, 4 in each direction, what would they be for me to think 'yep, this is the GEML'?

 

My first inclination would to say an 86 push/pull in each direction, containers in each direction, and an nse emu in each direction as the major players. That's 6. Is there 2 obvious candidates I'm missing to make it the 8? Say tankers in one direction and parcels/tpo in the other? (but they're only once a day so not 'typical', those on their own wouldn't scream GEML at me.)

 

Any advance on that line-up?

Depends on the time of day!  Higher concentration of "locals" nearer to Liverpool Street, thinning out as you got beyond Gidea Park and Shenfield.

 

Freight generally avoided the peak hours at Stratford and (without consulting Freightmaster) seemed heaviest in the evening.  Otherwise, there's a tendency to under-estimate the units and over-estimate loco hauled trains - at a push I'd say 2 push-pulls, 5 units and one container train.

[Suzie]

Late '80s north of Shenfield peak you might see 12-car 309 (three sets any mix refurbished), 12-car 312, 12-car 302+305+302 and 86+Mk2 aircons going one way with the same going the other way but 4-car 312, 4-car or 8-car 309 and 8-car 302+305. Freight was very rare during the peak and would only be containers behind an 86 (or two).

 

Off peak the EMU formations would be reduced to 4-car sets with most of the 302 and 305 being parked up in Thornton Fields (just the odd 302 doing the Colchester stopper), and freight would still be rare.

 

I don't think it was safe to let the 305s out on their own other than the Braintree branch and it was rare to see an all 302 12-car set, and I have no recollection of seeing a 12-car 305 set. 305 and 308 look similar at a glance unless you know what to look for as do 302 and 307 so might be in the mix.

 

Later than this there would be 321s added in to the mix ultimately replacing the 309s and cascading some 312s. Livery went from total NSE and IC executive to total GE and Anglia apart from the Mk1 catering cars that remained IC Executive with the exception of the Great Eastern experimental livery on one of the 321s in NSE days and I recall a 3M advertising livery in Great Eastern days.

[Titan]

Early 90's you would not normally see any EMU's north of Shenfield with a class number below 309, pretty much only 309/312/321 by that stage. I don't think that 309's were ever diagramed for four cars except after Thorpe-le-soken where the train might split - minimum would be 8, unless of course there was an extreme shortage of units or ECS between Ilford and Clacton (saw a 309/312 combo once!) but then usually the first causalty would be to reduce 12 cars to eight rather than providing only four cars instead of eight.

 

For something a little different there were the 302/9 parcel conversions, which would get absolutely hammered running non stop between Chelmsford and Liverpool street, using the purpose built depot in the former goods yard at Chelmsford. I think the faded canopy is still there, along with the cut outs that went around the now removed OLE masts.

 

Freight is mostly Containers, although there used to be a sand depot near Marks Tey which was served with old 4 wheel hopper wagons, can't remember when that finished.

 

There was frieght on the Braintree Branch too, a Fertilizer depot next to Braintree Station. Not realising there was freight on the branch at the time I was quite surprised once to see a blue 47 coming off the branch with vans in tow! Probably a once a week flow I should imagine.

 

There were still 16 ton mineral wagon trains running in the early '80s at least. One of them wrapped itself around Witham station Road bridge, which still has the scars in the brickwork. looked like half the train wanted to go to Braintree whilst the other continued on the main line. I heard about it and went to have a gander, lots of very bent wagons upside down and generally piled up!

 

The other mishap I remember was a class 31 that I think ran through the trap points in the loop near Boreham. Ended up leaning over on the cutting. It was there for a little while before it was recovered and I don't think they bothered reinstating the loop. 

[PhilJ W]

There is/was the nuclear flask trains from Sizewell and Southminster.

[EddieB]

Sand and aggregates were also loaded at Southminster for delivery to the depot at Mile End (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65930-00-scale-model-of-a-br-hkv-hopper/?p=1372874).

 

Talking of the 302 conversions, some b&w shots that really ought to have been in colour...

 

Three 4-car 302 sets were reduced to 3-cars, converted and painted red for Royal Mail parcels traffic.  Here is the first to be converted - 302990 - leading another through Stratford in August 1991.

 

 

A little earlier the same day 86419 heads through Stratford with a Royal Mail train.  This locomotive was given red livery (take my word for it in this b&w shot!) and notionally dedicated to Royal Mail traffic.

 

 

Another three 302 sets were converted as 3-car Sandite units. originally numbered 302996-998, they were later reclassified 937 (retaining the same numbers).  Here is 996 at Ilford depot in March 1993.  (The "302" part of the number having been painted out, it was probably running as 937996 at this time).

 

[Satan's Goldfish]

I actually have the parts in my projects pile for a 302 parcels unit, didn't realise they were almost exclusively GEML, I was going to adapt that to a straight 4 car nse 302 but maybe not now. Cheers

[Baby Deltic]

I remember seeing the sandite unit. I think it was a 302 but it may have been a 307. I also remember the BOC tanker trains which were sometimes headed by a class 56.