Last days of the class 308

[luke denby]

Evening,

I lived in Skipton during my childhood, our house was on Broughton Rd opposite the sidings and down loop.
I have a few fond memories including class 308's leaving the station at night heading north at speed, only to return a few minutes later as obviously the over head lines ended shortly afterwards, why did they do this?!?!
My other is during the last days, I'm sure two class 37's came to collect the stock in sets of four class 308's.


Does anyone have information as its being bugging me for years now.


Cheers


Luke

 

[MatthewRead]

The last running of a West Yorkshire Class 308 was on the 23rd May 2001 I think.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I lived in Skipton during my childhood, our house was on Broughton Rd opposite the sidings and down loop.
I have a few fond memories including class 308's leaving the station at night heading north at speed, only to return a few minutes later as obviously the over head lines ended shortly afterwards, why did they do this?!?!

I am guessing that they would use the crossover by the Northern Paper Board site to reverse?

 

[yorksrob]

I vaguely remember being on a train near Shipley towards the end and seeing some 308's being dragged in the other direction. Can't remember seeing what by though.

 

[30907]

I am guessing that they would use the crossover by the Northern Paper Board site to reverse?

Is that wired?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Not sure - looking at Google Maps in satellite view it seems to be, but perhaps a locally resident member or a member of Leeds area traincrew could confirm to us...?

 

[Taunton]

Having known them at Liverpool Street, I remember using them at the time to get, via Leeds, to business meetings in Ilkley.

Although built about 1960, they had a very substantial rebuilding, especially of the interiors, in the early 1980s, and I always felt ended up as notably pleasant units. The old compartments were ripped out, new seats installed, the doors substantially draughtproofed, new lighting was installed, it was quite a substantial rebuild and gave a good finish. I felt the ambience was better than the 321s etc that replaced them. The Southern did some EPB units at the same time which were not done nearly as well. The seats installed in the 308s were all new. The EPB ones were just reupholstered using, of all materials, that used in London's old RT buses, the last of which had been recently withdrawn and the remaining moquette stocks were sold off to the Southern Region as a job lot.

I did notice in Yorkshire that basic cleaning inside and out was not done as well as at Liverpool Street. It makes a difference.

 

[sprinterguy]

I am guessing that they would use the crossover by the Northern Paper Board site to reverse?

Not sure - looking at Google Maps in satellite view it seems to be, but perhaps a locally resident member or a member of Leeds area traincrew could confirm to us...?

Strictly speaking it's not a crossover, it's just the trailing connection between Down Slow and Fast, and it isn't wired: The wires don't extend far beyond the Carleton New Road bridge on the Down lines to the west of Skipton station, electric access is solely over the crossover (25mph max) into the carriage sidings.

 

[30907]

Strictly speaking it's not a crossover, it's just the trailing connection between Down Slow and Fast, and it isn't wired: The wires don't extend far beyond the Carleton New Road bridge on the Down lines to the west of Skipton station, electric access is solely over the crossover (25mph max) into the carriage sidings.

OT: I was told about a politician inspecting the electrification works who asked a railway manager how far towards Carlisle the wires would go, and was told by a rail manager, "just down there, minister"

 

[yorksrob]

Having known them at Liverpool Street, I remember using them at the time to get, via Leeds, to business meetings in Ilkley.

Although built about 1960, they had a very substantial rebuilding, especially of the interiors, in the early 1980s, and I always felt ended up as notably pleasant units. The old compartments were ripped out, new seats installed, the doors substantially draughtproofed, new lighting was installed, it was quite a substantial rebuild and gave a good finish. I felt the ambience was better than the 321s etc that replaced them. The Southern did some EPB units at the same time which were not done nearly as well. The seats installed in the 308s were all new. The EPB ones were just reupholstered using, of all materials, that used in London's old RT buses, the last of which had been recently withdrawn and the remaining moquette stocks were sold off to the Southern Region as a job lot.

I did notice in Yorkshire that basic cleaning inside and out was not done as well as at Liverpool Street. It makes a difference.

The refurbished EPB's I went on had Bournemouth Blue (at least until the stripey LSE patterns started coming in).

Anyhow, having travelled on both, I prefered the traditional seating of the EPB's to that in the 308's (which was very hard, like that of the CEP's).

 

[MatthewRead]

Having known them at Liverpool Street, I remember using them at the time to get, via Leeds, to business meetings in Ilkley.

Although built about 1960, they had a very substantial rebuilding, especially of the interiors, in the early 1980s, and I always felt ended up as notably pleasant units. The old compartments were ripped out, new seats installed, the doors substantially draughtproofed, new lighting was installed, it was quite a substantial rebuild and gave a good finish. I felt the ambience was better than the 321s etc that replaced them. The Southern did some EPB units at the same time which were not done nearly as well. The seats installed in the 308s were all new. The EPB ones were just reupholstered using, of all materials, that used in London's old RT buses, the last of which had been recently withdrawn and the remaining moquette stocks were sold off to the Southern Region as a job lot.

I did notice in Yorkshire that basic cleaning inside and out was not done as well as at Liverpool Street. It makes a difference.

The class 308's were built in 3 batches between 1959 and 1961 the first was for the Clacton and Walton On Naze which were first electrified in April 1959 when the 309's were introduced between 1961 and 1963 they then started working other Great Eastern Main line services.
The second batch was for the London Tilbury and Southend Rail services to supplement the 302's and oust the remaining steam engines ( It was these that went to West Yorkshire in 1993 to replace the 307's). The final batch was for the West Anglian suburban branches which were electrified between 1960 and 1962 these would be replaced by 315's and 317's but were still running on these line until as recently as 1993 (correct me if I'm wrong) plus these also went up to work the Leeds to Skipton services etc.

 

[sprinterguy]

OT: I was told about a politician inspecting the electrification works who asked a railway manager how far towards Carlisle the wires would go, and was told by a rail manager, "just down there, minister"

I like that, thanks for sharing.