Network SouthEast

[Sad Sprinter]

In response to a recently opened thread regarding the Network SouthEast Society. Someone made a post on their memories of NSE which I was going to reply to, but it was removed.

To that person, I also do have fond memories of NSE. Although I was born just after privatisation, the NSE brand was around for much of my early childhood. I remember how cool it seemed when you’d snake into Victoria on a 455 alongside a (then) modern Networker. I thought “Network SouthEast” was the coolest combination of words you could come up with. “Kent Link Networker” was also very cool sounding to 7 year old me - even though I didn’t know what it meant.

My grandad once gave me a 1986 NSE London Connections map which I absolutely loved and still have to this day. I wish I was around to see more of it. I did and still do truly love the branding, I’m sure it’s some autistic hyperfixation of some kind.

Even as a very young child, toddler age, I can remember seeing red, white and blue NSE trains on the news or in magazines or on railway VHSs, and instantly recognised it as the “train that went home”. Now I’ll have to make work on my dream to build a late 80s NSE model railway layout sometime!

Edit: was very happy to see the station staff at Balham are still making good use of an original NSE branded bin - in the new entrance too!

 

[StephenHunter]

I was a young kid when NSE was around. Still some old stop markers around in London too.

Have you been to the EOR? They're repairing their Class 205 with NSE livery.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I was a young kid when NSE was around. Still some old stop markers around in London too.

Have you been to the EOR? They're repairing their Class 205 with NSE livery.

No I haven’t been to that one, I should go as I’ve always wanted to go on the Ongar branch but alas I was born too late. I’ll certainly be on the Networker farewell tour whenever that happens.

 

[WesternLancer]

In response to a recently opened thread regarding the Network SouthEast Society. Someone made a post on their memories of NSE which I was going to reply to, but it was removed.

To that person, I also do have fond memories of NSE. Although I was born just after privatisation, the NSE brand was around for much of my early childhood. I remember how cool it seemed when you’d snake into Victoria on a 455 alongside a (then) modern Networker. I thought “Network SouthEast” was the coolest combination of words you could come up with. “Kent Link Networker” was also very cool sounding to 7 year old me - even though I didn’t know what it meant.

My grandad once gave me a 1986 NSE London Connections map which I absolutely loved and still have to this day. I wish I was around to see more of it. I did and still do truly love the branding, I’m sure it’s some autistic hyperfixation of some kind.

Even as a very young child, toddler age, I can remember seeing red, white and blue NSE trains on the news or in magazines or on railway VHSs, and instantly recognised it as the “train that went home”. Now I’ll have to make work on my dream to build a late 80s NSE model railway layout sometime!

Edit: was very happy to see the station staff at Balham are still making good use of an original NSE branded bin - in the new entrance too!

Your childhood instincts are sound!

I was in my mid teens at the time of the NSE launch, so old enough to engage with what was happening, and the whole things seemed transformational. The railway seemed run down and un loved after public sector cuts from the mid 1970s onwards, and a serious lack of enthusiasm for rail investment after the 1979 government.

NSE turned this round quickly, at least in terms of image - the most obvious being station repaints that happened quite quickly, and rolling stock repaints and interior improvements (which no doubt had started already under L&SE sectorisation), new ticketing and a great Railcard as well as travel promotions etc, then soon to follow a new station rebuilding programme in certain places - to a better standard of architecture than had happened in the 1970s, and of course new trains.

It really felt like 'something big was happening' - at least from my vantage point at the time.

 

[The exile]

The transformation that Chris Green and his respective teams achieved first at Scotrail and then with NSE was remarkable. A lot of it was initially superficial (literally on the lampposts- not to mention the red painted grass that got in the way!) but it helped to chip away at the “faceless monolith” and gave the impression that someone cared.

 

[Helvellyn]

NSE turned this round quickly, at least in terms of image - the most obvious being station repaints that happened quite quickly, and rolling stock repaints and interior improvements (which no doubt had started already under L&SE sectorisation), new ticketing and a great Railcard as well as travel promotions etc, then soon to follow a new station rebuilding programme in certain places - to a better standard of architecture than had happened in the 1970s, and of course new trains.

It really felt like 'something big was happening' - at least from my vantage point at the titime.

You're right that rolling stock improvements and refurbishment started under the original London & South East sector. That's what gave us Jaffa Cake livery as applied to most Class 411 4-CEPs, some Class 309s (branded as 'Essex Express') and the first Class 421/7s (refurbished Phase 1 4-CIGs).

L&SE apparently had plans for an outer suburban livery (blue) and inner suburban (green) in similar style to the Jaffa Cake one. The so called 'Donkey Stripe' moquettes were designed for use with this, with the brown/orange (first class) and blue/orange (standard class) ones being the most well known but other threads on here have said some blue/grey 4-EPB sets got the green/orange version (presumably intended for standard class only inner suburban stock).

NSE went for a more common branding for the whole sub-sector rather than broken down by service type. South West Trains went full circle in the privatisation era with express, outer suburban and inner suburban liveries!

 

[yorksrob]

You're right that rolling stock improvements and refurbishment started under the original London & South East sector. That's what gave us Jaffa Cake livery as applied to most Class 411 4-CEPs, some Class 309s (branded as 'Essex Express') and the first Class 421/7s (refurbished Phase 1 4-CIGs).

L&SE apparently had plans for an outer suburban livery (blue) and inner suburban (green) in similar style to the Jaffa Cake one. The so called 'Donkey Stripe' moquettes were designed for use with this, with the brown/orange (first class) and blue/orange (standard class) ones being the most well known but other threads on here have said some blue/grey 4-EPB sets got the green/orange version (presumably intended for standard class only inner suburban stock).

NSE went for a more common branding for the whole sub-sector rather than broken down by service type. South West Trains went full circle in the privatisation era with express, outer suburban and inner suburban liveries!

Although I seem to recall that some of the 455's did get purple stripey zig zag rather than blue, continuing the differentiation a bit.

 

[WesternLancer]

You're right that rolling stock improvements and refurbishment started under the original London & South East sector. That's what gave us Jaffa Cake livery as applied to most Class 411 4-CEPs, some Class 309s (branded as 'Essex Express') and the first Class 421/7s (refurbished Phase 1 4-CIGs).

L&SE apparently had plans for an outer suburban livery (blue) and inner suburban (green) in similar style to the Jaffa Cake one. The so called 'Donkey Stripe' moquettes were designed for use with this, with the brown/orange (first class) and blue/orange (standard class) ones being the most well known but other threads on here have said some blue/grey 4-EPB sets got the green/orange version (presumably intended for standard class only inner suburban stock).

NSE went for a more common branding for the whole sub-sector rather than broken down by service type. South West Trains went full circle in the privatisation era with express, outer suburban and inner suburban liveries!

Thanks for these observations. Interesting and I recall thinking at the time that the Jaffa cake livery looked good when I first saw it. I think that was on CEP units I probably saw at Victoria.

But it seemed to be the launch of NSE that created a more transformational overall approach.

 

[Davester50]

Thanks for these observations. Interesting and I recall thinking at the time that the Jaffa cake livery looked good when I first saw it. I think that was on CEP units I probably saw at Victoria.

The old London and South East Rail - LASERail - sounded fancy, until NSE came along.

But it seemed to be the launch of NSE that created a more transformational overall approach.

Red lamp posts everywhere - Not just a different coat of paint for the rolling stock.

 

[yorksrob]

A lot of the older slammers already used gentle blues and greys in the interior, so the blue blaze moquette contributed to a rich but pleasant and gentle interior decor.

The newly installed fluorescent tubes perhaps not so much

 

[WesternLancer]

The old London and South East Rail - LASERail - sounded fancy, until NSE came along.


Red lamp posts everywhere - Not just a different coat of paint for the rolling stock.

Red benches too.

 

[Leyland Bus]

Is it my mind playing tricks or did I once read (I'm sure from someone of management level) that they went to see a repainted station, only to find several lamp posts in the town centre had been repainted NSE red following some communication error? And that on launch day, there wasn't enough red "items" for each station so they were bussing benches and bins etc "up the line" ahead of the train full of dignatries to make the line look complete??

Certainly sounded like fun times!

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

Chris Green got the inspiration for the red lamposts from his local B&Q car park according to his book on NSE.

 

[James H]

My late mum was an 'against the flow' commuter from Waterloo to Clapham Junction - she was very impressed by how quickly Waterloo got the NSE treatment

 

[Ken H]

Then there were the network days. Whole of NSE for a few quid.

 

[Dr Hoo]

As a local SR manager when NSE was launched we got a circular from Waterloo asking if any local stations had flagpoles but it didn’t say why. A clerk duly ticked a box and named a station that had a pole. (It was on the roof, with no access, and nobody remembered it ever having been used.)
On launch day a despatch bag arrived with an NSE flag in it and instructions that it must be flown once the launch event at Waterloo began.
Panic! How could we be seen to fail? The clerk had an idea. We had just hosted a training event for the local Fire Service at a nearby depot. Perhaps they could return a favour? It was worth a phone call to the Station Officer.
A few minutes later a Fire Service escape appliance roared onto the station forecourt, on blues and twos, and screeched to a halt. The flag was handed to a ‘fireman’ and promptly carried aloft with some rope. Soon the NSE flag was proudly fluttering in the breeze. Happy days.
The fire station Officer logged it as another training exercise. Win-win. Phew!

 

[WesternLancer]

As a local SR manager when NSE was launched we got a circular from Waterloo asking if any local stations had flagpoles but it didn’t say why. A clerk duly ticked a box and named a station that had a pole. (It was on the roof, with no access, and nobody remembered it ever having been used.)
On launch day a despatch bag arrived with an NSE flag in it and instructions that it must be flown once the launch event at Waterloo began.
Panic! How could we be seen to fail? The clerk had an idea. We had just hosted a training event for the local Fire Service at a nearby depot. Perhaps they could return a favour? It was worth a phone call to the Station Officer.
A few minutes later a Fire Service escape appliance roared onto the station forecourt, on blues and twos, and screeched to a halt. The flag was handed to a ‘fireman’ and promptly carried aloft with some rope. Soon the NSE flag was proudly fluttering in the breeze. Happy days.
The fire station Officer logged it as another training exercise. Win-win. Phew!

Superb. What more can be said.

 

[Electrostar387]

I have to say it always puts a smile on my face whenever I am travelling through modern day Downham Market - the red lamp posts really are very cheery!

Also a nice to see a nod to the past whenever I’ve been to Marylebone.