Oldest stock you've travelled in on the network.

[Cowley]

From memory (I think King's book) the last set (373 at Yeovil, which lasted well into 1959?) was earmarked for preservation but was in too poor condition.

Interesting, thanks for that 30907.

 

[leytongabriel]

Yes there were certainly plenty of old Southern sets ( BILS and HALS I guess) around Brighton in the 60's rattling along what is now known as Coastway East.
But also some pretty old-looking elec suburban units running out of Liverpool St towards Ilford and Southend ( class AM6/ 306) which were designed in 1938 and built after the war. They lasted until 1980 or so I believe.

 

[fowler9]

Class 503's on what is now Merseyrail. Older than my dad and much older than me and I am 42.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Class 503's on what is now Merseyrail. Older than my dad and much older than me and I am 42.

Always fascinated me those units even though I don't recall ever seeing one in service sadly, noting that the original batch were constructed during the 1930s they were rather advanced for the time being fitted with air powered sliding doors and auto couplers etc. I think they were also amongst the widest passenger stock to operate in Great Britain with an overall width of nearly 10ft. although the door steps did account for some of this.

 

[Taunton]

Always fascinated me those units even though I don't recall ever seeing one in service sadly, noting that the original batch were constructed during the 1930s they were rather advanced for the time being fitted with air powered sliding doors and auto couplers etc. I think they were also amongst the widest passenger stock to operate in Great Britain with an overall width of nearly 10ft. although the door steps did account for some of this.

The quoted width of these units (which I used on the West Kirby line for many years) was misleading, for they were actually quite narrow compared to the LMS-built similar units on the Southport line. However they had notably protruding footsteps which accounted for the extra width. Inside, the Southport units were larger in all dimensions, having 3+2 seating where the Wirral units had just 2+2, and were longer. When the Wirral units were dragged to Horwich Works for overhaul the steps were unscrewed, but a strange piece of bureaucracy meant that, because of their official dimensions, they had to be belled between signalboxes as an "Out of Gauge Load". Even though they weren't any longer.

 

[fowler9]

I only have very distant memories of them to be honest and also the 502's. Probably saw and rode on more of them. I remember being very young and going on a day out to New Brighton with my Grandparents who lived Garston. We got I think a 502 from Garston to town and then a 503 to New Brighton. I can vividly remember the train we got on at Garston and being taken to say hello to the driver. On the way home I remember, vividly again, sitting down on the train at New Brighton.

I remember my nan calling it the puffa puffa train and thinking to myself "this is electric" even though I was about 6 or 7. To be fair my nan talked to me like I was 4 years old until she passed away when I was in my late teens. Last thing I remember about her was her talking to me about my first proper girlfriend who was Asian. I won't repeat what she said but it was ,I hope, unintentionally insulting to her.

 

[meridian2]

I'm no expert on third rail stuff, but when I first moved to London in 1978/79, I remember some old looking stock occasionally running on locals into Euston, Broad Street, Victoria and Charing X. I appreciate this is an open question, but a few did look antique (lots of exposed pipework) even then. Any idea what were the oldest EMUs in traffic in the late 70s?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'm no expert on third rail stuff, but when I first moved to London in 1978/79, I remember some old looking stock occasionally running on locals into Euston, Broad Street, Victoria and Charing X. I appreciate this is an open question, but a few did look antique (lots of exposed pipework) even then. Any idea what were the oldest EMUs in traffic in the late 70s?

Those would be the class 501s ( Euston, Broad Street ) and SUBs, EPBs, HAPs, etc* on the Southern.



*Various classes.

 

[meridian2]

Those would be the class 501s ( Euston, Broad Street ) and SUBs, EPBs, HAPs, etc* on the Southern.



*Various classes.

Thanks, IIRC the ones I'm thinking of were probably 4SUBs.

 

[yorksrob]

Thanks, IIRC the ones I'm thinking of were probably 4SUBs.

To be fair, trains with pipework were running into the 1990's.

The SUB's weren't making many inroads into the South Eastern by the 1970's, so a lot of EMU's with pipework on the roof from Charing Cross would have been EPB's.

 

[meridian2]

To be fair, trains with pipework were running into the 1990's.

The SUB's weren't making many inroads into the South Eastern by the 1970's, so a lot of EMU's with pipework on the roof from Charing Cross would have been EPB's.

Although I wasn't sufficiently interested in 3rd rail stock to tell them apart, I was aware that a few units looked even more vintage than the rest, especially some that came through Clapham Junction, close to where I was living at the time.

At one point in the late 70s my flat overlooked the WCML at the run in to Euston, and I wish I'd taken more notice.

 

[yorksrob]

Although I wasn't sufficiently interested in 3rd rail stock to tell them apart, I was aware that a few units looked even more vintage than the rest, especially some that came through Clapham Junction, close to where I was living at the time.

At one point in the late 70s my flat overlooked the WCML at the run in to Euston, and I wish I'd taken more notice.

The SUB's had big square windows on the front and the headcode was usually a stencil fixed by the driver leaning through the front window. There would have been plenty of those going through Clapham Junction in the 1970's, and they would have looked fairly vintage (although these were largely before my time) I did travel on the preserved one once, and like the EPB's (which I used to chase around south east London in the early 90's) they were very comfortable

 

[ChiefPlanner]

EX LMS Merseyrail electrics - superb condition internally with polished wood and comfy seats. Apparently they were hand washed with soft soap externally.

Obviously 1938 stock on the Watford - Euston lines in the late 1970's.

 

[Mikey C]

With "tube type" trains it would be the 1938s (on the IOW and in London) and the 1940 Drain stock. Incidentally I like to think that I would have been on the pre war District Line CO/CP stock as well (though it may have been post war R stock)

Otherwise the Bulleid EPBs, as the earliest of these predates the BR Mk1s?

 

[30907]

Otherwise the Bulleid EPBs, as the earliest of these predates the BR Mk1s?

And plenty of them had ex-SUB trailers which were slightly older. The first main line Mk1s came out more or less at the same time as the first EPBs.

 

[exile]

503s on Merseyrail, some of which dated from 1938. Though whether the ones I travelled on did I'm not sure (1982).

 

[leytongabriel]

I nearly forgot!
There were some very old trains with American-style clerestory roofs and dating from the 1920's running on the East London Line until 1971. These seemed to come from a different world from even the 1938 District line stock with streamlined skirts or the Northen line trains and made a bit impression on me as a teenager. They ran in mixed formation so you sometimes got in car that seemed even older than the rest. I know passenger services were run by LT by then but it was still part of the network in terms of coal trains and the odd train to Liverpool St until the 60's .

 

[Taunton]

503s on Merseyrail, some of which dated from 1938. Though whether the ones I travelled on did I'm not sure (1982).

Yes, they all survived in all-day service until the end (apart from four cars destroyed in WW2 bombing). In immaculate condition to the end, and indeed beyond - pictures of them being broken up by the scrap merchant behind Birkenhead North depot show them still in good, clean condition.

They were contemporaries of the London Underground O/P/Q38 stock, indeed built by the same builders and showing notable similarities. Half were built in 1938 and the rest, to the same drawings, in 1956. About the only visible difference was the pre-war cars had door open buttons mounted on the door leaf itself, the later ones had it on the bodyside.

In 20 years of using them (their last 20 years) I never had a single delay with them through any mechanical issue. Which I can't say about their Class 508 replacements.

The BR Mk 1 stock of the 1950s-60s had longstanding issues with quite visible corrosion of the lower bodysides etc after only a few years, which was attributed to their being the first all-steel stock built at BR workshops, who didn't understand what was required. This quite overlooks that the 503s were all-steel, built in the 1930s, and never showed any sign of body corrosion. Oh, and they operated throughout in the notably salt-corrosive air of the Wirral coast, being stored in open sidings at West Kirby and New Brighton within sound of the sea.

 

[30907]

I nearly forgot!
There were some very old trains with American-style clerestory roofs and dating from the 1920's running on the East London Line until 1971.

...and active on the District and Circle well into the 60s, from recollections of family outings. Quiet stock according to the usual sources.

 

[Liam]

That would be IoW 1938 Tube Stock, A60 Stock and 1972TS on the national network, other than that, some compartment stock between Waterloo and the flower show, was too young to know what it was at the time.

Either a 305 on a North Berwick around 1999-2000, so 40 years old at the time. Or a Sleeper/Scotrail Mark 2 (whichever is older) in 2015 which would be at least 40?

In the next few years this will probably change as the HST's are introduced with Scotrail and pass 40 years service (IIRC some of them are already 40).

 

[Ash Bridge]

Either a 305 on a North Berwick around 1999-2000, so 40 years old at the time. Or a Sleeper/Scotrail Mark 2 (whichever is older) in 2015 which would be at least 40?

In the next few years this will probably change as the HST's are introduced with Scotrail and pass 40 years service (IIRC some of them are already 40).

Some of the HST trailer cars are actually 45 years old this year, those being from the prototype set I wonder if any of these will make it into service with Scotrail?

 

[RichmondCommu]

I was reminded by a good friend of mine today that back in 1976 two friends and I travelled on a class 506 whilst heading to Reddish TMD. By today's standards they were a bit sluggish but when designed they were way ahead of their time.