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.
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.
Class 503's on what is now Merseyrail. Older than my dad and much older than me and I am 42.
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.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.
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?
Thanks, IIRC the ones I'm thinking of were probably 4SUBs.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.
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.
Otherwise the Bulleid EPBs, as the earliest of these predates the BR Mk1s?
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.503s on Merseyrail, some of which dated from 1938. Though whether the ones I travelled on did I'm not sure (1982).
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.
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).