Southern Electric Fleet Review Summer 2004

This feature originally appeared in the special 200th edition of Live Rail published in October 2004. The Southern Electric Group was founded in 1970 in response to the withdrawal of the pre-war main line units. The situation in summer 2004 found the pre-war main line units' replacements themselves being withdrawn in large numbers so it seemed a particularly appropriate moment to review the fleet.

The situation represented in this feature is already history. It represents a time that despite progressive withdrawals of Mk1 stock during previous years, slam door units were still sufficiently plentiful that the appearance of the railways of the south east had yet to change significantly. As such it is a useful "snapshot". It is interesting to note how much things have changed since this feature was first published. Please note that this feature contains the original text but not the original pictures that appeared in Live Rail 200.

A few general assumptions may be made to avoid undue repetition. Unless otherwise stated:

Passenger accommodation is in standard class saloons
On stock with sliding or plug doors there are two pairs of double doors both sides of each coach, these dividing the space into three saloons, usually small ones at the coach ends and a larger one in the middle
There are gangway connections between vehicles within units
Irrespective of unit formation pick up shoes are mounted on the bogies at both ends of each unit
There are bar couplings within units

Coverage is restricted to Southern Electric vehicles passed to operate on Network Rail lines, but excluding departmental stock

This information is correct to August 2004, though not all of classes 375, 376, 377, 444 and 450 had been delivered by then.

Index:

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This page updated 21st April 2006 by Colin Duff.
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