24 November 2020 · Classic Southern Electrics in Colour

Presenter: David Brown

After being introduced, David went straight into his presentation. A number of railway companies were experimenting with electrification by the early 20th century and David explained how this progressed in the south after WWI and the subsequent grouping resulting from the 1921 Railways Act. The Southern inherited stock and systems from all of the companies in the area including completion of the AC overhead electrification of part of the former LBSCR. However, the Southern decided to electrify almost all of its area using the DC third rail system mainly for economic reasons. The last overhead AC electric services ran in 1929 before being converted to third rail DC. Early in this period most services ran with non-corridor stock and with very limited WC provision.

The first photographs showed first generation new stock introduced for third rail services from 1931 to 1939 describing the internal layouts, the seating – better for first class, whether there were individual compartments, corridor vehicles or other alternatives, and whether or not WCs were provided. There was an acute shortage of rolling stock with not enough EMUs available by the end of the 1930s including the new LAVs (lavatory) – the first EMUs built for the electrification, so more were built in the early 1940s including a number of 2HALs (half lavatory) which remained in service until 1968/1969 when they were broken up. The third rail electrification was a phased programme as was the building of new EMUs such as the 2 BILs (bi lavatory – one in each coach) built with a lavatory in each of the two coaches. There was a photograph showing a combination of a 2BIL motorcoach couple with a 2HAL trailer – known in this combination, apparently, as a 2BAL. With the further development of the third rail network and the new EMUs, it was clear that there was regular use of particular types matching them as appropriate to specific routes and services – some for the suburban network and others for longer distances. One photograph showed a 7 car hauled set of mixed coaches which helped to highlight the on-going need for more new stock; some of this as a result of wartime damage. So more 2HALs were produced. Another item of interest was the extension of the Bognor Service to Victoria that could perhaps be considered an early forerunner of the Gatwick Express with its large brake van with an excellent capacity for passenger luggage. A need for business class on the Brighton line had been highlighted and an example of one solution used included a Pullman coach set into a train of mixed 1st and 3rd class (6PUL). This was not a great success as it (the Pullman coach) was all steel and very heavy which was not good for the rails and provided a poor quality ride because of the type of bogies fitted. These services originally had kitchens and progressed to using 6PANs (pantry) but the kitchens were eventually all closed.

By the 1960s much old stock was being disposed of with other stock reformed such as the 6PULs – reused without the inclusion of the Pullman car. The 6PANs and 6PULs were withdrawn with the best vehicles retained for spares, except for very occasional use and only when desperately needed as they were unpopular with both staff and passengers. There were pros and cons to the different types and formations and there was a considerable amount of ‘swapping’ around. The ongoing provision of refreshments was maintained using 4BUFs (with buffet cars) and 4RESs (restaurant) with one example shown later converted to a self-service café car. Three of the 4RESs were converted to griddle cars using the Maunsell body on standard BR bogies – very similar to the example now at the Mid Hants Railway with the only difference being that the internal layout is a mirror image.

We were treated to a number of photographs of later 4SUBs (suburban) showing their background and usage. By the late 1960s there was a shortage of these so 2HAL motor coaches were coupled with other spare coaches as an interim measure before being scrapped. Other old stock continued in use for a while repurposed for training, de-icing or keeping the lines clear etc, but all were eventually scrapped as no longer fit for purpose.

Further developments included the 4EPBs (electro pneumatic brakes) which were similar to earlier stock but with much better performance. The use of electro pneumatic brakes was eventually rolled out throughout the Southern as being safer and more effective. Other units of note were the MLVs (motor luggage van) able to run independently on batteries to enable use on relatively short sections of non-electrified lines. With their large capacity, these proved to be particularly useful on the boat train services and postal services in areas such as the docks. Part of the reason for their discontinuing in use was a dispute with the unions but there were other problems too. Also of note and more usually associated with the continent was the trialling of a form of double deck stock in an attempt to increase passenger seating capacity and reduce standing without having longer trains. This is a more difficult issue on the UK rail network because of a smaller loading gauge than that of continental Europe. The trial was not that successful in that it made standing that much more unpleasant and cramped for everyone on the service and there were other problems too regarding safety, security and poor ventilation for example. These units were very unpopular with passengers and never really got beyond the experimental stage.

There were not many Southern locomotives but of particular note were the Class 20 co-co electric locomotives mainly used for freight but sometimes for passenger services and examples shown included one hauling the Newhaven Boat Train, one in blue livery for Derby Day, one on the royal Derby Day special, and finally hauling the Bulleid Commemorative Rail Tour in 1969. There were some disadvantages to the Class 20s and later E5000s so a decision was made to build a new class of locomotives to resolve these difficulties. This resulted in 6 new electro-diesels being built at Eastleigh entering service between January and November 1962 – the E6000s. These proved to be very successful and versatile and another 43 were built, contracted out to English Electric. The last 13 were ordered in connection with the Bournemouth electrification and some of the class are still in use today – which says something about their success.

There was a clear history of the development of the Southern Electrics from the early days of third rail electrification right up until the late 1970s showing some of the technical and safety developments and making sense of the codes used to designate the various individual and combined types of units. This was a coherent, well-illustrated and interesting presentation using excellent photographs carefully selected from a number of credited sources and the whole evening proved very enlightening.

(Post Script – there is plenty of reference material available and the author of this report has researched a little more as a result of enjoying the presentation. Further reading included two books by David Brown on Southern Electric – Volumes 1 and 2, as well as a smaller one published by the Southern Electric Group, plus a comprehensive list showing what all the codes represent. There is also an explanation of the most likely reasons as to why the codes were set up as they are in Chapter 3 of Volume 1 of David Brown’s book.)