AC traction fitted to Class 442s at Wolverton

Eight Class 442s are currently at Wolverton Works undergoing re-tractioning.

They are part of a project whereby 18 Class 442s are being fitted with new AC traction packages, as part of South

Western Railway’s heavily delayed plan to put them into traffic on the

Waterloo-Portsmouth route.

While ‘442s’ have been used by SWR, those in traffic had not been modified and retained the 1960s traction systems with which they were fitted when built in the late 1980s.

The latest to arrive at Gemini

Rail Services’ facility is 442411, which was dragged north from Bournemouth on June 29 by Rail Operations Group 47815 Lost Boys 68-88.

Others at Wolverton are 442403-405/413/414/421/422. There remains no firm date for the introduction of the newly modified trains into traffic.