More classes head for scrap as EMU clearout continues
The first inroads have been made into four classes of electric multiple unit (two each from Greater Anglia and South Western Railway), as the scrapping of redundant rolling stock claims some modern types.
GA despatched Class 321 and ‘322’ sets 321901 and 322482 to Sims Metals at Newport on August 4. The former, one of three completed at York as recently as 1991 for Doncaster-Leeds services, represents the final design based on the Mk 3 coach bodyshell.
It has been displaced by new Bombardier/Alstom Class 720s.
Similar unit 322482 was one of five built for Stansted Express services a year earlier, but never really valued during its entire career. It was employed on fill-in duties all over the UK, including between Euston and Manchester, in West Yorkshire, and the Edinburgh-North Berwick line (twice).
In other moves, more than a third of the Class 455 fleet that used to operate out of London termini has already been scrapped.
The principal rolling stock leasing companies - Angel Trains, Eversholt and Porterbrook - continue to make good use of the efficient Sims facility, where units are often pulverised on the day that they arrive under total destruction contracts.
In the latest moves, SWR has begun to scrap its four-car Class 455 fleet, with the disposal of a unit from the final series constructed at York in 1985. Class 455/9, 455907 was hauled to Newport on August 5, following the disposal during May of the slightly earlier design 455740, incorporating an ex-Class 508 trailer.
The pace of scrapping on SWR will increase once sanction is given for the full introduction of the 90-strong Alstom/Bombardier Class 710s (ten- and five-car sets). It is now over two years since 710102 was delivered from the Derby Litchurch Lane factory. Testing was initially only expected to take three months.
The demise of Southern’s ‘455/8s’ has been particularly rapid, with the clear-out of redundant stock from Stewarts Lane depot to Newport completed only three months after they were taken out of service.
This was not for any reliability reasons - they were simply victims of service cuts on routes out of London Victoria and London Bridge into Croydon and Surrey, from the new May 15 timetable. Their duties were taken over by Class 377s fitted with toilets and WiFi.
Class ‘455/8’ was rendered extinct on August 16, when the final two sets (455804/819) were towed away to the breakers.
There had also been no reprieve for 455835/841, which were taken away on May 19 just five days after their use on the sell-out ‘Metro Marauder’ tour on routes from Victoria to Brighton and return via London Bridge and Blackfriars (passing through 70 stations and raising £26,000 for the charity Mind).
Sims is also well under way with the dismantling of two-car Class 456s, while other recent one-way visitors to the South Wales yard have included two more East Coast Class 91s, 91122/128, ‘Pacer’ DMU vehicles, and a Midland Metro tram.
Aside from ‘455s’, there is still plenty of business in the pipeline, with the last Class 317s, non‘Renatus’ ‘321s ‘and ‘322s’ to mop up.
After that could follow the final Class 313s from Southern’s South Coast services, quite likely some ‘465s’, and certainly ‘507s’ and ‘508s’ from Merseyrail once the new Stadler ‘777s’ are approved to run.