South Western Railway celebrates heritage of Class 455 fleet with retro blue and grey repaint
the twilight period of their long operating lives, South Western Railway has celebrated the legacy of its Class 455 third-rail electric multiple units with a special retro-repaint into a compliant version of the classic British Rail blue and grey livery. The remaining Class 455s operated by SWR are expected to be withdrawn over the coming months, to be replaced with the newly-introduced Alstom-built Class 701 Arterio EMUS that began to enter service earlier this year ( Railways Illustrated issue 253). The special repaint to 455868 was carried out at Bournemouth Depot. Since first being introduced into traffic by BR in 1982, the Class 455s have gone on to become the backbone of suburban commuter services in the Southern Region. 455868 was also chosen in 2002 to be the recipient of a special celebratory livery to mark the Golden Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Social media star and railway enthusiast Francis Bourgeois was invited by SWR to Wimbledon Depot to see the completed train on March 6 and record a video of his visit, ahead of 455868’s re-entry into passenger service with the operator the following day.
SWR managing director Claire Mann said: “The Class 455 fleet has worked tremendously hard over the last 42 years. As we look to the future with the introduction of our Arterio trains, we feel it’s only right that we celebrate their service and the people who have worked on them, and we were delighted to show Francis this very special livery. “The livery was painted with a great deal of care by our colleagues in Bournemouth last month. It is a nod to the original paint scheme from the unit’s introduction in 1983 – though we’ve made a few adjustments to ensure that it meets today’s standards. “It’s a special moment for our colleagues at our Wimbledon depot, the place this train calls home. These colleagues work every day to keep the 455 fleet running, and their efforts are regularly recognised at the Golden Spanner awards, something we’ve commemorated in this livery.”
The repaint of rolling stock due for retirement into retro colour schemes has grown in popularity in recent years, with a number of operators recognising the heritage of some of the trains in their fleets. Other EMU designs to receive compliant variations of BR blue and grey colours have included pioneer Class 313 unit 313201, and Merseyrail also applied the popular BR livery to 507001 at the end of last year for its final few months in traffic. Additionally, a number of highspeed train operators have repainted Class 43 power cars into former liveries carried by the HSTS during the earlier part of their career to mark their withdrawal. GB Railfreight has also reapplied a number of modern interpretations of classic BR liveries onto some of their Class 66, Class 69 and Class 73 locomotives.