Southend Victoria Line Review
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| DRS 37612 on the rear of a test train passing Rochford (C) Lewis Brownlow |
Lewis here. I'm signing in for todays Line Review post, which focuses on the Southend Victoria route.
The Shenfield to Southend Victoria line is a railway line located in South Essex and runs between Southend Victoria in the East and Shenfield in the West. At Shenfield the line joins the Great Eastern Mainline from Norwich into London Liverpool Street. The double track railway was first electrified in 1956 and electric trains directly replaced steam services on the line. In 1990 the majority of services run along the Southend Victoria line were operated by Class 315's.
The Shenfield to Southend Victoria line is a railway line located in South Essex and runs between Southend Victoria in the East and Shenfield in the West. At Shenfield the line joins the Great Eastern Mainline from Norwich into London Liverpool Street. The double track railway was first electrified in 1956 and electric trains directly replaced steam services on the line. In 1990 the majority of services run along the Southend Victoria line were operated by Class 315's.
Here, the Network Rail maintenance train is hauled by DRS Class 37s.
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| The final 315 service to Southend. Class 315s are now operated by TFL Rail. |
The Class 315's were replaced by brand new Class 321's allowing the Class 315's to transfer to the Shenfield to Liverpool Street metro. The Class 321's still operate on the Southend Victoria line today and the line is now operated by Abellio Greater Anglia.
Class 321's were new under Network SouthEast and were painted in their livery of red, white and blue. They were then painted in First Great Eastern livery, One livery, National Express East Anglia livery and some units now carry Abellio's livery of white with red doors. Interior wise, the units remain virtually unchanged and have never had a major refurbishment.
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| An 8-Car Class 321 at Rayleigh. (C) Lewis |
Until May 2015, there were still approximately 6 Class 315 workings along the Southend Victoria line, but from 31st May 2015, the Class 315 fleet was transferred over to new operator, TfL Rail in preparation for Crossrail, meaning Class 315's will never regularly work to Southend Victoria again. The very last day of Class 315 operation was Saturday 16th May 2015.
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| Class 321's operate all passenger services on the Southend Victoria Branch. |
Recently, Steam Dreams returned steam to the Southend Victoria line after a gap of over 10 years. On Saturday 15th March 2014, 70000 Britannia worked a railtour from Southend Airport to Salisbury and on the return journey to Southend, the journey was hauled by WCRC Class 33, 33207.
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| DRS Class 57's working the RHTT service at Hockley. (C) Lewis. |
The Southend Victoria line now doesn't see any freight at all. The only other services apart from Class 321's and railtours to visit the Southend line are the railhead treatment trains (RHTT). These locomotive hauled services operate to clear the railhead of leaves in the Autumn season and usually operate from around September to sometimes as late as December.
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| Class 57s form the RHTT train at Hockley. (C) Lewis. |
I have attached a selection of images from the Southend Victoria line, I hope you find them interesting.
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Finally, below is 315845 working the very last evening peak service from London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria. All services on the Southend Victoria line are now operated by Class 321 as the Class 315's have transferred over to TfL Rail.
That is all from me today, I do hope you enjoyed this post.
^Lewis
