Peter Skuce Reports (Part 1)

Peter's made some  excellent reports, so we couldn't resist using them! Part 1 is the London , Tilbury and Southend Line modernisation through the years.

"In 1962 British Railways electrified the London, Tilbury and Southend Line between Fenchurch Street – Laindon/Tilbury – Southend – Shoeburyness at both 25 Kv AC and 6.25 Kv AC (within London area, between London Fenhurch Street and Barking due to limited clearances) with chunky heavy duty, sturdy steel gantries. The trains would be maintained at a brand new purpose built depot at West Ham. Also the signalling was upgraded from manual semaphore signals to colour light signals and the line has a maximum speed limit of 75 mph.

British Railways built one hundred and twelve, 4 carriage length Class 302 EMU trains in 1958 to operate passenger trains on the London, Tilbury and Southend Line. Each four carriage train had a First Class cabin with 24 seats and Standard Class accommodation had 302 seats in a 2+3 high capacity airline layout and are powered by four English Electric EE536A traction motors and a maximum speed of 75 mph.

Network SouthEast rebuilt Fenchurch Street Station during the 1980s and West Ham was rebuilt during the period when the Jubilee Line extension was being constructed during the mid 1990s.

Interestingly and uniquely for an inner London terminal, Fenchurch Street is not actually directly served by London Underground. It is a short walk away from Tower Gateway station on the Docklands Light Rail network and a slightly longer walk from Tower Hill station, served by Circle line and District line on London Underground network.

However interchanges exist at other stations along the route and at West Ham, interchange can be made with both the Jubilee line on the London Underground network and the North London Railway of the London Overground network. Then at Barking, there is interchange with the Gospel Oak – Barking Line of the London Overground network and finally at Upminster there is interchange with the Romford – Upminster branch line of the London Overground network.

During the early 1990s, the Class 302 were joined by the more modern Class 312/1 EMU trains, dating from mid 1970s, cascaded from Great Northern sector following the cascade of Class 317 from Northampton Line. The Class 312 have a capacity of 300 passengers and are powered by four English Electric EE546 traction motors.

When the London, Tilbury and Southend Line was privatised, it first became known as LTS Rail and from 1997 until 2002, they hired in up to eighteen, four carriage, 100 mph capable Class 317 EMU trains, fitted with sliding doors, from sister company WAGN Railway due to unreliability of both the unreliable Classes 302 and 312 EMU trains. Whilst the Class 317 worked on LTS Rail, the First Class cabins were declassified, as there are no provision for First Class on the network, so Standard Class passengers could sit in First Class seats.

The introduction of the Class 317 started the slow gradual removal of the ageing Class 302 EMU trains from service.

March 1997 saw LTS Rail order forty four, 4 carriage ADtranz Class 357/0 Electrostar EMU trains at a cost of £200 million and were constructed in 1999. They were delivered in November of the same year, have a capacity of 282 seats to a 2+3 high density layout and have a maximum speed of 100 mph. Due to the delay in construction of the trains, ADtranz built two extra trains for free of charge as compensation to LTS Rail. 

Internally, the trains were fitted out with lime green poles and seats decked out in dark green moquette trim. Because the livery was undecided, externally the trains carried a plain white livery with green doors. As soon as all forty six Class 357/0 trains were in service, the LTS Rail name was dropped and replaced with the brand c2c and the trains were painted in metallic blue bodyside with silver doors livery. The Class 357 bought the end of guards being employed on board trains to ensure doors were closed and giving the starting signal to the driver, as the trains are Driver Only Operation (DOO for short).

The Class 357 is the first build of the ADtranz/Bombardier Electrostar family, with the Connex Class 375 following on. A clear indication of this is with the Chapman bespoke high back seats, which only feature on the Class 357. At the same time, Railtrack upgraded the tracks, power supplies and signalling to cope with the brand new power hungry trains.

Then in Autumn 2000, once National Express took over the franchise, they ordered twenty eight Class 357/2 Electrostar EMU trains from Bombardier. The Class 357/2 trains were delivered, between September 2001 - May 2002, internally fitted with pink poles and originally had purple seat moquette trim, which have since been replaced by the more gentle, softer green seat moquette trim. In addition to this, the door open and door close buttons are the opposite way round on the Class 357/2 EMU trains as opposed to the original Class 357/0 EMU trains. With the introduction into service of brand new Class 357 Electrostar EMU trains, c2c have enjoyed similar Cinderella ‘rags to riches’ success story to Chiltern Railways story of ten years earlier, with the introduction into service of brand new Class 165 Chiltern Turbo DMU trains.

Now all of c2c fleet of Class 357 Electrostar EMU trains carry the National Express livery of white bodyside with navy blue doors and are now in the process of receiving an interior refurbishment. Peter. "