Great Western Coffee Shop

What happening to these South West trains cast offs ?........pity someone cant come up with a way to fit a engine underneath and turn them into DMUs

This is where I come in! South West Trains expert ...  ;) ;D

The 442s are moving to Southern and will start running from the December 2008 timetable change. There are currently 4 442s not at Eastleigh - 2 at Wolverton, 1 at Chart Leacon and 1 at Lovers Walk.

Tomorrow there will be 2 moves, the one at Lovers Walk will be brought for the first time to EH in it's grey livery, and there will be 2 going to Lovers Walk.

I know its old hat and nothing to do with FGW but why did they take the 442 from the Weymouth to Waterloo and replace them with the 444 cause I my opinion and quite a few more it not a great improvement. At least when I Got from Cardiff to Southampton The journey to Weymouth on the 442 was always Comfortable which can not be said for the Cardiff  Portsmouth Part Going via Westbury  Weymouth is something to be avoided even when the train turns up that is.

442s were excellent trains.

Waste of the best EMUs imho!

I can reply to this in 1 character on the keyboard.

^

Plus the fact that the DfT wanted them for Gatwick Express (link below.)
http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2185.msg5101#msg5101

Well, 2 keys, you need to press shift aswell.

Not strictly true... the DfT only came up with that idea when SWT gave Angel their notice to return the units! The idea behind that was to do with the forthcoming FGW farce with rolling stock - had the 442s not been returned, I suspect the current ongoing build of 377s that is being carried out at the moment would have been enlargened with an equivalent number being diverted to FCC that are now.

And ;D at vacman!

Fair enough, but the DfT still came up with the idea, so "not strictly true" is a little harsh.....

However, I do know that SWT isnt exactly held in high esteem for their part in the episode.

I've heard that there are still some of these units in storage (even when you subtract the ones going to Southern for the Brighton express later this year).

I've also heard that Southern are in a bit of a pickle regarding their "South Coastway" services- not enough stock now they've taken over SWTs services.

So why not use these units and give them to Southern? They can then have enough stock and revert to their old timetable!

But no-

....yet more perfectly good carriages rotting away!

There will be 4 "workable" units in storage when 18 enter service for Southern.

This is due to 2409 and 2416 being non standard (2409 has electrically controlled camshaft IIRC, and 2416 has non standard... or should I say no aircon...).

SN won't require the 4 additional units. If I've understood the timetable correctly, the 442s will operate London - Gatwick - Brighton services every half an hour - replacing the two Brighton expresses, and two Gatwick Express services.

When the 442s come into action - the 377s currently used will be released and will be cascaded to give more stock on the Coastway.