British Rail Class 456
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The British Rail Class 456 electrical multiple units were built by BREL at York Works from 1990-91. 24 two-car units were built as direct replacements for the elderly Class 416 2EPB units which operated on the Central Division of the Southern Region of British Rail. Units were delivered into traffic painted in Network SouthEast blue, red and white livery.
Units were numbered in the range 456001-024. Each unit consisted of two carriages; a driving motor and a driving trailer. The technical description of the unit formation is DMSO+DTSO. Individual carriage numbers were as follows:
- 64735-64758 - DMSO
- 78250-78273 - DTSO
When first introduced, the units suffered from many technical and reliability problems, which delayed the replacement of the 2EPB units. However, once they settled down the units were used on many services, including London Bridge to London Victoria via Crystal Palace, and London Victoria to Horsham. Before the lines closed in 1997 to allow the building of the Croydon Tramlink, Class 456 units worked services on the line from West Croydon to Wimbledon. Recently, more 456's have recently been allocated to Victoria - Epsom via Sutton and West Croydon, especially at peak times, as well as services from Epsom Downs and Dorking.
[edit] Current operations
Since the privatisation of Britain's railways, the entire Class 456 fleet passed into the Southern (formerly known as South Central) franchise, which was originally won by Connex South Central. Only one unit, no. 456024, was repainted in white and yellow Connex livery, when it was named Sir Cosmo Bonsor after a chairman of the South Eastern Railway. The rest of the fleet had remained in NSE livery, until summer 2006 when the fleet started to be repainted.
In 2000, Connex lost the South Central franchise to the Go-Ahead Group, who rebranded the company as Southern in 2004.
[edit] Refurbishment
In March 2005 unit 456 006 was hauled away to Wolverton where it has been studied for corrosion assessment, this caused some doubt to whether they would be refurbished. However, in a statement in April 2006 Southern said the class will receive a "refreshing", this meant they would not receive a refurbishment as large as the 455's, since the 456's are 10 years younger and already have the high backed seats.
All units have now been 'refreshed', and now the 456's will be painted into Southern green colours. The first stage of this is currently underway, with 456 002, 012 and 014 released in Southern green, and 006 in all-white with green doors as of 9th November. All of the other units will now be hauled in to be repainted, with 456 008 rumored to be the next one at Wolverton for assessment and repainting. Also, questions remain over the livery of 456 024 (Sir Cosmo Bonsor), ie whether it will be repainted into Southern colours or remain in Connex South Central colours.
