British Rail Class 423

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British Rail Class 423
Class 423/1, no. 3445 at Waterloo East on 8 February 2003, with a service to Charing Cross. This unit is painted in Connex livery.
In service	1967-2005
Manufacturer	BREL Eastleigh
Number built	Unknown
Formation	4 car per trainset
Operator	South West Trains Southern South Eastern
Specifications
Car length	?
Width	9ft 3in (2.81m)
Height	12ft 9 1/4in (3.89m)
Maximum speed	90mph (145 km/h)
Weight	Total - 36F/266S
Power output	1,000hp (740kW)
Voltage	750V dc third rail

Class 423/1, no. 3810 arriving at London Waterloo on 15 August 2003. This unit was one of the last to carry Network SouthEast livery. It was nick-named the "Great Escape" after it was exported to Germany for a while for testing.

The British Rail Class 423 (or 4Vep) electrical multiple units were built by BR at York Works from 1967-74, although the MBSOs and TSOs of the first 20, 7701-7720, were constructed at Derby Works. They feature manually opening doors next to every seating row. They were mostly found working suburban services in South London, and rural services in Kent and Sussex up to 2005, when they were finally replaced by modern Electrostar and Desiro units.

[edit] Description

[edit] Standard units

194 standard four-car units were built between 1967 and 1974, numbered 7701-7894. They were subsequently renumbered in the 1980s, into the 30xx and 31xx series, in order, to make numbers TOPS compliant. Later on, between 1988 and 1990, the units were internally facelifted. The work involved fitting fluorescent lighting and public address equipment, and also rebuilding the MBS vehicles with an additional two bays of seating in former luggage space. On refurbishment, only the first twenty units were renumbered in order, in the 34xx series. All other units were renumbered from 3421 onwards, in the order they were refurbished. All units ended up swapping motor vehicles on refurbishment - the additional work on these cars made the work take longer than that carried out on trailer vehicles.

[edit] 8Vab unit

In 1968, due to a shortage of suitable stock for the Bournemouth electrification scheme, BR formed an eight carriage 8Vab unit, no. 8001. The unit was formed of carriages from three standard sets, nos. 7739/41/42, plus a conventional locomotive-hauled buffet carriage. Three MBSOs were required within the make-up as the standard 'RB' was not through-wired for traction power distribution. In view of this, the 2 MBSOs in the 5-car portion had collector shoes fitted to one bogie on each. The unit worked on occasions with a 4-TC; this usually had a Class 33 attached to provide ETH & train lighting, etc, as the 8-VAB was not fitted with ETH jumper cables on the unit ends. Its normal running formation was with another 4-VEP to make a 12-car set. The 'RB' vehicle retained its gas-powered appliances so, unlike 4-REP buffet cars, was able to provide hot food while on diversions away from third-rail areas. One of the adjacent MBSOs had most of its doors taken out of use and tables fitted across them, for the service of meals; this vehicle also had most of its luggage racks removed. The unit was later reclassified as Class 480 following the introduction of TOPS.

The unit was disbanded in 1974, following deliveries of 4Rep stock, but at least one was not reformed, as spare vehicles from the unit had replaced crash-damaged Vep vehicles in the meantime.

[edit] 4Veg units

In 1978, twelve units, nos. 7788-7799, were fitted with extra luggage racks, and reclassified as Class 427 4Veg units. The units were renumbered into the range 7901-7912. These units were dedicated to the Gatwick Express services from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport.

In 1984, they were replaced on these services by Class 73 electro-diesel locomotives operating in push-pull with Class 488 coaching sets and Class 489 luggage vans. The twelve units were then converted back to standard set, and regained their original unit numbers.

[edit] Vehicle numbering

The numbering of individual vehicles and details of when units were built are shown in the table below.

[edit] Final operations

Following the privatisation of British Rail, the three southern train operators all inherited large fleets of Vep units. The fleet of each franchise is described below.

Class 423/1, no. 3445 at Waterloo East on 8 February 2003, with a service to Charing Cross. This unit is painted in Connex livery.

[edit] South Eastern Trains

South Eastern Trains operated the largest fleet of 4Vep units. The franchise was originally operated as Connex South Eastern, who lost the franchise in 2003. The fleet contained several interesting units, included no. 3473, which contained a driving trailer with the compartments removed, and no. 3582, which contained former 4TC driving trailer 76275.

Many units survived into 2005 because of the closure of the Folkestone-Dover section of railway for tunnel refurbishment. This ended in September 2005. The final passenger service was operated on 7 October 2005, using units 3565, 3545 and 3568. Incidentally, unit 3545 contained 62121, the first 4Vep MBSO built.

All the South Eastern Trains 4Vep units have now been withdrawn. One driving trailer from unit 3568, another (from 4Vep 3545) has been claimed by the National Railway Museum, and the former 4TC driving trailer from unit 3582 have been preserved.

Class 423/1, no. 3514 at London Victoria on 29 March 2003. This was the only unit to be painted in Southern's attractive green livery and was one of the last units still in traffic with Southern.

[edit] South Central / Southern

The South Central division inherited a fleet of 50 standard Class 423/1 units. The franchise was originally won by Connex South Central, who soon applied their yellow and white livery to the fleet. However, following poor levels of service, the franchise was transferred to South Central Trains in 2000, which was later renamed as Southern in 2004. Only one unit, no. 3514 was ever repainted in Southern's attractive green livery.

In 1998-1999, whilst still under the control of Connex, 19 units were modified to operate inner suburban South London "Metro" services. The work involved removal of internal compartments and declassification of 1st class seating. The units were reclassified as Class 423/9 (or 4Vop) and renumbered in the range 3901-3919. Due to the lack of first class seating, these units were generally not used on long distance services.

In 2003, with the general run-down of slam-door trains approaching, it was decided to reform some of the 4Vop units by swapping one driving trailer with that from a standard unit. The new hybrid units were reclassified as Class 423/8 (or 4Vip) and renumbered in the range 3813-3844. The logic behind this move was to give all units some 1st-class seating, thus making diagramming of units easier. However, in the event, only eight units were reformed, namely nos. 3813/14/21/22/41-44.

By 2004, Southern had started to introduce new Class 377 "Electrostar" units into service in large numbers. Although first introduced in 2002, this did not initially affect the Class 423 as the older 'Phase 1' Class 421 units were withdrawn first, due to their age and lower seating capacity. However, as more new units entered traffic, the first Class 423 units were withdrawn. Units selected for withdrawal were usually those with high-mileage or poor condition. By mid-2005, only a handful of units remained in traffic. The final diagrammed passenger service out of London was the 17:17 London Victoria to Eastbourne and Seaford on 19 August 2005, formed of units 3486 and 3535, plus 4Cig 1866. Six units were subsequently retained for emergency cover. Unit 3514 was used on the Sussex Slammer railtour on Saturday 19 November 2005. The following Saturday saw the final slam door trains on Southern, when units 3490, 3505 and 3535 formed the 09:19 Brighton to London Victoria and 11:06 London Victoria to Brighton services, following which all the units were withdrawn from service.

One complete 4Vip unit has been preserved, and two 4Vop units remain in departmental use.

Class 423/1, nos. 3414 and 3419 at London Waterloo on 19 July 2003. These units are painted in South West Trains. They have both since been withdrawn and scrapped.

[edit] South West Trains

South West Trains (SWT) inherited the second largest number of units, with an initial fleet size of 62 units. The entire fleet was composed of standard Class 423/1 units. Later, a further four units (nos. 3809-3812) were transferred from Connex South Eastern. These were also standard units, but were numbered in the 38xx series to denote they were leased from Porterbrook rather than HSBC Rail.

SWT quickly repainted it fleet of units into a new livery, based on the previous Network SouthEast (NSE) livery, but with the addition of an orange stripe and the absence of the grey band. All but four units, namely nos. 3415 and 3809-3811 were repainted. These four units were deliberately retained in NSE livery, meaning in the waning days of slam-door trains, they attained "celebrity" status by rail enthusiasts.

In 2003, SWT ordered placed on order for 785 new carriages with Siemens AG to allow it to replace its fleet of slam-door trains. To assist Siemens in the design of third rail units, 4Vep no. 3810 was transferred to a test site in Germany to undergo tests. Following its return to Britain, it popularly became known as the "Great Escape".

South West Trains started to replace its slam-door fleet from early-2004, with the introduction of the first Class 444 and Class 450 Desiro units. Around this time, SWT repainted one unit, no. 3417 into its original BR Blue livery to commemorate the final months in traffic of the slam-door fleet. This unit was chosen because it was one of the last to receive major works attention, and therefore had the longest life-expectancy. It was named Gordon Pettitt after a former manager of the Southern Region of British Railways.

In the final months of traffic, several units, including the first-built no. 3401, were reformed in order to allow the vehicles in the best condition to be retained in service. Withdrawals of units picked up pace, with several large culls of units, the last of which occurred in March 2005. Beyond this date, only a handful of units remained in traffic, namely nos. 3401/17/81 3516/20/36/76 and 3811. The final normal passenger service was operated on 26 May 2005 from London Waterloo to Bournemouth, using 4Vep 3536 sandwiched between 4Cig units 1396 and 1398. Following withdrawal, most units were rapidly towed away for scrap. The "celebrity" blue unit, no. 3417 has been retained for the meantime, but SWT wish to see the unit preserved.

[edit] Further use

Following withdrawal from normal service, several vehicles have seen further use in departmental service.

• 4Vop units 3905 and 3918 are to be converted into tractor units. They will be used to haul Class 375 units to and from Ashford Works.
• MBSO 62138 (ex-unit 3567) was renumbered to 977981 and was used as a motor coach in the Hitachi V-Train no. 960201 during third-rail testing. It has since been scrapped.

[edit] Remaining Unpreserved Units/Coaches

[edit] Preservation

So far, only one complete unit (highlighted in table below) and four individual driving trailers have been preserved. In addition, the former 4TC driving vehicle from set 3582 has been preserved. However, it is also expected that unit 3417, which was repainted into original blue livery, will be preserved. It is currently stored servicably at Bournemouth, and South West Trains have now sold the unit to the Bluebell Railway for the nominal sum of £1. There was also an attempt to preserved unit 3810 (the unit briefly exported to Germany), but unfortunately this failed.

[edit] Fleet details

Original-condition units

Facelifted units