The British Rail Class 205 (3H) diesel-electric multiple units were built by BR at Eastleigh from 1957 to 1962, and in service for 47 years from BR Southern Region to Connex South Central and finally to the Southern franchise. They were eventually replaced by Class 171 Turbostar units.
The British Rail Class 207 (3D) diesel-electric multiple units were built by BR at Eastleigh in 1962. The fleet had a lifespan of 42 years. The Southern Region class 201 to 207 DEMUs are nicknamed 'Thumpers' due to the noise their engine units make.
The British Rail Class 202 diesel-electric multiple units were built from 1957-58 at Eastleigh and Ashford Works. These units were built to work the London Charing Cross to Hastings services. Several tunnels along the route had restricted clearance, meaning that these units were built with a narrow body profile. Similar to the Class 201 they were built to the longer BR Mk1 standard and therefore had 288 seats compared to the 242 (200+42) of the 6S units.
The Marshlink line is a railway line in South East England. It runs from Ashford, Kent via Romney Marsh, Rye and the Ore Tunnel to Hastings where it connects to the East Coastway line towards Eastbourne. Services are provided by Southern.
The North Downs Line is a passenger-train line connecting Reading to Redhill and Gatwick Airport, along the Brighton Main Line, linking many centres of population in that part of the North Downs which it traverses en route.
The Hastings line is a secondary railway line in Kent and East Sussex, England, linking Hastings with the main town of Tunbridge Wells, and London via Tonbridge and Sevenoaks. Although primarily carrying passengers, the railway also serves a gypsum mine which is a source of freight traffic. Southeastern Trains operates passenger trains on the line, and it is one of their busiest lines.
The British Rail Class 171 Turbostar is a type of diesel multiple unit (DMU) passenger train built by Bombardier Transportation at Derby Litchurch Lane Works in England. It is identical to the Class 170, except for the replacement of the BSI coupler with a Dellner coupler. This provision was made to allow emergency joining with Class 377 DC third-rail electric units, which Southern runs extensively on most lines. The units work on the southern regions of the British railway system, operating services from London Bridge to Uckfield and from Eastbourne to Ashford International, these routes being unelectrified between Hurst Green Junction and Uckfield and between Ore and Ashford International, respectively.
Ore railway station serves Ore in East Sussex, England. It is on the Marshlink Line, and train services are provided by Southern, with a single peak hour service operated by Southeastern.
Appledore railway station is a Grade II listed station east of Appledore in Kent, England. It is on the Marshlink line, and train services are provided by Southern.
The British Rail Class 201 six-car diesel-electric multiple units (DEMUs) were built in 1957–1958 at Eastleigh and underframes were built at Ashford.
The South Eastern Main Line is a major long-distance railway route in South East England, UK, one of the three main routes crossing the county of Kent, going via Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Ashford and Folkestone to Dover. The other routes are the Chatham Main Line which runs along the north Kent coast to Ramsgate or Dover via Chatham and High Speed 1 which runs through the centre of Kent to the coast at Folkestone where it joins the Channel Tunnel.
The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the south coast, including the busy commuter belt areas of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. The region was largely based upon the former Southern Railway area.
British Rail Class 416 (2-EPB) was a class of third-rail electric multiple units in service between 1953 and 1995. They were intended for inner suburban passenger services on London's Southern Electric network. There were two subclasses of Class 416: Class 416/1 to an SR design on salvaged 2-NOL underframes, built between 1953 and 1956, and Class 416/2 based on a British Railways Mark 1 coach design.
The British Rail Class 501 electric multiple units were built in 1955/56 for use on the former LNWR/LMS suburban electric network of the London Midland Region. A total of 57 three-car units were built.
The British Rail Class 210 was a type of diesel-electric multiple unit (DEMU) passenger train designed and constructed by British Rail Engineering Limited's Derby Litchurch Lane Works.
The British Rail Class 203, initially classified 6B, was a type of diesel-electric train. Seven units, numbered 1031-1037, were constructed in 1958 for use on the Southern Region. They were similar to the earlier Class 202 units, differing only in the substitution of a trailer buffet car for one of the three trailer second opens.
The Redhill–Tonbridge line is a railway line in South East England that links Redhill, Surrey with Tonbridge, Kent.
Reading Southern railway station is former railway station in Reading, Berkshire, England, located to the south of Reading General station on the Great Western main line.
Network SouthEast (NSE), the sector of British Rail which ran passenger services in London and southeast England between 1986 and 1994, operated a wide variety of rolling stock during its existence. The majority of the network was electrified, and further electrification schemes took place during the 1986–1994 period; and the 7,000 vehicles owned by NSE in 1986 consisted of a mixture of electric, diesel-electric and diesel multiple units, diesel locomotives and the coaches they hauled.
Class 201, Class 202 and Class 203 were the TOPS codes for a series of Diesel-electric multiple units built for the Southern Region of British Railways in 1957–86. They were classified by the Southern Region as 6S, 6L and 6B respectively, and known collectively as the Hastings Diesels or Hastings Units. They were built for service on the Hastings Line, which had a restricted loading gauge due to deficiencies in the construction of the tunnels when the line was built between 1845 and 1852. The Hastings Units served from 1957 to 1988, being withdrawn when the Hastings Line was electrified with single-track sections through some of the tunnels.
