The British RailClass 411 (4CEP) electric multiple units were built at Eastleigh works from 1956–63 for the newly electrified main lines in Kent. These units, which used the British Railways Mark 1 bodyshell, were based on the earlier Southern Railway 4 COR design, built in 1937. Variants of the class 411 design included the class 410 and class 412 4 BEP units, which contained a buffet car in place of a standard trailer. They were later used on services in Sussex and Hampshire; following the privatisation of British Rail in 1995, the units were used by the Connex South Central, Connex South Eastern and South West Trains franchises. They were replaced by Juniper, Desiro, and Electrostar units. The fleet's lifespan was 49 years. These units are the longest-lived BR Mark 1 EMUs.
The Southern Railway (SR) gave the designation 2-BIL to the DC third rail electric multiple units built during the 1930s to work long-distance semi-fast services on the newly electrified lines from London to Eastbourne, Portsmouth and Reading. This type of unit survived long enough in British Rail ownership to be allocated TOPS Class 401.
The Southern Railway (SR) gave the designation 2-NOL to the electric multiple units built during the 1930s from old London and South Western Railway carriage bodies on new underframes. None of these units survived long enough in British Rail ownership to be allocated a TOPS class.
The British Rail Class 419 Motor Luggage Vans were battery electric multiple unit cars built from 1959-61 by BR at Eastleigh Works.
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (LYR) built suburban electric stock for lines in Liverpool and Manchester. The line between Liverpool to Southport began using electric multiple units (EMUs) on 22 March 1904, using a third rail 625 V DC. Additional trains were later built for this route, and in 1913 incompatible stock for the route to Ormskirk. Lightweight units were built to run on the Liverpool Overhead Railway.
The British Rail Class 313 was a dual-voltage electric multiple unit (EMU) train built by British Rail Engineering Limited's Holgate Road carriage works between February 1976 and April 1977. They were the first production units that were derived from British Rail's 1971 prototype suburban EMU design which, as the BREL 1972 family, eventually encompassed 755 vehicles over five production classes. They were the first second-generation EMUs to be constructed for British Rail and the first British Rail units with both a pantograph for 25 kV 50 Hz AC overhead lines and contact shoe equipment for 750 V DC third rail supply. They were, additionally, the first units in Britain to employ multi-function automatic Tightlock couplers, which include electrical and pneumatic connections allowing the coupling and uncoupling of units to be performed unassisted by the driver whilst in the cab.
The British RailClass 303 electric multiple units, also known as "Blue Train" units, were introduced in 1960 for the electrification of the North Clyde and the Cathcart Circle lines in Strathclyde. They were initially classified as AM3 units before the introduction of the TOPS classification system, and were the dominant EMU on the Glasgow suburban railway network for over 25 years before being progressively phased out by newer rolling stock. The final units were withdrawn from service in 2002. The fleet's lifespan was 42 years.
An electric multiple unit (EMU) is an electric self-powered train, capable of operating in multiple with other EMUs and without the need for a locomotive; these are typically passenger trains with accommodation in every vehicle and a driving position at each end. The term can also be used to describe a train that is a permanent formation with a non-driving power car, such as the Advanced Passenger Train. As of December 2010, two-thirds of the passenger carriages in Great Britain are formed in EMUs.
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.
British Rail Class 503 passenger trains were 65 mph (105 km/h) electric multiple units. They were introduced in two batches: the first were in 1938, by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), with a further batch in 1956 by the then nationalised British Railways (BR). When introduced by the LMS, they were known officially as Class AM3. They were designed for, and operated on, the Wirral & Mersey lines from Liverpool to West Kirby, New Brighton and Rock Ferry. There were few places on their network of closely-spaced stations to attain their maximum speed, except for the open section between Moreton and Meols. All but one set were withdrawn and scrapped by 1985. The final set was used on special Merseyrail services until 1988; it was preserved and kept at the Electric Railway Museum near Coventry, until it moved on to the Locomotive Storage Ltd warehouse at Margate.
The British Rail Class 304 were AC electric multiple units designed and produced at British Rail's (BR) Wolverton Works.
The British RailClass 414 were two-car electric multiple units that were built between 1956 and 1963. They were withdrawn in 1995.
The British Rail Class 415 was a suburban 750 V DC third rail electric multiple unit commissioned by the Southern Region of British Railways. Built between 1951 and 1957, it became the most numerous class on the region after the withdrawal of the 4SUBs. The final trains were withdrawn in the 1990s, replaced by Class 455, 456, 465 and 466.
The British Rail Class 502 was a type of electric multiple-unit passenger train, originally built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at its Derby Works. Introduced in 1940 and withdrawn by 1980, they spent the whole of their working lives on the electrified railway lines north of Liverpool.
The British Rail Class 506 was a 3 carriage electric multiple unit (EMU) built for local services between Manchester, Glossop and Hadfield on the Woodhead Line, which was electrified in 1954 on the 1,500 V DC overhead system.
The LNER electric units were electric multiple units that ran on the Tyneside Electrics, a suburban system around the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1937 the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) received articulated twin passenger electric units to replace the NER electric units that had been built in 1904–15 by the North Eastern Railway. The order including some single-unit motor parcel vans and motor luggage vans. In the 1960s declining passenger numbers and the high cost of renewing life-expired electric substation equipment across the system led to the replacement of the electric multiple units with diesel multiple units and the units were all withdrawn in 1967.
The Tyneside Electrics were the suburban railways on Tyneside that the North Eastern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway electrified using the third rail system. The North Tyneside Loop was electrified from 1904 onwards and formed one of the earliest suburban electric networks; the South Tyneside line to South Shields via Pelaw was electrified in March 1938. British Railways converted these lines to diesel operation in the 1960s: the line to South Shields in January 1963 and the North Tyneside lines in June 1967 when the electrical supply infrastructure and the rolling stock had become life expired. In addition, the system was losing passengers and suffering from costly vandalism. Since the late 1970s, much of the system has been converted to form the Tyne and Wear Metro.
The Southern Railway (SR) and the British Railways used the designation Sub to cover a wide variety of electric multiple-unit passenger trains that were used on inner-suburban workings in the South London area. The designation 'Sub' was first officially used in 1941 to refer to newly built 4-car units. However, during the 1940s large numbers of earlier '3-Car Suburban Sets' were increased to four cars by the addition of an 'Augmentation' trailer, and became part of the 4-Sub category. The SR and BR (S) continued to build or else rebuild 4-car units to slightly different designs which became part of the 4-Sub Class. Many of these later examples survived in passenger use until late 1983, by which time British Rail had allocated to them TOPS Class 405.
The Taiwan Railway EMU100 series was a set of rail cars fabricated by British Rail Engineering Limited and the General Electric Company in 1976 that has operated in Taiwan. The alternating current electric multiple unit (EMU) fleet entered full squadron service in 1979, and was withdrawn from service in 2009. This class of railcars were the first to operate on the electric Tzu-Chiang Express. Due to the unit's British origin, rail buffs have variously nicknamed them "British Girl", "British Lady", or "British Grandma".
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.
