The Southern Railway created classification and numbering systems for its large fleet of electric multiple units, perpetuated by the Southern Region of British Rail until the early 1980s, when the impact of TOPS was felt. Some stock is still allocated Southern-style classifications in a semi-official manner.
The British Rail Class 489 (GLV) is a type of electric multiple unit, specially converted for use on Gatwick Express trains, from London Victoria to Gatwick Airport.
The British Rail Class 308 alternating current (AC) electric multiple units (EMU) were built by British Railways' Holgate Road carriage works in three batches between 1959 and 1961. They were initially classified as AM8 units before the introduction of TOPS.
The London Underground 1938 Stock was a London Underground tube stock design. A total of 1,121 cars were built by Metro-Cammell and Birmingham RC&W. An additional 173 cars were added to the fleet by the end of 1953, comprising 91 new builds, 76 conversions from Pre-1938 Tube Stock or 1935 Tube Stock, and six unconverted cars of 1935 Tube Stock, and the stock was used on the London Underground until 1988. During their long lives they worked on the Bakerloo, Northern, Piccadilly, East London, Central, and Northern City lines. Ten sets were refurbished and ran on the Isle of Wight as Class 483, making them the oldest passenger rolling stock operating timetabled services on the National Rail network at the time of their withdrawal in January 2021.
The British Rail Class 485 and British Rail Class 486 electrical multiple units were originally built for the London Electric Railway from 1923-31 as its 'Standard' tube stock. They were purchased by British Rail in 1967 and transported to the Isle of Wight to work 'mainline' services on the newly electrified Ryde to Shanklin line, where they worked for an additional quarter of a century. At the time of their purchase the units had already worked for over 40 years on the London Underground, but their introduction allowed the last steam locomotives on the line to be withdrawn.
The PEP Stock were prototype electric multiple units used on British Rail's Southern and Scottish Regions during the 1970s and early 1980s. They were forerunners of the British Rail Second Generation electric multiple unit fleet. Three units were built, one two-car unit (2001), and two four-car units (4001/4002). Under TOPS, the driving cars were originally classified as Class 461 with the non-driving motor cars as Class 462. They were later reclassified as Class 445 (4PEP) and Class 446 (2PEP).
The London Underground A60 and A62 Stock, commonly referred to as A Stock, was a type of sub-surface rolling stock which operated on the Metropolitan line of the London Underground from 12 June 1961 to 26 September 2012, and on the East London line from 1977 until 22 December 2007, when it closed to be converted into London Overground.
The London Underground D78 Stock, commonly referred to as D Stock, was a type of sub-surface rolling stock which operated on the District line of the London Underground, except on the Wimbledon to Edgware Road service. The first units were withdrawn in January 2015 with the last withdrawn on 21 April 2017.
The London Underground 1972 Stock is a type of rolling stock used on the London Underground. The 1972 Stock was originally ordered to make up the shortfall in trains on the Northern line's 1959 Tube Stock fleet, but is currently used on the Bakerloo line. Following the withdrawal of the 1938 Stock-based British Rail Class 483 EMUs from the Isle of Wight in 2021, the 1972 Stock are now the oldest trains in regular passenger service in the United Kingdom. A total of 63 seven-car trains were built in two separate batches.
The London Underground C69 and C77 Stock, commonly referred to as the C Stock, was a type of sub-surface rolling stock used on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines of the London Underground between 1970 and 2014. They were replaced by the S7 Stock.
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 London Underground S7 and S8 Stock, commonly referred to as S Stock, is a type of passenger train running on the London Underground's subsurface lines since 2010. Manufactured by Bombardier Transportation's Derby Litchurch Lane Works, the S Stock was ordered to replace the A60, A62, C69, C77 and D78 stock on the Metropolitan, District, Hammersmith & City, and Circle lines, which all dated from the 1960s and 1970s.
London Overground is a suburban rail network serving London and its environs. Established in 2007 to take over Silverlink Metro routes, it now serves a large part of Greater London as well as Hertfordshire, with 113 stations on the six lines that make up the network.
975025 Caroline, originally the Southern Region General Manager's Saloon, is an inspection saloon used for rail inspection duties on the railway network in Great Britain, and which has historically been used as a VIP excursion train on several occasions. The saloon carriage is notable for being used as the British Royal Train between London Waterloo and Romsey for the first part of the honeymoon trip following the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer on 29 July 1981. One year later on 28 May 1982, Caroline was the transport for Pope John Paul II's visit to the United Kingdom between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria station.
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.
The British Rail Class 230 D-Train is a diesel-electric multiple unit, diesel-battery electric multiple unit or battery electric multiple unit built by rolling stock manufacturer Vivarail for the British rail network. The units are converted from old London Underground D78 Stock, originally manufactured in 1980 by Metro-Cammell, and have been assigned the designation of Class 230 under TOPS.
Although the railway network in Great Britain has some of the smallest loading gauges in the world, the vast bulk of it is still capable of operating full sized vehicles. However, British Rail, together with its predecessors and successors have, on occasion, been required to operate passenger trains to an even smaller loading gauge and have, as a consequence, obtained rolling stock identical to that of the "deep tube" lines of London Underground; these are lines built using the tunneling shield method, that were, by necessity, smaller than those lines built using the cut-and-cover method. In 1892, a Parliamentary Committee headed by James Stansfeld recommended that such lines be in tunnels with a minimum diameter of 11 ft 6in. Two routes operated by British Rail required the use of such deep-tube rolling stock, the Waterloo & City Line in London, and the Island Line on the Isle of Wight.
The British Rail Class 316 was a proposed type of electric multiple unit intended for use on planned urban rail services in Greater Manchester. Intended as part of the family of EMUs descended from the prototype "PEP" stock, the class was never proceeded with as the planned services for which it was to be built were cancelled.
