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[Trivia] Trains bought but nowhere to go...

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najaB

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The 380s that were transferred to E&G were originally bought for Glasgow Airport services that never started.
There are plenty of examples of stock bought for services that never materialised (I'm looking at you, Eurostar), but are there many other examples of stock being bought for *lines* that never got built?
 
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Ianno87

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The Edinburgh Tram fleet is sufficient to cover the whole route to Leith etc. which got dropped in the funding crisis on that scheme (but looks like will now finally get built)

Must be a Scotland thing...
 

IanXC

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Which were the long form 222s ordered for St Pancras to Leeds services?
 

najaB

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The Edinburgh Tram fleet is sufficient to cover the whole route to Leith etc. which got dropped in the funding crisis on that scheme (but looks like will now finally get built).
I thought of the trams, but in that case the line was built, just not as much as planned. So the stock is being used on the route it was bought for.
 

61653 HTAFC

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One could argue that a fair chunk of the fleet of Modernisation Plan DMUs were left without work after a few years, due to the Beeching cuts... ;)
 

Ianno87

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I thought of the trams, but in that case the line was built, just not as much as planned. So the stock is being used on the route it was bought for.

Same could be said for the 380s as per the OP - I don't think they were ever *only* intended for Glasgow Airport service?
 

najaB

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Same could be said for the 380s as per the OP - I don't think they were ever *only* intended for Glasgow Airport service?
A large part of the fleet was though. And the whole GARL line was cancelled, rather than being opened in two phases like with the trams.
 

NotATrainspott

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A large part of the fleet was though. And the whole GARL line was cancelled, rather than being opened in two phases like with the trams.

That's arguable. The GARL project involved two parts: capacity enhancements through Paisley, and the branch to the Airport. Only the latter was cancelled, and extra paths were made available for normal ScotRail services. The GARL allocation of 380s will have ended up on unremarkable extra ScotRail services.
 

randyrippley

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I'd argue that the majority of the type 2 fleet falls into the category of being built without a need. The premature scrapping of diesels (aka "standardisation") in the late 1960's and 1970's shows this well. The type 2 fleet simply became the backfill for the scrappings.
Then you have the class 15, much of the diesel shunter fleet, the Blue Pullmans, Hastings line units (converted to tadpoles), arguably the Tyneside EMU fleet (line rapidly de-electrified). And as noted above, much of the DMU fleet
 

Rail Blues

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The Edinburgh Tram fleet is sufficient to cover the whole route to Leith etc. which got dropped in the funding crisis on that scheme (but looks like will now finally get built)

Must be a Scotland thing...

ASFAIK the trams get rotated so they're all used, but less intensively that would have been the case. I don't think there's a collection of unused trams sitting in the depot covered by dust sheets that have never seen service.
 

underbank

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I'd argue that the majority of the type 2 fleet falls into the category of being built without a need. The premature scrapping of diesels (aka "standardisation") in the late 1960's and 1970's shows this well. The type 2 fleet simply became the backfill for the scrappings.
Then you have the class 15, much of the diesel shunter fleet, the Blue Pullmans, Hastings line units (converted to tadpoles), arguably the Tyneside EMU fleet (line rapidly de-electrified). And as noted above, much of the DMU fleet

Even before that, quite a lot of the "standards" steam locos built in the 50's had very short lives due to diesels being widely introduced before the last steam engines came out of the workshops.
 

43096

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A large part of the fleet was though. And the whole GARL line was cancelled, rather than being opened in two phases like with the trams.
“Large part”? Really? Given that the plan was for a 4tph service with journey time of 16 minutes, then it would need 4 units. 4 out of 38 is not a large part by any definition.
 

bramling

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There are plenty of examples of stock bought for services that never materialised (I'm looking at you, Eurostar), but are there many other examples of stock being bought for *lines* that never got built?

There's an S stock purchased for the Croxley Link. The extra train will probably prove useful over time though.
 

AY1975

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What about all the rolling stock built for the Nightstar services

There were also the Mark 3 sleeping cars: BR ended up buying more of them than were needed, as several Sleeper services were being withdrawn even as the coaches were being ordered and built, so some of them only saw a few years' service (and a few of them were exported to Denmark, but eventually returned to the UK).
 

61653 HTAFC

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There were also the Mark 3 sleeping cars: BR ended up buying more of them than were needed, as several Sleeper services were being withdrawn even as the coaches were being ordered and built, so some of them only saw a few years' service (and a few of them were exported to Denmark, but eventually returned to the UK).
Quite a few of the survivors are or were used for volunteer accommodation at heritage railways.
 

keith1879

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I'd argue that the majority of the type 2 fleet falls into the category of being built without a need. The premature scrapping of diesels (aka "standardisation") in the late 1960's and 1970's shows this well. The type 2 fleet simply became the backfill for the scrappings.
Then you have the class 15, much of the diesel shunter fleet, the Blue Pullmans, Hastings line units (converted to tadpoles), arguably the Tyneside EMU fleet (line rapidly de-electrified). And as noted above, much of the DMU fleet

Hang on ......the Blue Pullmans (especially the Midland ones) were built for a very specific purpose and fulfilled it. Similarly the Hastings units in general worked for many years doing exactly what they were built for. The tadpole conversions resulted from a drop in demand but they were only a small portion of the fleet. South Tyneside EMU fleet seems like a good call though.
 

Mikey C

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There's an S stock purchased for the Croxley Link. The extra train will probably prove useful over time though.

Yes, this extra trains is an S7 + 1 too, as it has the longitudinal seating of the S7.
 

43096

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Quite a few of the survivors are or were used for volunteer accommodation at heritage railways.
And five of the sleepers were converted to generator vans for Nightstar. So they have been "white elephants" twice over!
 

AY1975

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the Tyneside EMU fleet (line rapidly de-electrified).

The ex-Tyneside 2-EPBs were then transferred to the Southern Region. They were almost identical to the SR's own BR design 2-EPBs except that the ex-Tyneside units had a larger guard's compartment and therefore one less seating bay in the DMBS.
 

AY1975

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And five of the sleepers were converted to generator vans for Nightstar. So they have been "white elephants" twice over!

Does anyone know the whereabouts of any of these? I believe that one of them (96374) is still at Wabtec in Doncaster (or was last time I saw it). (See also the now closed threads on Mark 3 sleepers at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/mark-3-sleeping-cars.27381/ and on Nightstar stock at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/nightstar-power-question.57008/)
 

Polarbear

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Hang on ......the Blue Pullmans (especially the Midland ones) were built for a very specific purpose and fulfilled it. Similarly the Hastings units in general worked for many years doing exactly what they were built for. The tadpole conversions resulted from a drop in demand but they were only a small portion of the fleet. South Tyneside EMU fleet seems like a good call though.

Agreed about the Blue Pullman trains. Two x 6 car 1st class only sets built for the London to Manchester service that operated the route between 1960 & 1966.

The 3 x 8 car western region sets always operated on their intended area, although the routes did change over the course of their (short) career.
 

gazthomas

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Arguably the class 345's, with very many stored in Old Oak Common and elsewhere. Ironic that the stock was ready before the line, given the delays to rolling out stock elsewhere, the 710's being an example
 

Peter Mugridge

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Does anyone know the whereabouts of any of these? I believe that one of them (96374) is still at Wabtec in Doncaster (or was last time I saw it).


It is... Seen here on 20th May:
 

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martinsh

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Similarly the Hastings units in general worked for many years doing exactly what they were built for. The tadpole conversions resulted from a drop in demand but they were only a small portion of the fleet. .
I seem to recall reading that the drop in demand for Hastings units arose from no longer requiring a Bexhill portion after the branch to there closed ?
 
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