Class 305/1 withdrawal

[GospelOak117]

Hi can anyone tell me when the last inner-suburban 305/1's operated on the West Anglia lines out of London Liverpool St and what the last few units out of the 52 x 3 car fleet was? These were my local trains when I was very young and I loved them (hated the newer 315's that took over) but I cant remember when it was they finally disappeared.

Also there is very little info about on these units around, but I did read they did not go anywhere else - despite this I have seen a photo of one leaving Manchester on a Hazel Grove service in the early '90s in modified NSE livery with a blue stripe, so can anyone shine a light on the final days of these trains??? (just to clarify I am not talking about the 305/2's that ended up in Manchester and Edinburgh! )

 

[Bighat]

Hi can anyone tell me when the last inner-suburban 305/1's operated on the West Anglia lines out of London Liverpool St and what the last few units out of the 52 x 3 car fleet was? These were my local trains when I was very young and I loved them (hated the newer 315's that took over) but I cant remember when it was they finally disappeared.

Also there is very little info about on these units around, but I did read they did not go anywhere else - despite this I have seen a photo of one leaving Manchester on a Hazel Grove service in the early '90s in modified NSE livery with a blue stripe, so can anyone shine a light on the final days of these trains??? (just to clarify I am not talking about the 305/2's that ended up in Manchester and Edinburgh! )

IIRC there were 92 of these 3 car units, not 52. AFAIK unit 018 was/is in preservation. A further 8 3 car units were built for use on the Manchester-Altrincham line.

 

[O L Leigh]

Just goes to show that not everyone reads what the OP posts.

There were a total of just 71 Cl305 units built which were broken down into 52 Cl305/1 3 car units and 19 Cl305/2 4 car units, all of which were deployed on Great Eastern services in and out of Liv St. The original idea was that the 3 car units would operate inner suburban services to Chingford and Enfield Town while the 4 car units would be used on outer suburban workings to Bishops Stortford and Hertford East, although in practice they could be found working almost any service in and out of Liv St. However, none of these units were allocated as new to the Midland Region.

All the 3 car Cl305/1's were withdrawn during the 1980's when they were replaced by Cl315 EMU's. Only the 4 car Cl305/2's lasted longer, being cascaded to Manchester and Scotland when they were replaced on outer-suburban workings by the Cl317 EMU's following the electrification of the Bishops Stortford-Cambridge stretch of line in the late 1980's-early 1990's.

No Cl305 vehicles survive into preservation. There were hopes that the AC EMU Group would preserve a Cl305 driving trailer, but by the time sufficient funds had been raised they had all been scrapped. So instead they preserved Cl308 driving trailer 75881 from unit 308136 which is located at the Walthamstow Pump House Museum.

O L Leigh

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Didn't the Class 305s also use to work in multiple with Class 302s sometimes?

 

[GospelOak117]

Thanks for clearing that up O L, although I'm sure I remember a few refurbished examples still kicking around in the early 90's as I used to make my parents wait for a few 315's to pass so we could get a scabby old 305.
I have just found a picture similar to the one I meant, dated as late as 94!:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28082505@N03/2760425044/in/pool-class302-312

 

[pemma]

304s were appearing at Altrincham in the last days of electric trains (if the caption of 1990 is correct here): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altrincham_railway_station

 

[Helvellyn]

Some of the Class 305/1 units did make it to the North West due to delays in the deliveries of the Class 323 units. A couple were facelifted with Regional Railways seat covers (grey with dark and light blue splodges) and repainted into Regional Railway colours.

Some Class 305/2 units made it to the North West before the 305/1 units. They were repainted into GMPTE colours, and were used on the Picadilly-Manchester Airport-Crewe services. Five other 305/2 units were repainted into Regional Railway colours and were based at Glasgow Shields depot for use on the Edinburgh-North Berwick services.

Three 3-car 308 units (308453-455) were built to supplement the 305/1s, but were withdrawn in the late 1980s.

 

[87015]

I had 305403/416/420 out of Manchester all on 16/02/94, also plenty 3055xx's out aswell. Neither subclass of "Eastern rubbish" were well received as we were after 304s which were getting pretty thin on the ground by then.

305 of both types formed a common fleet with the remaining 304s and could be found on any EMU diagram out of Manchester and also on Crewe-Liverpool services. Not sure if they ever made it south of Stoke, I think the Stafford-Stoke tended to be resourced from the Birmingham end and I can't remember any 305s working down the Trent, that was solid 304/310/DMU territory. That said, as a 305 represented a bowl out its not likely I'd have a record of any 305 workings I wasn't on!