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Seeing the stored 508s at Eastleigh

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sburnley

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I'm planning to visit Eastleigh by train on Tuesday 17th July. I wondered if it was possible to see the stored 508s from a public, legal, vantage point within reasonable walking distance of the station.
 
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Schnellzug

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I couldn't vouch for what you might be able to see, or whether they are in fact visible outside, but the road bridge that goes over the main line at the Airport end that leads to the works & the depot is a public road and gives a decent view of the works yard*. If you trun left out of the station & follow the road down, you can get to it that way. Otherwise you might be able to try from a train on the Eastleigh-Fareham line that goes past the works.

* Campbell Road, it's called.
 

12CSVT

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Even from Campbell Road you'll probably need a powerful telephoto lens if you're photting them (or good pair of binoculars if you're taking numbers).
 

fgwrich

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Not only that, but things will get shunted around the yard almost on a daily basis - The roads leading to KRS's building, formerlly the Van Shops, are usualy used to stable Network Rails 57s on amongst other things which will then reduce any sight further into the yard.
 
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When the 508's joined the 507's on merseyside, all of the MU's saw use for nearly 30 years. Now, with a bunch of them sitting idle down south, does this mean merseyrail run less services now. As far as I can see, they have more route miles these days than they did in the 80's. Any explanations?
 

jopsuk

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I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure these 508s have never been north? They stayed in the south, on Watford DC, North London Line and Southeastern services
Edit: I am wrong. They came south in the 90s.
 

John55

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When the 508's joined the 507's on merseyside, all of the MU's saw use for nearly 30 years. Now, with a bunch of them sitting idle down south, does this mean merseyrail run less services now. As far as I can see, they have more route miles these days than they did in the 80's. Any explanations?

Merseyrail run significantly fewer trains in peak hours now than in the past and the other change is that few Wirral trains are run as 6 car units in the peak these days.

The whole fleet of 508s was only in use on Merseyside until 1993, so only about 7 years.

The days when there were 43 EMUs on the Wirral and 68 on the Southport and Ormskirk lines are long gone!
 

prod_pep

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During the late 90s in the lead up to privatisation, the Northern Line of Merseyrail took a hit with major reductions. Naturally this tied in with the fleet gradually being culled from 76 units to just 53. The Southport line, which had earlier in the decade seen all-day 6 car operation and a 7/8 minute peak hour interval, was reduced to just a handful of pairs during the busiest times. The Ormskirk and Kirkby lines, too, lost some of their 6 car workings in the peaks. There are now eight paired sets on the Northern Line during both morning and evening peak (5/6 on the Southport route and 3/2 on the Ormskirk route respectively), with a couple of complementary workings on the Southport route.

The Wirral Line was less affected, as it did always requiring fewer units on a daily basis, although the number of 6 car services here in the peak times were too whittled down. Nowadays just one pair runs during evening peak and three in the morning.
 

BestWestern

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I passed the works a few days ago and it was possible to see one of these stores sets, but only at quite a distance. I was on a train heading to Fareham via Botley, which tends to offer the best vantage point but of course comes with the disadvantage of being a rather brief glimpse! There were a pair of NR 57s in the foreground, and a few other bits and bobs sat around, as there always are. But it does change on a regular basis.

There is an office block building at the front of the works (Southampton Road end) which is permanently for lease. Perhaps we should assemble a group and rent one out for some train watching!
 

sburnley

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Thanks for the information. It does not seem likely that I'll be able to identify any of them - never mind!
 

BestWestern

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I would think if you take some binoculars you might be able to identify something.
 

fgwrich

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I passed the works a few days ago and it was possible to see one of these stores sets, but only at quite a distance. I was on a train heading to Fareham via Botley, which tends to offer the best vantage point but of course comes with the disadvantage of being a rather brief glimpse! There were a pair of NR 57s in the foreground, and a few other bits and bobs sat around, as there always are. But it does change on a regular basis.

There is an office block building at the front of the works (Southampton Road end) which is permanently for lease. Perhaps we should assemble a group and rent one out for some train watching!

Ah, but not all of the floors are for lease, As that's also Arlington Fleet Services HQ. ;)

(In a way though, i wish St Modwen would fix the clock at the top of the building!)
 

Manchester77

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Just to clarify, is Eastleigh the big railway works where hey store trains and locos that aren't being used on the mainline or am I thinking of somewhere else?
 
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