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Trivia: Oldest design of rolling stock to enter service as new

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py_megapixel

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The inspiration behind this thread was a comment in reference to the M5000 trams in Manchester.
The first M5000s were ordered in 2007, meaning the design is approximately 14 years old, but there are still new ones entering service now.

Any other examples of rolling stock which has been delivered to a very old design/specification?
 
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skyhigh

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Not as great an age difference, but there was still a significant age gap between the original 390s and the follow on order.
 

swt_passenger

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Not as great an age difference, but there was still a significant age gap between the original 390s and the follow on order.
Weren‘t there new SR Mk1 coach based EMUs built new, long after the coaches themselves would have been considered obsolescent?
 
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Additional Class 390s were delivered in 2010-12 (four new sets - 390154 to 390157, plus additional carriages to extend exsisting 31 sets to 11 cars), some 11 years after the first units were constructed.

Second batch of Class 432 EMUs and Class 438 TCs were constructed in 1974, eight years after the first batch.
The DMSO vehicles were the last Mk1s to be constructed after some 20 years.
 

adc82140

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Has to be the replacement LU C stock carriages in 2008,41 years after the first ones.
 

507020

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Second batch of Class 432 EMUs and Class 438 TCs were constructed in 1974, eight years after the first batch.
The DMSO vehicles were the last Mk1s to be constructed after some 20 years.
I was thinking of these. Also

Class 312, the last 1st generation AC EMUs entered service 2 years after the first 2nd generation Class 313s.

Class 350/3 and 350/4, built 10 years after the first batch of 350/1s.

Class 503, first batch LMS 1938, second batch BR 1956, although no development during the war.

Probably the most extreme example is going back a bit but the first batch of North Eastern Railway Class E1 steam locomotives was ordered in 1898. Later batches were ordered to an identical design in 1925 by the LNER, who reclassified it as the J72 and the last was built by BR in 1951, to a 53 year old design!
 

edwin_m

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I was thinking of these. Also

Class 312, the last 1st generation AC EMUs entered service 2 years after the first 2nd generation Class 313s.

Class 350/3 and 350/4, built 10 years after the first batch of 350/1s.

Class 503, first batch LMS 1938, second batch BR 1956, although no development during the war.

Probably the most extreme example is going back a bit but the first batch of North Eastern Railway Class E1 steam locomotives was ordered in 1898. Later batches were ordered to an identical design in 1925 by the LNER, who reclassified it as the J72 and the last was built by BR in 1951,The 31 to a 53 year old design!
The 312 was a minor update on the 310 from 10 years or so before. However I think the gap between the first and last Mk1 coaches was longer than that.

I suspect some of the GWR steam loco designs would have been produced over a longer period than any of these.
 

DanNCL

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Class 66, the last ones were delivered in 2016, the first were delivered 18 years earlier in 1998, whilst the same bodyshell was used on the 59s which were first delivered in 1986, 30 years before the last 66s with that bodyshell were delivered.

The inspiration behind this thread was a comment in reference to the M5000 trams in Manchester.
The first M5000s were ordered in 2007, meaning the design is approximately 14 years old, but there are still new ones entering service now.
The M5000 design is even older than that - the M5000s are a slightly modified version of the K5000 trams used in Cologne, which first entered service in 2002 and as with the M5000s are still being built today.
 

Journeyman

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Weren‘t there new SR Mk1 coach based EMUs built new, long after the coaches themselves would have been considered obsolescent?
The very last Mark 1 outline passenger vehicles to be built were the second batch of 4-REP motor coaches in 1974 - the Mark 1 design was 23 years old by then, and the first Mark 3s had already appeared.
 

Tobbes

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I was thinking of these. Also

Class 312, the last 1st generation AC EMUs entered service 2 years after the first 2nd generation Class 313s.

Class 350/3 and 350/4, built 10 years after the first batch of 350/1s.

Class 503, first batch LMS 1938, second batch BR 1956, although no development during the war.

Probably the most extreme example is going back a bit but the first batch of North Eastern Railway Class E1 steam locomotives was ordered in 1898. Later batches were ordered to an identical design in 1925 by the LNER, who reclassified it as the J72 and the last was built by BR in 1951, to a 53 year old design!
Joem would be my winner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NER_Class_E1
 

Journeyman

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London Underground's R Stock was built and converted over quite a long period. The oldest vehicles were converted from Q Stock cars built in 1938, but the final vehicles were fundamentally built to the same design, with a few minor alterations, in 1959.
 

507021

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I think the Isle of Man Railway is in with a shout.

Locomotives 1 to 3 arrived in 1873, locomotive 16 in 1926. I make that 53 years.

Edit: I'm not sure if this counts, but the Manx Electric Railway 19-22 batch was first built in 1899. A replica body for 22 was built in 1991 after the original was destroyed by fire. If it does count, then that's a gap of 92 years.
 
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Strathclyder

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Not nearly as extreme as some of the examples already cited, but the 2nd batch of Class 20s immediately sprung to mind when I saw the thread.
 

Doomotron

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The SR Mark 1 EMUs were derived from the 4CORs, which were built from 1937, and the last 4REPs were built in 1974, so a design life of 37 years.
 

superjohn

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Depending on your take on the question, the Turbostar (built up to 2005) is essentially the same basic design as the Networker Turbo introduced in 1990. The design has evolved over the years but I would consider the class 172 with mechanical transmission as the point it became a truly different type.

The mark 3 bodyshell design also had a fairly long production life starting with the HST prototype in 1972 up to the class 325 in 1995/6.
 

Journeyman

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The SR Mark 1 EMUs were derived from the 4CORs, which were built from 1937, and the last 4REPs were built in 1974, so a design life of 37 years.
The 4-CORs and subsequent BR third rail main line EMUs were nothing like each other.
 

Gloster

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The first of the SE&CR design four-wheeled luggage vans (later PMV) appeared in 1919 and the last in 1951.
 
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Class 503 - first ones where 1938. Later batch was 1956 (18 years)
Class 405 (Steel body) - first ones where 1941. Last where 1951. (WW2 was inbetween)

Would agreee with Superjohn about the networker/Turbostar as that had a long run but the body shell was fairly similar.
 

3141

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The design of London Transport's 1962 stock, though built of aluminium, was largely based on the 1938 stock which was based on the 1935 experimental stock.
 

Journeyman

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The design of London Transport's 1962 stock, though built of aluminium, was largely based on the 1938 stock which was based on the 1935 experimental stock.
I did think that. They were technically a bit more advanced and had a few updates and changes internally, but essentially they're very similar trains. Shows how fundamentally good the design was in the first place.
 

Bevan Price

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Not quite as long as the NER E1/LNER Class J72, but
Fowler M.R./LMSR Class 4F 0-6-0. First locos built 1911, final locos built in 1941.
 

Versa274

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Weren‘t there new SR Mk1 coach based EMUs built new, long after the coaches themselves would have been considered obsolescent?
The later build (second batch)of the 4Reps 3011-3015 were new in 1974 the first batch partly built in 1966/67 and the intermediate cars were 1950s is a scenario?

The HST (1975/82)?
The Reps DMS second batch (1974) whilst others 67/68 and intermediate cars are from the 1950s?
 
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