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Will there ever be any slam-door EMU rail tours?

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Class 33

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Surely they haven't scrapped every single one of these beauties? Surely they've kept a few for preservation? If a few are preserved, is it likely that there will be a rail tour with them in the not too distant future?
 
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Oracle

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The problem is going to be with regard to the derogation from the ban on 'Mk 1' stock because of safety concerns. That is why the 3-CIGs cannot run in service to / from Branksome to Brockenhurst, though of course they have the fitted door locks. However, isn't there a suggestion that the unit at Eastleigh works could be used in the future? All that said Hastings Trains have got round the problem, so anything must be possible. Also the DMMUs (Bubble Cars) are coverdd by the same diktats so I repeat what I just said.
 

yorksrob

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I certainly hope so! I'm not sure why MK 1 EMU's are barred from the network but other loco hauled MK 1's are exempted. I suspect it's more of an administrative oversight (although I'm sure someone on here will be able to enlighten me :)). In the meantime there are various EMU's around the place - it's more of a question of getting the exemptions in place. Maybe the Lymington GIG's will be allowed to run a railtour around the South before they're retired.
 

TEW

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MK1 coaching stock is only allowed when either an empty MK1 carriage or a MK2/3 carriage is provided at the end of the train for safety reasons.
 

yorksrob

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MK1s have a habit of going up in the air and tearing apart, hence the ban.

I am aware of this, Though I see plenty of rakes of Mk 1's around the place for loco hauled railtours. Perhaps the loco at one end provides an element of safety whilst a Mk 2 is used at the other end.

That aside, It does seem curious that I'm allowed to jump off a bridge with a giant elastic band tied around my crotch, jump out of a plane with nothing but a very large tablecloth strapped to my backside, ride a motorcycle down the A1M amidst various high speed juggernaughts, catch a plane anywhere, in spite of the fact that if it crashes in the sea, everyone will probably die etc etc, yet if I and a group of like minded enthusiasts want to take a Mk 1 railtour around a fully interlocked, fully signalled railway network, we're suddenly not allowed! (end of rant)
 

theblackwatch

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The Mk. 1 exemption rule (with a few exceptions) does not allow fare paying passengers to be carried in the end vehicles of the formation if it is a Mk. 1 vehicle. Hence why railtours will often have a Mk. 2 coach at the end of a Mk. 1 rake to provide a buffer zone, a loco at the rear will also suffice. Luckily HDL managed to get an exemption because HMRI were happy that the power unit was enough of a buffer zone, which allows people to still travel in the (end) power cars, but no access to the guard's van - see http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/mrk1-hastingsmk1r4cert.pdf for more info.
 

yorksrob

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Perhaps we could use an MLV at either end of the railtour (I know there are a few knocking about!)
 

yorksrob

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The Mk. 1 exemption rule (with a few exceptions) does not allow fare paying passengers to be carried in the end vehicles of the formation if it is a Mk. 1 vehicle. Hence why railtours will often have a Mk. 2 coach at the end of a Mk. 1 rake to provide a buffer zone, a loco at the rear will also suffice. Luckily HDL managed to get an exemption because HMRI were happy that the power unit was enough of a buffer zone, which allows people to still travel in the (end) power cars, but no access to the guard's van - see http://www.rail-reg.gov.uk/upload/pdf/mrk1-hastingsmk1r4cert.pdf for more info.

Yeah, those engines are pretty chunky ! I'd recommend travelling in the power car salloon if you get the opportunity as the sound effects are supurb - Thumper engines and EP brakes :)
 

theblackwatch

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Yeah, those engines are pretty chunky ! I'd recommend travelling in the power car salloon if you get the opportunity as the sound effects are supurb - Thumper engines and EP brakes :)

I did just that a few years ago when I travelled on 1001 when it was on hire to Northern Spirit for some Middlesbrough-Whitby additionals - quite an outrageous working for a DEMU on service trains!
 

yorksrob

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I did just that a few years ago when I travelled on 1001 when it was on hire to Northern Spirit for some Middlesbrough-Whitby additionals - quite an outrageous working for a DEMU on service trains!

I wish I'd been on that ! I'm hoping they'll re-run the long thin drag someday as well:) I didn't realise they'd had it on service trains so far North though!
 

SouthEastern-465

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The ones that are preserved are the Network SouthEast Rail Societys 4-CIG 1753.

The EPB preservation Sociaty 4-CEP,MLV,and 2-EPB at the east kent railway.

Other 4-CIGs which are preserved are at the,Great Central Railway,Dartmoor Railway,and Dean Forest Railway.

Other MK1 EMU's are preserved elsewhere but I cant name them all as there are so many.
Regards
 

Class 33

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Thanks for the replies. It is a shame that they're banned from the network for the reasons mentioned. I really hope there is a way round this rule i.e. like put an MLV on the end, and that in the near future a number of slammer railtours could run. I for one would certainly book a ticket for such a tour! These plastic EMU things nowadays just aren't the same. Bring back the proper EMU's!

I have a couple more questions:

1) Which classes of the old slammers still survive(unscrapped) today?

2) Are the Lymington GIG's still running on the Lymington branch? If so, when are they due to be taken out of service on this line?
 

Aictos

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Well as long as special permission is given, I'm sure a formation of the following would be quite interesting not to mention popular!

3CIG - 4 VEP - 3CIG

3417 (4Vep) owned by the Bluebell Railway and the two Lymington 3 Cigs 1497 and 1498

Seeing as the 3CIGs are cleared already on the mainline, this should do away with the need to have a MLV or a GLV at each end.

And course running over a weekend over it's old routes, what do you guys think?
 

Class 33

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Funny you should ask that - the Southern Electric Group has a page which lists the Slammers around the place:

http://www.southernelectric.org.uk/segpreservation.html

Also there are a couple of VEP's at Chart Leacon which are used as shunters.

The Lymington CIG's are still there but will probably be withdrawn sometime soon :(

Cheers. I might go down there pretty soon to have a go on them. Bit of a short but sweet 10 minute journey from Brockenhurst-Lymington Peir. But it's better than nothing.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Well as long as special permission is given, I'm sure a formation of the following would be quite interesting not to mention popular!

3CIG - 4 VEP - 3CIG

3417 (4Vep) owned by the Bluebell Railway and the two Lymington 3 Cigs 1497 and 1498

Seeing as the 3CIGs are cleared already on the mainline, this should do away with the need to have a MLV or a GLV at each end.

And course running over a weekend over it's old routes, what do you guys think?

Sounds like a great idea! How do we go ahead and push for this to REALLY happen?
 

matt

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The owner of Knights Rail Services (http://www.rail-services.net/) has bought a 4-Cig 1881 that is being restored and will eventually be back out on the mainline. I think he also owns 1 or 2 other slammers.
 

yorksrob

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Well as long as special permission is given, I'm sure a formation of the following would be quite interesting not to mention popular!

3CIG - 4 VEP - 3CIG

3417 (4Vep) owned by the Bluebell Railway and the two Lymington 3 Cigs 1497 and 1498

Seeing as the 3CIGs are cleared already on the mainline, this should do away with the need to have a MLV or a GLV at each end.

And course running over a weekend over it's old routes, what do you guys think?

The 3 CIG's are cleared to run on the mainline, but not with passengers on them - so the MLV's would be required. That said, they certainly wouldn't look out of place. Personally I've a hankering for a bit of VEP travel. Especially as I've spent so much time over the years on them. I'd also like to travel on an EPB around London again as it's been a long time!

A CIG - VEP - CIG formation was very popular on the Sussex Slammer in 2005 so I suspect some of those who went on it would be up for another run:)
 

317729

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talking of slammers didnt a group save a 310 or 312 set? Id love to see that on a tour. I grew up on them.
 

yorksrob

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I'd love to go on one of those - the only electric slammers north of the river I've been on were the good old 308's in West Yorks. It has to be said they tried a bit harder with the front end design than on our Southern ones
 

LondonLarry

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Thanks for the replies. It is a shame that they're banned from the network for the reasons mentioned. I really hope there is a way round this rule i.e. like put an MLV on the end, and that in the near future a number of slammer railtours could run. I for one would certainly book a ticket for such a tour! These plastic EMU things nowadays just aren't the same. Bring back the proper EMU's!

I have a couple more questions:

1) Which classes of the old slammers still survive(unscrapped) today?

2) Are the Lymington GIG's still running on the Lymington branch? If so, when are they due to be taken out of service on this line?

They're being withdrawn from May 2010 - see SWT's webchat, Question 32
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/NR...AF5-AF1A5B34570B/0/LCAug09_FullTranscript.pdf
 

Class 33

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Well I find it ridiculous that for 40 years these slam-door EMU's were running on the UK network. Yet now they're apparantly banned! Absolutely absurd! They should at least lift the ban for an organised rail tour.

It's good that the GIG's are still (currently) being used on the Lymington branch at least though. Albeit it's an all too short journey at just 10 minutes and the train doesn't exactly go at any great speed. I'll have to go down there to make what could well be my very last journey on a slammer. Only thing is how do I know that they'll definitely be running? I've read that on some days Class 158's and 450's are being used instead. I'd hate to get down there only to find that the GIG's aren't being used on that day.

I hope when the GIG's are retired from the Lymington service, that they are at least preserved rather than scrapped.
 
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Aictos

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Here's one for you guys to think about, providing the SWT 3CIGs are still cleared to run on the main line which they should be - does anyone fancy the idea of one last special going from Waterloo to some SWT destination?
 

Class 33

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Here's one for you guys to think about, providing the SWT 3CIGs are still cleared to run on the main line which they should be - does anyone fancy the idea of one last special going from Waterloo to some SWT destination?

Yes that would be great. But let's hope it does actually happen. An all day railtour(early departure/late evening arrival back, with a few hours break at some location) would be absolutely FANTASTIC. At the very least though I'm hoping for at least some tour which offers at least an hour or so journey each way and the trains can really get up to some decent fast running.

I went to Lymington Pier yesterday to ride on these beauties. And it was great to ride on them again, a little over four years since I was last aboard one of the slammers. To me they are a hell of a lot more enjoyable to ride on than these newer plastic things now. The louder engine sounds(allways good), the older carriages(I hate these modern units with overly bright carriage lighting), the much more comfortable seats. It was all too short a journey though onboard these yesterday. Only really about four or five minutes in each direction that the train was running at a half decent speed(due to the max linespeed of 50mph). Was great, but just all too short really. And I'm just very hungry for a nice long distance journey on them where the train can get up to decent speeds. Just hope that one day this is possible.

I did make a number of journeys aboard the slammers during their last few years. Though wish I made more. These units are very sorely missed!

As mentioned previously, I hope when the Lymington CIG's are (sadly) retired from service that they will be preserved and looked after well, hence making a tour with them a possibility. Rather than being scrapped. It will be very sad to hear if these are scrapped.

Looking through the list of railtours, there's lots of diesel and steam loco tours. Which is all very well. But there could do with there being some EMU and DMU tours, as well as tours using electric loco's. Also now that the Valenta HSTS's are out of services, some tours featuring them would be great!
 

yorksrob

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I'd love it if they did a tour starting at Waterloo, travelling to Guildford via Ascot and Aldershot, then down the main line to Portsmouth for a stop, then along the coast (or reversing via Eastleigh) to Southampton, continuing to Weymouth followed by a non-stop run along the mainline to Waterloo. Then if time permits perhaps a little pootle down one of the suburban branches and back :)

Unfortunately I was a bit skint in 2005 so the only farewell railtour I managed at that time was the Sussex Slammer.
 

dave12435

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it should certainly be possible
if the hastungs diesels can run on main line then surely so can the slam door electrics
 
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