Скачать или смотреть Gone, but not forgotten - Network SouthEast "Classic" Plastic Pigs

A short video of NSE liveried 442s, AKA "Plastic Pigs", at a time when they were relatively new having been delivered in 1988-1989 and before they were assimilated in to South West Trains corporate livery.

The first sequence is at Redbridge on the outskirts of Southampton during a rather fresh evening in December 1994. By pure chance wwo unidentified 442s pass Southampton Eastern Docks, the River Itchen at the same time. Just after that a class 150 DMU passes with a Portsmouth to Bristol service, I left that in because I couldn't find enough other 150 video to make anything about them specifically. A nice sunset is also seen across the site of the former Redbridge sleeper works and CCE depot which was slowly being demolished during 1994.

The second clip is of a pair of unidentified 442s heading south toward Buriton tunnel on 2nd March 1996. This location is now heavily overgrown and this view from the footpath than runs above the north tunnel portal is obscured by trees.

During this time the 442s were still in Network SouthEast livery and had not yet had the doors over the cab end air & electrical connections removed. These were almost certainly the last EMUs built in the Southern tradition of "upcycling" where parts from a previous generation of EMUs were reused in the next - in this instance the English Electric 546 traction motors and "1966" control equipment from the 4-REP units were installed in the 442s, along with the venerable Westinghouse DH25 compressor, fitted to almost every Southern EMU since the late 1930s. They were also the last trains in the UK - also the only Mk.3 vehicles - built with passenger compartments. Although the original traction equipment was replaced for their re-introduction on South Western Railway in late 2019, this was not enough justification for SWR to keep these units when Covid service reductions occurred and since March 2020 the whole fleet has been undergoing spare parts retrieval and scrapping at various locations.

One coach from these units that was earmarked for preservation due to its significant historic nature was declined by the National Railway Museum.

[Hi8 source]

Redbridge 27/12/94
Buriton 2/3/96