British Rail Class 455
The British Rail Class 455 is an electric multiple-unit passenger train built by BREL York between 1982 and 1985. They are operated on suburban services in South East England by South Western Railway and Southern.
The SR-style classification 4HIT was proposed for the class, but was rarely if ever used.
Description
The Class 455 was originally to be classified as the Class 510, at which point they were planned as a 750 V DC version of the. However, as the chopper control system at the time was not considered robust enough for the electrically rougher third rail Southern Region, they were fitted with second-hand camshaft control systems and thus classified as the 455 class.A total of 505 carriages were built by British Rail Engineering Limited's Holgate Road carriage works and together with 43 existing trailers from Class 508s, formed 137 four-car sets. The 455s allowed the and to be withdrawn, as well as allowing the Class 508s to be transferred to the Merseyside network for which they were originally intended. They also allowed other stock to be cascaded to the North London and Oxted lines.
There were three batches of Class 455s, all consisting of four cars: driving carriages at each end, an intermediate trailer vehicle and an intermediate motorised vehicle, all originally built to the standard class 3+2 seating arrangement with 316 seats. Technically, they are formed DTSO+MSO+TSO+DTSO. They have the same bodyshell as the and, but as they were designed for inner suburban services they do not feature first class seating, air conditioning or toilet facilities and are restricted to 75 mph. Like the Class 317/318, as well as the diesel, they are based on the British Rail Mark 3, with a steel construction, unlike the earlier PEP based,,, and, which had an aluminium alloy body.
Class 455/8
The Class 455/8s were built between 1982 and 1984. These include all 46 Southern units and 28 allocated to South Western Railway.Class 455/7
The Class 455/7s were built in 1984/85. There are 43 four-car units, all allocated to South Western Railway at Wimbledon depot. They differ from the 455/8s in having a revised front end that was later used on the Class 317/2 and.The 455/7s are easily distinguished from 455/8s as each TSO car is taken from a and has a noticeably different profile. The Class 508s transferred to Merseyrail were originally four-carriage trains but were reduced to three cars when transferred.
Class 455/9
The Class 455/9s were built in 1985. These 20 units are all allocated to South Western Railway at Wimbledon depot. These are similar to the 455/7s, except that they had new-build TSOs; except for 455912, which has a TSO formerly part of the prototype DEMU. 455913's MSO 67301 was formerly a Class 210 driving vehicle, with the one good end of vehicle 62838 mated with the former cab end. The rest of 62838 was scrapped.Operations
British Rail
Deliveries commenced in 1982 to Strawberry Hill. On 16 November 1982, 455805 was unveiled to the press at Waterloo station. The first entered service on 28 March 1983. All were initially allocated to Wimbledon depot working services on the Central and South Western divisions. The Central Division 455/8s were transferred to Selhurst in 1986 after modifications to the depot were completed. All were delivered in British Rail blue and grey livery; it had been anticipated that some or all 455/9s would be painted in a green variant of the 'Jaffa Cake' London & SouthEast livery, but this was overruled by the BR Design Panel. From 1986 all 455s were progressively repainted in Network SouthEast white, blue and red livery. In May 1991, 455743 was renumbered 455750 and renamed Wimbledon Traincare depot in recognition of the depot obtaining BS5750 quality services accreditation.In April 1994 in the lead up to the privatisation of British Rail, 455801-455846 were allocated to the Network SouthCentral shadow franchise and sold to Eversholt. The remainder were allocated to the South West Trains shadow franchise and sold to Porterbrook.
South West Trains / South Western Railway
In February 1996, all South Western division 455s were transferred to South West Trains. From September 1996, SWT began to modify the Network SouthEast livery with a Stagecoach orange brand added. In November 2004, SWT took delivery of the first unit refurbished by Bombardier, Ashford. The work involved the replacement of the seats with high back Grammar seats as fitted to the in 2+2 configuration, the doorways have modified so that the sliding doors can open further, and a predominantly red livery being adopted. The last was completed in March 2008.In April 2013 it was announced that the SWT units would be fitted with new traction equipment provided by Vossloh Kiepe. As part of the re-powering of the fleet, the air operated camshaft and electrical resistance grids will be removed, as well as the EE507 traction motors. The new equipment consists of DC to AC inverters of the Insulated-gate bipolar transistor type. This is needed as the replacement traction motors are AC rather than DC.
Fitting new traction equipment both improves Miles per Breakdown values and overall reduces operating and maintenance costs. As the trains will therefore be in the depot less, it will allow South West Trains to acquire Class 707 without the need to build a new depot.
All units passed to South Western Railway with the South Western franchise change in August 2017. They are used on most London commuter rail routes from London Waterloo to South West London and neighbouring areas.
Connex South Central / Southern
On 13 October 1996, the Network SouthCentral shadow franchise was taken over by Connex South Central with 455801-455846. In the late 1990s, 16 were repainted in Connex's white and yellow livery. In August 2001, the franchise passed to Southern with all 46 transferred. Some were repainted in Southern's white and green livery. Between February 2004 and February 2006, all were refurbished by Alstom, Eastleigh. New 3+2 high back seating as fitted to the and the removal of cab end gangways to facilitate the installation of driver's air-conditioning were notable features.A refresh programme started for the Southern units in June 2012. This included a repaint and interior changes, such as changes to the grab rails on the top between each door. 455808 was the first completed, followed by 455812 in August 2012. The project was completed in December 2014, 455801 being the last unit.
Another refurbishment programme begun in January 2018 for the 455s to become compliant with the PRM 2020 specifications with 455816 being the first one completed.
Southern Class 455 units are used on inner and outer suburban services out of London Victoria and London Bridge to destinations in South London and Surrey.
Accidents and incidents
- On 18 February 1990, unit 455820 collided with a fallen tree obstructing the line at and was derailed. Unit 5802 then collided with 5820.
- 2010 Oxshott rail accident: On 5 November 2010, a concrete mixer went over the edge of a bridge over the railway line near Oxshott station, landing on the 15:05 South West Trains service from Guildford to London Waterloo. The train was formed of two Class 455 units, 455741 and 455913. The end of the roof of the sixth carriage was severely crushed. Further damage was sustained to the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth carriages, with the latter being derailed at its trailing bogie, although the train remained upright. The lorry driver and one passenger suffered serious injuries; a further five passengers suffered minor injuries. Unit 455913 was repaired at Wolverton railway works, at a cost of £1.6 million, and returned to service in July 2013. It was also fitted with an ex driving vehicle which has been converted to an intermediate vehicle whilst retaining its existing number of 67301. Original vehicle 62838 was damaged beyond repair in the accident and was scrapped.
- On 7 July 2017, an explosion occurred in an underframe equipment case of unit 455901 at Guildford station. Debris was thrown up to away. No injuries occurred. The cause of the explosion was a faulty capacitor which had been fitted when the units' electrical equipment was upgraded. A manufacturing defect in the new traction equipment has caused three failures in service and five under test. Two of the failures in service involved unit 455726, the other involved unit 455901. In the most serious incident, on 7 July 2017, fragments, described as "quite sizeable" by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch, were scattered across platforms and an adjacent car park at Guildford station.
- On 15 August 2017, two Class 455 units formed part of a train with Class 456 unit 456015 which was derailed at London Waterloo. The cause of the accident was errors made in the wiring of the signalling during work to increase capacity at Waterloo. Neither of the Class 455 units was damaged.
Future