Rule, Britannia! Yes, today i have chosen to show my fleet of British 00-gauge multiple units, all but one of which are two car sets.
First out is the Isle of Wight in the English Channel with its somewhat unique railway. Due to the low clearances in two tunnels along the route, normal sized rolling stock can not be used. Therefore the service is, since 1967, operated by former London Underground stock. First out on the island were the
Class 485 and 486 units, also known as Standard Stock. They lasted until 1992 when they were replaced by the Class 483, or 1938 stock, which is still in use today, and will be for some time. These are the cars i will show now, and the first set displays the very first paint scheme the Class 483's wore on the island, the Network SouthEast sector livery, worn up to the early 2000's.
(I only have one powered chassis and one trailing chassis, currently under the NSE bodies. They had to give up their pickup shoes though due to clearance issues. Ironic.)
After the privatisation of British Rail in 1996 the Island Line came under the control of the Stagecoach Group. As mentioned earlier though the cars continued to carry the NSE colours until the early 2000's when they were overhauled and repainted as shown below. This was done, i believe, to "promote" the amount of fossils found on the Isle of Wight. However, this livery was a bit problematic as the dinosaurs and scenery were just large decals, causing salt water to get caught between the decals and the metal body. This obviously lead to corrosion issues. Since 2007 this has been solved in a very nice way, which i will explain in just a little while.
In 2003, while all the other units wore the dinosaur livery, one unit (007) was outshopped in a completely different look: a heritage London Underground livery, complete with cream window trim, authentic "No smoking" roundels and London Underground gold lettering. The look is somewhat spoiled by the yellow warning panels on the ends, but they still look beautiful. One other unit (009) was repainted shortly after 007 so a full red four car train could be run. Since 2008, however, all of the remaining cars have also been repainted red at the same time that the corrosion damage mentioned earlier was fixed. It may also have come as a result of South West Trains actually purchasing the trains in 2007. But only unit 007 has the roundels and gold lettering.
The undercarriage of the Class 483 models is not 100% accurate as the manufacturer, Exclusive First Editions, have used the standard 1938 stock undercarriage. Before the cars were sent out to the Isle of Wight a lot of modifications were made as the equipment from three cars had to be fitted to just two. Anyway, here it is:
Next up is a very special London Underground car, 1959 stock Driving Motor 1030, in the 1920's heritage livery. A custom repainted EFE model, it was in real life one of seven cars, one three car unit and one four car unit, of 1959 stock painted in this livery to celebrate the Northern Line's 100th anniversary in 1990. I think it's just gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. At this moment i only have one of the cars. Will i add more? Only time will tell. More information on this train can be found
here.
All of the EFE cars shown above are sold as stationary display models, but can be motorised.
Last but not least, a diesel! Yes, a diesel multiple unit this time. More specifically, a British Rail Class 101 in the Rail blue livery of the 1980's. Nothing too special about this one, really. I purchased it because i'm a fan of British trains, and i love diesels. These cars were in service from 1956 to 2003, the oldest ones at that time being 47 years old. The model is made by Bachmann.
Power car:
Trailer:
I hope you enjoyed reading this. I hope to soon have more to show you.