British Rail Network SouthEast-Southend & Shoeburyness 1988

A BR Network SouthEast vid now from sunny Essex! We see the old slam door class 302, 305 & 308 EMU's at Shoeburyness & Southend Central. The signalling back then was the late 50s/early 60s searchlight signals & boxes with NX panels, which were in dire need of replacement and whose regular failings gave the line its 'Misery Line' tag! At Shoeburyness we arrive after the morning peak and see units shunting to & from the extensive sidings there while at Southend Central we see units stabled between the peaks and the Southend Reversers using the Up Side bay. If you liked the video please subscribe to my channel, there are lots more transport & quirky vids to upload!

[@kirkwitney2919]

Omg that was me working the signal box so cool to see. I worked lts from 85 to 91. I know it's me at that time I was youngest signalman in box skinny and t-shirt jeans it was me 😂😂

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

You must know Loren Fields then?..... A friend of my Dad's, who started on the LTS as a box boy in the early 1960s....

[@kirkwitney2919]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Oh yes i worked with Loren, he lived in stanford I think. He had signals in his back garden.

[@shuntdaddy8301]

@@kirkwitney2919 hi Kirk your right and he still has I was ldc rep with him and Dennis and was signalling at Purfleet for a time

[@djpeekay25]

Love the look of the 305s

[@djpeekay2370]

Used to travel from Barking a lot with my Gran and see these passing through. Am I imagining it, or were the peak jour services 12 car trains?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Some of them were indeed 12 car trains and some of them non stop at Barking! I remeber Barking as all blue BR units and red or white District Line CO/CP and R Stock trains. All sort of warm musty smelling with the BR units smelling of brakes. Strange things we remember from childhood.....

[@djpeekay2370]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus yes totally agree. I think there were 5 BR platforms including th Gospel ok line, then you had the Hammersmith and city line one further down.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@djpeekay2370 Gospel Oak line???? In the 1970s it was the Kentish Town line! lol...I rode to Kentish Town with my Dad back i think in 1981 on the last day they went there. After that it was indeed the Gospel Oak service.

[@TheDaf95xf]

Lots of yellow faces 🤣🤣 Manchester area has the 304s lol 😆

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

And later on it had the 305s & 309's! See my upload here kzbin.info/www/bejne/g33TgayMnLuJb9k

[@shoestompergingerjon9300]

once rode on one of these trains, was back in 1995, just after they had replaced the signals with the curret system. was just before the new stock arrived in 2000. but I wasn't a regular commuter so I had little experience of those trains. alas was only a teen at the time, although I lived opposite the station shown at the end of the vid. really miss the nostalga of the BR days.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

You may have just got one of the last refurb 302s, the rest of the stock by 1995 was class 310 & 312s, also slam door. Lovely trains, I enjoyed riding them....

[@SuperRolyPoly]

Travelled on this line a lot in the 1960/70's. Thought the units were very comfortable to ride on. As to problems on the line, l never experienced any. Maybe it went down hill when l moved 😁

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

The units were very comfortable, seats to really sink into (we don't get 'em like that anymore....) but it was all new in the 60s and still on top form in the 70s (when i rode on this line a lot for trips to Southend & Chalkwell). But by the 80s the age of the equipment ws beggining to show and at the end of the decade there were a lot of failures.

[@trainrover]

I've l o n g forgot what elements could be walked through and which you couldn't.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Refurb 302s and the 310 & 312s you could walk within unit but not between two coupled together

[@Keithbarber]

You can tell how old this footage is, the units had 1st class accommodation Refurbished units had 1st class in the driver carriages and non refurbished in the composite trailers In the latter you only had pull down armrests as "extras"

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

When i went out to film these very few, if any had been refurbished. All quality, as built traction!

[@Ben-xe8ps]

From my memory as a child in the 1960's. these units had quite nice looking 1st class corridor compartments although we never travelled 1st class! I recall that there were still 'single' compartments (i.e. completely closed compartments with no corridor access) in 2nd class and one of these compartments in every unit was Ladies Only.

[@waleedarif6740]

Class 302s were strong. They did not deserve to be withdrawn.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

By the time the last ran they had been in service for around 35 years which is a fair service life.....

[@waleedarif6740]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Would have been nicer if they had still been around and lasted up until 2030 because a lot of countries keep their old trains in service for more then half a century.

[@petersmith4455]

hi agree with you,the 302s were just great.but due to clown activity and privatisation this is what happens

[@OlafProt]

@@waleedarif6740 I suspect the issue there would be if there was an accident involving 35+ year old rolling stock the public/media/internet would be up in arms! E.g. Cannon Street crash which had it been newer stock possibly wouldn’t have been fatalities

[@markpoole4187]

never saw any 302s was too late getting to London to see any they look good though another excellent vid

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you. They were good, solid built BR EMU stock like the EPB's &DEMU's.

[@petersmith4455]

great video. the 302s look great in the br blue and grey. they and the other slam door trains sadly missed because of clown activity in the govenment.but i believe there is a 302 unit at Mangapps Farm railway museum

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, i think Mangapps has a couch or two from a 302 (or possibly a 307).....

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@xxcloud8745xxx slippy fingers on the keyboard late at night!

[@KashouWannabe]

My hometown. My childhood era.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Do you remember these old slam door trains though?.....

[@KashouWannabe]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I'm 37, so yes. Though I am more familiar with the Network Southeast livery.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@KashouWannabe When i was growing up and going for days out to Southend the BR units were all over blue, the District Line stock was white or red and Southend had old half cab buses running along the seafront. Have you seen my Southend Routemaster vid here? kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnnOfYOkfJJ-b9k

[@rogerclark5869]

Another great video hope you have many more to come. Any ECML South of Peterborough? Please

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I will see what i have, there's quite a few around the Potters Bar area, probably only have as far north as Hitchin, as well Peterborough itself.

[@rogerclark5869]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Thanks would love to see Hitchin. You must have loads of videos

[@RedArrow73]

While this vid is fantastic, my prime interest is Route Learners.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I don't have too much of that but do have an occasional cab view here & there.

[@QuarioQuario54321]

What were some places were sliding door trains were common at the time?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

In 1988 there were lots of routes with sliding door EMU stock, none on the LTS line at this time. The Great Eastern had class 315 EMUs on the Liv St-Shenfield service.

[@Keithbarber]

The 321 fleet for southend Victoria first appeared in 1989

[@timstrainvideos142]

fantastic footage!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you. Was everyday life when I filmed it but I knew there days were numbered.

[@annescholey6546]

What MC Metals did to these fine trains was an absolute disgrace in 1997.

[@TimTim-jf3pk]

Anne Scholey who was Mc metals did they break up trains

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@TimTim-jf3pk Yes! In Glasgow, and they specialised in asbestos contaminated stock which i believe the non refurbished 302s had still.

[@robinpinnock2678]

Thanks for posting this; shot five years before my own video, and with a decent camera!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@robinpinnock2678 My pleasure. In 1985 i splurged on a Panasonic M1 video camera, it took full sized E180 tapes. Which meant no copying what i filmed so that kept the quality up, and it was quite large (compared to todays small cameras) but sat nicely on my shoulder and was steady. It allowed me to pan up & down easily as well!

[@robinpinnock2678]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I had to carry my equipment on a bicycle, so it had to be compact, but I did use a folding shoulder support, which was next best to a full sized shoulder cam.

[@melanierhianna]

My Dad used to ride the misery line every day for decades. Then we moved to the midlands.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I don't suppose his commuting got much better if it was around this time, the Birmingham Cross City Line was worked by DMU's also at the end of their lives!