The Anonymous Widower

Before Overground – Class 317 Trains

The Class 317 trains are the workhorse of the suburban services out of Liverpool Street. Wikipedia says this about them.

The British Rail Class 317 electric multiple units (EMUs) were built by BREL York in two batches, from 1981–82 and 1985-87. They were the first of several classes of British Rail EMU to be based on the all-steel Mark 3 body-shell.

So they’re no spring chickens, but like actresses of a certain age, they scrub up well, as this picture of the interior shows.

Class 317 Interior

Being based on Mark 3 coaches, they also have a good body underneath, that rides better than many of the much more modern trains.

Plans are possibly afoot to refurbish and fit new traction equipment to some of these trains, but London Overground have said they will be replacing them in 2017.

But whatever happens on the Overground, these Class 317 trains may well be refurbished and find gainful employment somewhere else.

Having seen the superb way that South West Trains’ sister fleet of Class 455 trains have scrubbed up, I would be happy, if the Overground got a refurbished fleet of 317 trains. One of the Class 455 was involved in this incident at Oxshott. I wonder how some of the modern aluminium trains would survive the dropping of a 24 tonne cement truck on top from a height of several metres.

September 21, 2014 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Before Overground, Lea Valley Lines, London Overground, Trains