British Rail Class 415
| British Rail Class 415 | |
|---|---|
 4EPB set at Wimbledon. | |
| Specifications | |
| Braking system(s) | Electro Pneumatic Brake (EPB) |
British Rail Class 415 (or 4EPB) was a suburban 750V DC third rail electric multiple unit commissioned by the Southern Region of British Railways. Built between 1951 and 1957, it became the most numerous class on the region after the withdrawal of the 4Subs. The final trains were withdrawn in the 1990s, replaced by Class 455, 456, 465 and 466
The British Rail designation Class 415 was applied to a group of four coach, 3rd rail electric multiple units constructed between 1951 and 1961 and in service from 1951 to 1995.
Construction
The 4EPB units (4-car Electro-Pneumatic Brake) were a development of the Southern Railway (SR) 4Sub design, but incorporating electro-pneumatic brakes, unit-to-unit buckeye couplings, roller blind headcode displays in place of the stencil holders used previously, and without external doors to the driver's cab. There were motor-generators for the lighting and current control whereas previous practice had been to use series lighting and a voltage divider for the control circuits.
The first units built were based on Southern Railway designs and utilised standard Southern railway jigs, being constructed using standard Southern Railway components such as doors and underframes and being built to a standard Southern body profile. The doyen of the class, unit 5001, was completed at Eastleigh in 1951. Further examples were built at Eastleigh up until 1957.
In 1960, the first British Railways design units appeared. Intended to replace the 1925 design Southern Railway suburban electric stock, these units were based on British Railways Mark One coaching stock with a different body profile and underframe length from the earlier Class 415 units. The first two units (5301/02), however, were composed of Mark One profile Driving Motor Brake Seconds and Southern Railway profile intermediate vehicles. Unit 5303 was the first to sport intermediate trailers of Mark One profile. Two units differed from the rest of the batch in featuring B5 (S) bogies to enable use on peak hour commuter trains to Eastbourne.
Some coaches were compartment stock with access only from the passenger doors; there was no gangway down the coach and each compartment seated 10. However, in the late 1980s, a woman was found murdered in a compartment EPB car which led to Network South East reconfiguring their existing units; as a result all compartment stock ran limited workings in busy periods and had a red stripe at the cantrail. This stock did not work after 8pm and was known as 4COM. This resulted in some units being composed of original design stock of Southern Railway outline and of later, Mark One based, British Railways stock.
Most British Rail Class 415 units were withdrawn in the mid-1980s, owing to their partial replacement by newer stock such as the British Rail Class 455 units and the fact that many units contained asbestos. However, a significant number of the units were "facelifted". The asbestos was removed and the units' interiors were improved. This resulted in some re-numbering of stock, so that the earlier units built in the style of the Southern Railway became the 54xx series whilst the British Railways style units became the 56xx series. Some of the 56xx series units received express gear ratios to allow them to work services between London and Kent Coast destinations. Although all the non-refurbished BR Class 415/2s were withdrawn, three Class 415/1s of Southern Railway outline survived until the final withdrawal of Class 415 stock in 1995. These units included 5001, the first unit constructed, and 5176. Both of these units were repainted into liveries previously carried by the class, 5001 receiving British Railways green livery with yellow warning panels and 5176 receiving British Rail blue livery with full yellow ends.
Summary of sub-classes
415/1 - unrefurbished 4EPB stock of Southern Design.
415/2 - unrefurbished 4EPB stock of BR Design.
415/4 - refurbished 4EPB stock of Southern Design (from 1980), numbered in the 54xx series.
415/5 - Consolidated compartment 4EPB stock of both designs, numbered in the 55xx series.
415/6 - refurbished 4EPB stock of BR Design, numbered in the 56xx series.
415/7 - refurbished 4EPB stock of BR Design, with express gearing to 90mph. These units retained 56xx series numbers.
Preservation
One unit, Class 415/1 unit 5176, survives. One of the two "heritage" units (along with 5001), it was repainted in British Rail blue in the early 1990s and survived until the end of EPB workings in 1995. After spending several years in storage, in 1999 the unit was split, with three vehicles going to the Northamptonshire Ironstone Railway Trust and one intermediate trailer vehicle to the Coventry Railway Centre in Baginton. Class pioneer 5001 was also stored following withdrawal in 1995 but no buyer could be found and the unit was stripped and sold for scrap in 2004.