These units are a complete credit to those who designed, built and now maintain them. They are not museum pieces, they are still working trains, doing what they were designed to do. I love very squeak, grind, whirr and tick, tick, tick of the camshaft they make... why? coz I grew up in London with them! Scrap them... and you scrap me!
Yes, real respect to the maintenance crew who keep these trains running. There can't be many other 1st world countries running 79 years old trains on scheduled services on part of the national rail network?
tbroyd they're still running at 80 years old and I went on them in 2018 :) but SWR and Vivarail are working on a reduced height version of the Class 230 D-Train as replacement
Thanks for this video....it brings back some wonderful memories for me, from the time I worked in the miniature Ryde Electrical Control Room/Substation at the end of the platform in the early 1970s. The Ryde Depot staff were a superb bunch and kept the stock in excellent condition considering the age of the units. If the camera had been positioned nearer to the substation we could have heard the rectifier take up the load. I used to dread the circuit breakers tripping...they sounded like cannons going off! My good friend Driver (the late) Frank Ash , used to enjoy tripping a breaker to keep me awake! Nowadays the ECR is remotely controlled from Eastleigh on the mainland. Rob Mannion.
The Victorian Railways ran Tait trains from the 1920s to around 1986 claimed at the time the oldest rolling stock in current revenue service in the world. When the last ten or so were sold it was claimed that asbestos brake blocks were the issue, I thought that was just an excuse otherwise they'd still be running them today. Yes the VR ran Tait trains not tilt trains. The Sun Cartoonist Jeff Hook drew them with square wheels.
Trouble is these are old ladies, only a few years newer than the Standards they replaced. Looking up close I noticed the carbodies are a little rusty round the edges, and some of the wooden interiors were definately starting to show their ages too. This was in 2015. Lord knows where they get the parts from, especially now LT uses so much modern plastic stock !
The roofs on a few of them were in a particularly flakey state towards the end too!! No way would you have seen a tube train running in London like that!!😮
you notice the 006 train have its rear lights on, which normally does not have one when trains are coupled together and the 008 train has not got its rear lights on, luckily the route is not a busy route
While these trains are definitely showing their age, having spent the best part of 50 years in London and a further 30 years on the Island, it's incredible how reliable they can be - South Western Railway has announced that they do plan to maintain the Island Line as its new operator, but thanks to the careful repair work carried out to the 483s, there seems to be no plan to replace them as of now. They could do with a bit of a spruce up, that LU livery was applied in 2008 and it definitely looks like it needs a fresh coat of paint. Hopefully one or two of these long-lived trains gets preserved when the class is finally taken out of service.
I remember using these trains to school as a child. It is a shame that they will be gone next year. I hope the 1938 stock trains will be taken to the Epping for use on that railway. Why can't they use the 1959 stock from the central line? as they look like the 1938 stock trains.
Because it isn't a heritage railway and therefore should meet mainline standards of punctuality and reliability. The extreme age of the iow stock is more of a historical accident than anything else. The trains aren't there because they're old, they're there because they're useful.
The previous stock on the Central Line was 1962 Stock, although similar to the 1959 Stock, which was taken out of service over 30 years ago, and largely no longer exists!!
There is still one knocking about on LU. It was recently run to Upminster for some work. I believe LTM will be doing a special event with the train sometime soon.
As much as I love seeing the 1930s stock still running, I still think they need replacing. Last time I was on the isle the train I was on failed at Sandown due to air brake problems..
Since the '67 stock was scrapped before the Island Line made any attempt to purchase some, the next likely candidate for a Class 483 replacement is the '72 stock, assuming that a new class of train altogether isn't constructed for ILT - The main requirement for trains on the Island Line is that they can fit through the tunnel at Ryde - to stop that section from flooding, they had to raise the track bed from Ryde St. Johns, through the tunnel and up to Ryde Esplanade.
The 67 stock wasn't purchased because it was ATO driven from the outset. It would have been too difficult to equip the units with the required electronics and equipment to be driven manually in a passenger service set-up. In addition, the other problem is that the voltage on the Island Line is low. If this line is to get 'newer' trains of any kind, the sub-stations will need a massive upgrade. The 72's are feasible, however even they will need massive changes to work on the 3rd rail system - and the 72's original equipment layout apparently is already problematic.
Another solution could be the 73TS, as it's in relatively good condition and should work OK as 3 car trains, although personally, i'd prefer to see the 72TS on the Island Line. Also, what livery would the new train get, the LT red livery? Or a BR Livery?
No longer have any locos on the Island for engineering work. They used to keep one (class 03 and before that a class 05) but not any more. Think they use road/rail trucks for some of the work now?
The Class 05 is still present on the Island, although it's now owned by the Isle of Wight Steam Railway as a works train - It's nicknamed 'Nuclear Fred', a nickname it kept when it was still in use on the main Island Line!
Well there’s the answer to shunting trains into the depot, to have a junction approximately where we are at 4:31 to get into the shed. This was the need for the shunt seen to occur.
I used to ride those in London, they are from the dinosaur age, rode then in the Isle of Wight in the 1970’s, surprised they still had them, can’t make out as to why they weren’t scraped years ago.
You definitely didn't ride these on the Isle of Wight in the 1970s as they were still working in London then! They only crossed the Solent in about 1990. The ones you used in the 70s would have been the previous batch (built in the 1920s). While the limited height in Ryde tunnel is an issue, the main reason the line has used such old trains is because they are relatively cheap to get - and the option to get newer (but affordable) trains that could replace them only comes up every once in a while. The route runs with a massive subsidy, so a cut in running costs is the main reason investment in the track and a load of new trains later this year is politically justifiable.
