In December 1954, with the publication of the report entitled ‘Modernisation and Re-equipment of the British Railways’, the British Railways Board realized that steam engines were not cost-effective. It had become difficult to find people willing to maintain them due to the hard, dirty, and heavy nature of the work.
Standard class steam engines had already been ordered and were being built, but sadly many only saw five years of service before being stored and scrapped. The railways of Britain were late in trialing modern forms of motive power, although the London Midland and Scottish Railway built diesel shunting locomotives in the 1930s.
The first ‘mainline’ diesel locomotives were 10000 and 10001, built by the LMS in the late 1940s, before nationalization. The Southern had introduced electric suburban services in and out of London in the 1930s. They also dabbled in diesel traction, having diesel shunters built in 1937.
Oliver Bulleid, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Region, had designed electric locomotives for the Central Division during the early 1940s. He also designed mainline diesels, three of which were built in the 1950s utilizing English Electric traction equipment.
In the early sixties, thoughts turned to mainline electrification. In September 1964, the Transport Minister authorized the electrification of the main line from London Waterloo to Branksome (via Southampton and Bournemouth Central), extended to Branksome to give access to Bournemouth West Depot.
To serve stations west of Branksome, a decision had to be made on how part of the train that had arrived at Bournemouth could be powered onward to Weymouth. Trials had taken place on ‘Push–Pull’ operation of trains elsewhere on the Southern Region. In 1965, a train made up of 6 PUL and 6 PAN trailer cars and two 4 COR Motor Brakes (with the motors removed) were made into a ‘6TC’ trailer unit numbered 601.
After initial trials, the experimental unit started operating on the Oxted line. Later it transferred to the Clapham Junction to Kensington Olympia line. Unfortunately, the unit was damaged in a collision with a buffer stop at Kensington Olympia, but the concept had been proven.
With the decision made, it was determined that a powered multiple unit (4 REP) would pull and push trailer units between Bournemouth and Waterloo, and a diesel would provide power on the line to Weymouth. Initially, it was intended that the 4 REP unit would always be the center unit between Bournemouth and Waterloo—for example, in a 4 TC-4 REP-4 TC combination—so the buffet would be easily accessible from the front and rear.
The Southern, ever careful with money, decided to make twenty-eight four-car trailer units and three three-car trailer units, plus two spare vehicles. All were made from Mk1 steam stock converted at British Rail Engineering at York, although the first of each were converted at Eastleigh. The Mk1s used came from the Western, London Midland, Eastern, and Southern regions of British Railways and were in differing liveries. All were painted in an all-over ‘Rail Blue’ once converted.
The 4 REP units had new motor coaches built at York and were matched with converted Mk1s for the brake and buffet vehicles. Again, the units were painted in ‘Rail Blue’.
On the 10th of July 1967, the full electric service from Waterloo to Bournemouth commenced. Class 33 diesels then hauled TC units to Weymouth. The system worked well, providing a very reliable service. However, due to the popularity of the service, it became evident that only three or four coaches between Bournemouth and Weymouth or return would not meet the demand.
Subsequently, the REP unit would always be the front unit to London and the rear unit on its return. This meant you could have an eight or seven-coach train going to or from Weymouth, which better handled the demand. Occasionally, if the unit was only working a service to and from Bournemouth to Waterloo—such as a semi-fast that had no Weymouth portion for the whole day—it might revert to the REP in the middle.
Alan Greatbatch
Swanage Railway 4TC Group