Forum | Merseyside Dennis Dart Website

508126 is now back in service after its overhaul,

Some of the 508's may have an extended future. London Overground are looking into leasing 9 units to cover capacity on the Watford DC lines.

I wonder if Merseyrail will be interested in them after they are brought back to an operational standard?

(18/04/2013 23:01)jtd508110 Wrote: [ -> ]Some of the 508's may have an extended future. London Overground are looking into leasing 9 units to cover capacity on the Watford DC lines.

I wonder if Merseyrail will be interested in them after they are brought back to an operational standard?

Doubt it, as according to Rail, the sets will be refurbished to match the interior of the 378s ie longitudinal seating.

It mustn't be that difficult to do a minor interior change with the seating. I was more on about mechanical and corrosion issues with the stock, but seeing as they're being re-done, surely they will be wanting to find a home for them, and why not on the forever short formed 6 car workings on the Southport line??

Think Merseyrail have there eye set on simply replacing the 507/8's now and dont want to take any more on a short term basis .

(18/04/2013 23:01)jtd508110 Wrote: [ -> ]Some of the 508's may have an extended future. London Overground are looking into leasing 9 units to cover capacity on the Watford DC lines.

Although this is supposedly likely to happen, I very much doubt London Overground will take any 508s. They will probably have to be four cars long to match the current length of the 378s and there are only enough spare 508 trailers to permit five full sets, assuming 508212's trailer isn't sourced from Moreton-in-Marsh and that can't be likely. The Watford line requires six sets a day, so they cannot acquire enough units to cover this route without still needing 378s. This is further complicated by the fact two 508 driving cars (64649 and 64712) were moved two days ago from Eastleigh to Southampton Dockyard supposedly for training use by Merseyside Fire and Rescue. Also reported elsewhere, with thanks to 50047, is that 508207 is also for developmental use and so unlikely to be available for London Overground.

Assuming the 378s are extended to five cars only a few at a time, there should be no need to take on 508s as enough rolling stock exists to cover the present diagrams. If, however, LOROL are after capacity improvements on the North, East and West London routes, then the 508s might be a practical short-term solution.

(19/04/2013 13:01)507009 Wrote: [ -> ]

(18/04/2013 23:01)jtd508110 Wrote: [ -> ]Some of the 508's may have an extended future. London Overground are looking into leasing 9 units to cover capacity on the Watford DC lines.

Although this is supposedly likely to happen, I very much doubt London Overground will take any 508s. They will probably have to be four cars long to match the current length of the 378s and there are only enough spare 508 trailers to permit five full sets, assuming 508212's trailer isn't sourced from Moreton-in-Marsh and that can't be likely. The Watford line requires six sets a day, so they cannot acquire enough units to cover this route without still needing 378s. This is further complicated by the fact two 508 driving cars (64649 and 64712) were moved two days ago from Eastleigh to Southampton Dockyard supposedly for training use by Merseyside Fire and Rescue. Also reported elsewhere, with thanks to 50047, is that 508207 is also for developmental use and so unlikely to be available for London Overground.

Assuming the 378s are extended to five cars only a few at a time, there should be no need to take on 508s as enough rolling stock exists to cover the present diagrams. If, however, LOROL are after capacity improvements on the North, East and West London routes, then the 508s might be a practical short-term solution.

The plan detailed in the Magazine report to use the 3 508/3s plus the 6 best 508/2s as a short-term solution to enable the 378s to be released for lengthing, the Watford DC line is only mentioned as a possiablilty should it be a permennt arrangement. No mention of extending the back to their original 4 car length is mentioned.

Sounds clearly like the 508's if they do get used will only be for an interim period of time .

Merseyrail clearly do not want to take on any more class 508's than they use at the moment . Merseyrail managed reasonably well whilst 507002 was away for its accident damage to be repaired.

I would expect more units to be ordered than the present 59 which would account for growth on the network and the possibility of extending services to Wrexham .

(19/04/2013 13:11)kuyoyo Wrote: [ -> ]The plan detailed in the Magazine report to use the 3 508/3s plus the 6 best 508/2s as a short-term solution to enable the 378s to be released for lengthing, the Watford DC line is only mentioned as a possiablilty should it be a permennt arrangement. No mention of extending the back to their original 4 car length is mentioned.

Fair enough - I haven't read any of the magazine articles so have gone by posts I've read on the Internet. A couple of messages on UKModernEMU and Rail Forums suggested they were aiming for four car formations. This would need modifications such as removal of a compressor as three would be excessive for a four car set. Obviously it wouldn't go down a storm with passengers if their trains were cut back to three cars and with the massive recent rise in Overground patronage, I'd be surprised if four cars were sufficient.

I would think the Watford line is the only realistic option for 508 use: the NLL and WLL have AC sections and surely they won't use them on the ELL.

To clarify the current stored 508 situation, 508201 and 508209 are now incomplete with cars from each leaving for Southampton. 508207 is supposedly earmarked for a project. This leaves, of the more recent examples to enter store, 508203/205/208/210/211/301/302/303 as complete units. Also at Eastleigh are 508202/204/206 but these have been out of use since December 2006 so it will be a massive job to get them serviceable again. I understand of these 204 had chronic reliability problems leading to storage and 206 had severe wheelflats.

The Rail Replacement bus service between Moorfields and St George's Hall which starts today who is operating this service ?