315856
London’s people mover.
British Rail Class 315 No. 315856
Built: 1980 at BREL Works, York
Withdrawn: 2022
Vehicle No.(s): 64571 + 71336 + 71444 + 64572
Owned By: ACMU Group
ACMU Role: The owning group providing its upkeep and restoration.
A brief history
The fifth, and final, development of the prototype high density commuter train, the 61 strong class 315 four car units, 801 to 861, were ordered by British Rail to replace the 91 units of the venerable LNER designed class 306 stock primarily for use on the Liverpool Street to Shenfield line and entered service in late 1980 based at Ilford Depot located to the east of London.
Although outwardly similar to the previous PEP stock of classes 313, 507 and 508 both the class 315 and 314 were the first BR production units to employ phase angle thyristor control rather than the more traditional, though by now outdated, camshaft/resistance control with equipment supplied by either Brush (801 to 841) or GEC (842 to 861).
As overhead line sections were converted to 25kV from 6.25kV their sphere of operations expanded and from 1984 they could be found running as far as Southend Victoria and Colchester either on rush hour or late night/early morning staff services. They could also be found operating some of the West Anglia Jazz Train services to Chingford, Enfield Town and Enfield and further north to Hertford East and Bishops Stortford alongside class 305 units.
315856 at Ilford, February 1987. David Malt
The dawn of network southEast
The sectorization of British Rail in 1982 brought the units under the umbrella of the London & South Eastern sector which was then rebranded Network SouthEast in 1986 with the fleet being painted in the familiar blue, white and red colours with the majority of units carrying branding for the Great Eastern route with the others being branded for West Anglia services. Although units were allocated to each route availability dictated that at times they could be found on either.
The iconic flash - 315856, albeit in later years, passing South Tottenham on a diverted Liverpool Street service. Paul Bigland
Privatisation of british rail
In January 1997 the suburban rail services from London Liverpool Street were split between two franchises, First Great Eastern (FGE) and Prism Rail’s West Anglia Great Northern (WAGN), and the 315 fleet was split up with 801 to 843 being allocated to FGE and 844 to 861 moving to WAGN which included , 315856, moving to WAGNs depot at Hornsey, North London. The FGE units were all repainted into the green, white and blue colours of the franchise while the WAGN units were mainly painted white with purple WAGN branding with the final four being painted purple with white WAGN branding.
When the franchises came up for renewal there was a reorganisation that created a franchise that combined the FGE and West Anglia services as well as adding the inter-city and rural services of Anglia Railways from April 1st 2004 and was operated by National Express under the “One” brand. At this time the ex-WAGN 315s moved back to Ilford Depot.
Sporting the stripe - 315856 standing at Shenfield about to work a London bound ‘Shenfield Metro‘ service. Kieran Gallagher
A mid-life refurbishment
Two years before the unification of the routes FGE embarked upon a midlife overhaul and upgrade of the units and four, 804, 806, 809 and 812 were introduced that included new front end lighting, electric doors and new traction control electronics. Further enhancements were to have been included as the programme progressed but these were cut back when National Express took control of the franchise and no more units were to be fitted with the new headlight assemblies. The first four units had been overhauled at Ilford but in order to speed up the process Bombardier moved the production line to Derby with the last unit being outshopped in 2008. The units were all painted in “One” livery with the exception of the four “Ilford” units which had been painted in First Group blue and these were repainted at a later date.
With the franchise rebranded in February 2008 as National Express East Anglia (NXEA) the units were to lose their rainbow stripes around the ends of the vehicles with a white stripe and NXEA branding being applied to the length of the units.
Franchise changes - Abellio and Transport for London
February 2012 was to bring a change of operator with Abellio taking over control and with it another rebranding exercise was undertaken with the units initially losing their white stripes as the franchise became Abellio Greater Anglia. Shortly after another overhaul programme was commenced with the units gaining an electronic passenger information system and wheelchair spaces being created by removing some seats from the PTS vehicles to allow compliance with Passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM) regulations. At the same time the units were repainted in a white livery with red doors and branded as Greater Anglia.
From May 2015 the fleet was again split up when the West Anglia and Great Eastern inner suburban services came under the control of Transport for London with 801 to 817 passing to London Overground (LO) for use on the Chingford, Enfield and Cheshunt services and the remaining 44 moving to TFL Rail (XR) to operate the Shenfield services in advance of the opening of the Crossrail tunnels. The units were all subsequently re-liveried with blue, orange and white for LO units and blue and white for the XR units.
In with the new.
22nd June 2017 was to become a black day for the 315 fleet when the first Class 345 Crossrail unit entered service on the Shenfield line and as the number of 345 units increased so the number of 315 units has decreased and units have been slowly withdrawn being sent either for scrap or were transferred to the London Overground routes to replace 315s that were due for overhaul or, in the case of one unit, had suffered severe structural damage following an overhead line incident.
On March 3rd 2020 London Overground introduced the first of their Class 710s to their West Anglia routes allowing non-PRM compliant Class 317s to be withdrawn first with the Class 315s slowly following as the number of new units in service increased with the final two units, 802 and 807, running a special diagram on Tuesday 20th October to mark the final day in service of the class with London Overground.
A fond farewell.
With the opening of the first section of the Crossrail tunnel between Abbey Wood and Paddington on 24th May 2022 the remaining six 315s had their TFL Rail branding removed but have remained in service operating on their own diagrams during peak hours and also being used to fill in when 345s have not been available.
6th November 2022 saw the opening of the Crossrail tunnel to services from Shenfield through to Paddington leaving the 315s with two morning peak services to Liverpool Street from Gidea Park and two return journeys in the evening. The last of which operated on 9th December bringing to a close 42 years of service to the commuters of East London.
Current Location: Llanelli & Mynydd Mawr Railway (LMMR), Carmarthenshire, Wales
The unit has been based at the LMMR since its arrival in 2023. Prior to this, it had a brief storage run at the Dean Forest Railway before being moved by road to its current location.