Class of EMU or DMU running Guildford to Waterloo - Late 70's early 80's?

[Croxy]

Looking for some information on what type would have been running between Guildford to Waterloo in the early 80's......

Thanks for any information....Mark. 

[dodger]

As far as I can remember there would be 12 car cig/big/cig on the fast Portsmouths. Veps or cigs on the semifasts. The new line would probably be 4EPB or 4VEP until sufficient 455's were availiable. But Pengi could give you better infromation.

dodger

[Pengi]

My interest really started with the Wessex electrics so I am not an expert on the configuration of the older EMUs.

This site might help though

http://www.railworks.marleyman.co.uk/class-421-cig.html

[Joe 90]

Hi Croxy

I don't know if this website would be of help to you but it may be worth a peruse.
http://www.semgonline.com/home.html

Also I used to travel on the trains to Waterloo from Guildford then but at that time I had no interest in trains apart from why they didn't run on time and consequently they all looked the same to me.
If only I could go back in time, and with a decent digital camera.

[Tank]

From what I remember it was mainly 4VEP's and in times of need they used 4COR and 2BIL units.

[Bob G]

Hello
As a Pompey lad i can tell you the following.

Up to 1970 the Portsmouth - London fasts/semi-fasts were 4-COR/4-BUF/4-COR
Then they became 4-CIG/4-BIG/4-CIG

From 1967 the Waterloo-Bournemouth route was 4-TC/4-TC/4-REP (REPs at the London end).  These ran your route as far as Woking and then went on to Basingstoke.

Suburban routes were covered by 2-BIL or 2-NOL in various multiples again up to about 1970/71.
From then on they used 4-VEP on semi-fast services. You would also have seen the odd 4-CEP before the 4-VEPs came in, and then rarely after.
The Bullied 2-HAPs were used on stopping services until cascaded to Pompey-Brighton run in 1970. Later BR 2-HAPs could be seen.
While most 2-EPBs/4-EPBs were used on south eastern lines east of Brighton main line, some were used on western lines to Weybridge and Windsor for example.
The 4-SUBs and some 4-EPBs were mainly used on closer to London suburban services on western and central lines.
Its quite a complicated story!

HTH
Bob

[scruff]

I'm pretty sure I travelled on a 2x4 car class 508 unit from Clapham Junction to Guildford as well as 4-VEP units around 1980.

HTH

Mark

[Croxy]

Thanks everyone for the replies and the information that you've provided!!!

It is the 4 EVP that I was thinking of...

[Karhedron]

Slightly off topic but you would also have seen some DEMUs passing through Guidlford on the Reading - Redhill services, I think that the class 206 "Tadpole" units were used here. Around 1980 these were replaced by class 119 DMUs. Class 101 DMUs were also used from time to time.

[tadpole]

Tadpole? Did someone say Tadpole?
OK, it's a fair cop, guilty as charged. The six of us ran hourly Tonbridge-Reading, reversing at Redhill.
Then some bright spark decided to replace us with WR mechanical units. OK, so we weren't pretty, but that was a little harsh.

The other Guildford-Waterloo option was the half-hourly service via Aldershot (reverse) and Ascot.
This was worked by 2BIL/2HALs, then 4CORs, then 4CIGs until the sliding door things came along.

[Bob G]

Ah but you did grop up into slightly wider units after you shed your tails   
And then continued to delight southern DEMU travellers for some while.
Best
Bob

[Mr Sprue]

Ah but you did grop up into slightly wider units after you shed your tails   
And then continued to delight southern DEMU travellers for some while.
Best
Bob

Would that be something to do with coupling 201's to 2EPB's by any chance? 

[Bob G]

There was some mad experiment like that...involving painting out the yellow ends of intermediate cabs too.
At the end of the day, the tadpoles became very mixed up fish!

[tadpole]

Yes, the driving trailers, some of them at least, we're used to strengthen 2-car hampshire DEMUs up to 3 cars. These then had a driving cab end in the middle, which was painted blue.

[Bob G]

[Seems very strange to have a Tadpole fan living in Aberdeen]
Mind you, a Sothern man in Leicestershire is also a bit out of place too.
Best
Bob