I had a day out around Kent yesterday with the hope of taking in a few 
of the final VEP workings and getting some photos in the sun. 
Unfortunately, every diagram I went for which was likely to produce a 
slammer failed to, so instead I was able to experience some of the more 
modern stock on offer.

375s - Like their Southern counterparts, excellent units and the aircon 
is a Godsend on a hot day. My only grumble is that I find the interiors 
very plain on SET when compared to the "green" Southern units.

466s - Good at what they're supposed to do. Not sure whether Faversham 
to Victoria (all stations) is a suitable working though... As an aside, 
the lights in my unit completely failed on departure, which made the 
long tunnel sections around Medway and near Penge rather exciting! 
Should the unit have been taken out of service (the staff were told but 
could not restart the lights)?

465/9s - I turned up at Victoria for the 1318 to Canterbury West via 
Maidstone expecting to find a VEP on this diagram... Let's just say I 
was less than amused to find (refurbished) 465902 waiting in platform 
4... Eternally the optimist, I thought I'd give it a go anyway and while 
the refurbishment is a great improvement on what went before, this type 
of unit is totally unsuited to a journey of this length (2 hours) 
linking the important centres of London, Maidstone, Ashford and 
Canterbury. The carriage was stifling due to the units lacking aircon 
and whoever designed the windows to open only an inch needs shooting!

Are these units regulars at Canterbury West? We arrived into Ashford 
slightly late, with passengers on the platform querying whether it was 
the Canterbury train. The Ashford staff checked with our guard and on 
being told it was indeed going to Canterbury, expressed surprise as 
they'd "never seen one of those going down there before".

Final question - are there (m)any VEP diagrams left off-peak? I used the 
information on the excellent Southern Electric site but it seems in 
practice many off-peak services are substituted by Networked or 375.

Cheers,

Steve M

Steve M wrote:


> Final question - are there (m)any VEP diagrams left off-peak?




All SET *diagrammed* work ceases as from Monday 05 September (as I have
already posted in this forum earlier this week) with the CWN from that
date no Mk.1 stock.

SET will be continue to use Veps on a daily basis as needed - but
remember the Dover Folkestone tunnel block is lifted after this weekend
and that means a good few units less overall are needed, in turn the
off peak needs will be much less.


--
Nick

Steve M wrote:

> and whoever designed the windows to open only an inch needs shooting!


Networker windows used to open much further, but they were modified to
prevent seat cushions being thrown out of them!

regards
HN28

hn28_signal@yahoo.co.uk wrote:


> Steve M wrote:
> 
>>and whoever designed the windows to open only an inch needs shooting!
> 
> 
> Networker windows used to open much further, but they were modified to
> prevent seat cushions being thrown out of them!
> 
> regards
> HN28
> 


Ah, makes sense to some extent. Everyone just boils to death instead! :S

Cheers,

Steve M

Further to my revious response, next week, there is expected to be just
one planned working on SET -

one 12 car diagramed on
2W15 06:38 Ashford - Cannon Street
2R69 18:04 Cannon Street - Ashford

Interestingly diagrammed for 8Vep+4Cep (as it is at the moment - 1698
was supposed to be being stopped end this week, not sure if this is a
edit fault in CWN and not been corrected or if it is right.)

--
Nick

Steve M wrote:

> I had a day out around Kent yesterday with the hope of taking in a few 
> of the final VEP workings and getting some photos in the sun. 
> Unfortunately, every diagram I went for which was likely to produce a 
> slammer failed to, so instead I was able to experience some of the more 
> modern stock on offer.
> 
> 375s - Like their Southern counterparts, excellent units and the aircon 
> is a Godsend on a hot day. My only grumble is that I find the interiors 
> very plain on SET when compared to the "green" Southern units.
> 
> 466s - Good at what they're supposed to do. Not sure whether Faversham 
> to Victoria (all stations) is a suitable working though... As an aside, 
> the lights in my unit completely failed on departure, which made the 
> long tunnel sections around Medway and near Penge rather exciting! 
> Should the unit have been taken out of service (the staff were told but 
> could not restart the lights)?
> 
> 465/9s - I turned up at Victoria for the 1318 to Canterbury West via 
> Maidstone expecting to find a VEP on this diagram... Let's just say I 
> was less than amused to find (refurbished) 465902 waiting in platform 
> 4... Eternally the optimist, I thought I'd give it a go anyway and while 
> the refurbishment is a great improvement on what went before, this type 
> of unit is totally unsuited to a journey of this length (2 hours) 
> linking the important centres of London, Maidstone, Ashford and 
> Canterbury. The carriage was stifling due to the units lacking aircon 
> and whoever designed the windows to open only an inch needs shooting!
> 
> Are these units regulars at Canterbury West? We arrived into Ashford 
> slightly late, with passengers on the platform querying whether it was 
> the Canterbury train. The Ashford staff checked with our guard and on 
> being told it was indeed going to Canterbury, expressed surprise as 
> they'd "never seen one of those going down there before".
> 
> Final question - are there (m)any VEP diagrams left off-peak? I used the 
> information on the excellent Southern Electric site but it seems in 
> practice many off-peak services are substituted by Networked or 375.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Steve M
> 


I live in Birchington (on the Ramsgate - Faversham route) and most 
weekday nights about 9:15pm and again around 9:30pm 12 unit VEP's are 
quickly whisked through in the London direction "Not In Service" .I 
presume they must have been in use somewhere; but at off peak times I 
haven't seen any in quite a while now.

Jamie

>Networker windows used to open much further, but they were >modified to
>prevent seat cushions being thrown out of them!


Surely a better solution would have been to remove seat
cushions altogether and use hard seats with a layer of fabric
like they do in other countries rather than let passengers
swelter in weather like this?

B2003

J-Me wrote:


> I live in Birchington (on the Ramsgate - Faversham route) and most 
> weekday nights about 9:15pm and again around 9:30pm 12 unit VEP's are 
> quickly whisked through in the London direction "Not In Service" .I 
> presume they must have been in use somewhere; but at off peak times I 
> haven't seen any in quite a while now.


Odd that - I live between Canterbury West and Sturry and at about the 
same time a night, a similar setup passes in the Ramsgate direction!

Up until recently the only service that would regularly be a slam-door 
train was the Canon Street service early in the morning, but even that 
is slowly being modernised.

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

On 1 Sep 2005 01:47:05 -0700, "Boltar"  wrote:


>Surely a better solution would have been to remove seat
>cushions altogether and use hard seats with a layer of fabric
>like they do in other countries rather than let passengers
>swelter in weather like this?


Or, shock horror, install aircon?

Neil

-- 
Neil Williams in Milton Keynes, UK
When replying please use neil at the above domain
'wensleydale' is a spam trap and is not read.

Jonathan Stott wrote:

> J-Me wrote:
> 
>> I live in Birchington (on the Ramsgate - Faversham route) and most 
>> weekday nights about 9:15pm and again around 9:30pm 12 unit VEP's are 
>> quickly whisked through in the London direction "Not In Service" .I 
>> presume they must have been in use somewhere; but at off peak times I 
>> haven't seen any in quite a while now.
> 
> Odd that - I live between Canterbury West and Sturry and at about the 
> same time a night, a similar setup passes in the Ramsgate direction!


Actually passed around 10:30pm tonight.

-- 
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

Steve M wrote:


> 466s - Good at what they're supposed to do. Not sure whether Faversham
> to Victoria (all stations) is a suitable working though... As an aside,
> the lights in my unit completely failed on departure, which made the
> long tunnel sections around Medway and near Penge rather exciting!
> Should the unit have been taken out of service (the staff were told but
> could not restart the lights)?


Oddly, the main role of the 'refreshed' 466s (have they all been done
yet?) is to make up the 'posh' Networkers (465/9s) to 6 cars. Why
couldn't they have been done up in the same (far more pleasant and
modern) colours as the /9s?


> 465/9s - I turned up at Victoria for the 1318 to Canterbury West via
> Maidstone expecting to find a VEP on this diagram... Let's just say I
> was less than amused to find (refurbished) 465902 waiting in platform
> 4... Eternally the optimist, I thought I'd give it a go anyway and while
> the refurbishment is a great improvement on what went before, this type
> of unit is totally unsuited to a journey of this length (2 hours)
> linking the important centres of London, Maidstone, Ashford and
> Canterbury. The carriage was stifling due to the units lacking aircon
> and whoever designed the windows to open only an inch needs shooting!
>
> Are these units regulars at Canterbury West? We arrived into Ashford
> slightly late, with passengers on the platform querying whether it was
> the Canterbury train. The Ashford staff checked with our guard and on
> being told it was indeed going to Canterbury, expressed surprise as
> they'd "never seen one of those going down there before".


At the moment they are most common on the Vic-Maidstone East stoppers,
but I think the idea is for them to take over most (all?) services on
the Maidstone line.


> Final question - are there (m)any VEP diagrams left off-peak? I used the
> information on the excellent Southern Electric site but it seems in
> practice many off-peak services are substituted by Networked or 375.


There were plenty yesterday - for example, the 1434 from Maidstone -
Victoria was a 4VEP, and I saw a VEP on a Canterbury working earlier in
the day at Beckenham. It seems as if the Maidstone line is going to be
the last bastion of Mk1 use in Kent, at this rate...

Rupert Candy wrote:



> Oddly, the main role of the 'refreshed' 466s (have they all been done
> yet?) is to make up the 'posh' Networkers (465/9s) to 6 cars. Why
> couldn't they have been done up in the same (far more pleasant and
> modern) colours as the /9s?


  /|  /|      _____________________
                    ||__||     |                     |
                   /   O O\__  |    PLEASE DO NOT    |
                  /          \ |   FEED THE TROLLS   |
                 /      \     \|_____________________|
                /   _    \     \      ||
               /    |\____\     \     ||
              /     | | | |\____/     ||
             /       \|_|_|/   |     _||
            /  /  \            |____| ||
           /   |   |           |      --|
           |   |   |           |____  --|
    * _    |  |_|_|_|          |     \-/
*-- _--\ _ \                  |      ||
   /  _     \\        |        /      `
*  /   \_ /- |       |       |
   *      ___ C_c_c_C/ \C_c_c_c____________

Jonathan Stott wrote:

> Jonathan Stott wrote:
> 
>> J-Me wrote:
>>
>>> I live in Birchington (on the Ramsgate - Faversham route) and most 
>>> weekday nights about 9:15pm and again around 9:30pm 12 unit VEP's are 
>>> quickly whisked through in the London direction "Not In Service" .I 
>>> presume they must have been in use somewhere; but at off peak times I 
>>> haven't seen any in quite a while now.
>>
>>
>> Odd that - I live between Canterbury West and Sturry and at about the 
>> same time a night, a similar setup passes in the Ramsgate direction!
> 
> 
> Actually passed around 10:30pm tonight.
> 


That is odd; I don't know if any go through later than 9:30'ish here and 
only found out about these ones through my insistence to incorporate the 
station into my nightly walks! Wherever they're going they're not 
hanging about in getting there! It's not every night either. You can 
tell if ones coming just after the 21:07 has left and the information 
board sticks on "Welcome To Birchington-On-Sea" before changing to an 
alert screen warning all the non existent passengers on the platform to 
stand clear of the next train as it's not for public use.

There is another "mystery train" that belts through towards Margate 
about 2:10am every morning after the last timetabled one at 1:37am 
although I have no idea what it is.

Jamie

"J-Me"  wrote

>
> There is another "mystery train" that belts through towards Margate
> about 2:10am every morning after the last timetabled one at 1:37am
> although I have no idea what it is.
>

Probably a 'staff' train - there have been several of these in Kent in the
wee small hours for many years.

Peter

Chippy wrote:

[nothing of any value]

Where's the troll?

Rupert Candy wrote:

> Steve M wrote:
> 
> 
>>466s - Good at what they're supposed to do. Not sure whether Faversham
>>to Victoria (all stations) is a suitable working though... As an aside,
>>the lights in my unit completely failed on departure, which made the
>>long tunnel sections around Medway and near Penge rather exciting!
>>Should the unit have been taken out of service (the staff were told but
>>could not restart the lights)?
> 
> 
> Oddly, the main role of the 'refreshed' 466s (have they all been done
> yet?) is to make up the 'posh' Networkers (465/9s) to 6 cars. Why
> couldn't they have been done up in the same (far more pleasant and
> modern) colours as the /9s?
> 
> 


The 466 on this particular journey was still in "as built" condition. 
OK, maybe not as clean as when it was built, and the window etching told 
it's own tale, but certainly neither of the units on this working had 
been refreshed.

<snip>


> 
> 
> There were plenty yesterday - for example, the 1434 from Maidstone -
> Victoria was a 4VEP, and I saw a VEP on a Canterbury working earlier in
> the day at Beckenham. It seems as if the Maidstone line is going to be
> the last bastion of Mk1 use in Kent, at this rate...
> 


Looks like a good enough excuse for me to take another day off work next 
week and have another go... Although peak workings do seem to be my best 
bet.

Cheers,

Steve M