Operations
When new, these trains were used on the newly electrified Great Eastern Main Line, running between Liverpool Street and Southend Victoria on semi-fast services. In 1960 the electrification system on this route was change from 1,500 V DC to 25 kV AC overhead, necessitating the rebuild of the fleet.
Following refurbishment in 1983, the fleet saw continued use on both the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LTS) and Great Eastern routes. From 1986, a few trains were repainted in Network SouthEast livery. By 1990, however, the class had been displaced from the LTS route by Class 310 trains, themselves cascaded from the West Coast Main Line following introduction of new Class 321/4 trains, supplemented temporarily by Class 317 trains. The Class 307 trains did not last much longer on the Great Eastern route, following the introduction of new Class 321/3 and cascaded Class 312 trains.
By 1991, all Class 307 trains had been withdrawn from Network SouthEast services. However, five trains (307105/111/120/122/130) were overhauled at Doncaster Works for use on the newly electrified Wakefield Line service between Leeds and Doncaster. They received the West Yorkshire Metro maroon livery. The use of these units was intended as a stop-gap until three new Class 321/9 trains entered service. The final Class 307 trains were withdrawn in early 1993.
Following withdrawal, large-scale scrapping of the class was delayed as it was intended to rebuild the units as Class 300 parcels units. This plan was dropped in favour of building new Class 325 units. However, many of the driving trailer vehicles were eventually rebuilt as Propelling Control Vehicles (see below). The redundant intermediate trailers and motor vehicles were eventually scrapped.
Read more about this topic: British Rail Class 307
Famous quotes containing the word operations:
“It may seem strange that any road through such a wilderness should be passable, even in winter, when the snow is three or four feet deep, but at that season, wherever lumbering operations are actively carried on, teams are continually passing on the single track, and it becomes as smooth almost as a railway.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.”
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—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)