The British Rail Class 483 electrical multiple units were originally built as 1938 tube stock units for London Underground. They were extensively refurbished between 1989 and 1992 by Eastleigh Works, for use on services on the Isle of Wight's Island Line. This was despite having already worked for nearly fifty years on the London Underground. The units replaced the even older and life-expired Class 485 and Class 486 units, which were introduced in 1967, but were originally built as 'Standard' stock units for the London Electric Railway in 1923. As of 2012, most Class 483 units are now 74 years old, making them the oldest trains in Great Britain to still be in service, though South West Trains is not looking to replace them on Island Line services.
Read more about British Rail Class 483: Fleet Details, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words british, rail and/or class:
“If we were doing this in the Falklands they would love it. Its part of our heritage. The British have always been fighting wars.”
—British soccer fan. quoted in Independent (London, Dec. 23, 1988)
“Old man, its four flights up and for what?
Your room is hardly any bigger than your bed.
Puffing as you climb, you are a brown woodcut
stooped over the thin rail and the wornout tread.”
—Anne Sexton (19281974)
“God of justice, save the people
From the clash of race and creed,
From the strife of class and faction,
Make our nation free indeed;”
—William Pierson Merrill (18671954)