British Rail class 502

[robertclark125]

The class 502 emu's oeprated out of the old Liverpool Exchange station until it was replaced by Moorfields in 1978. With their replacement by 507 units in 1980, only one class 502 remains, kept at Tebay.

The gradients on the new underground sections took their toll on the 502's, causing their reliability problems. Is it fair to say that as they weren't designed to work underground originally, this proved to be their deathknell?

And while I am not questioning the motives of the class 502 group, who keep the sole survivor, will it ever be restored?

 

[RobShipway]

Having travelled to Liverpool for a long weekend during the 1980's and had the pleasure(?) of going both a class 502 to Southport from Liverpool, then travelling back later in the day on a class 507 train, I can safely say that I do think that the class 502 trains were not designed for the Liverpool underground routes in mind.

I believe the class 507/508 trains were designed with the Liverpool Underground in mind, it just happens that the Southern Region needed some suburban stock a.s.a.p in the last 1970's so the class 508 trains moved south.

 

[A60K]

Having travelled to Liverpool for a long weekend during the 1980's and had the pleasure(?) of going both a class 502 to Southport from Liverpool, then travelling back later in the day on a class 507 train, I can safely say that I do think that the class 502 trains were not designed for the Liverpool underground routes in mind.

I believe the class 507/508 trains were designed with the Liverpool Underground in mind, it just happens that the Southern Region needed some suburban stock a.s.a.p in the last 1970's so the class 508 trains moved south.

The 508s were delivered as new to the Southern Region originally, but AIUI were seen as a bit strange and not in the Southern tradition - so they migrated to Merseyside, being replaced by 455s with the traditional SR gubbins (couplings, pipes etc).

 

[455driver]

The 508s were delivered as new to the Southern Region originally, but AIUI were seen as a bit strange and not in the Southern tradition - so they migrated to Merseyside, being replaced by 455s with the traditional SR gubbins (couplings, pipes etc).

The 508s were always going to end up on Merseyside (hence the auto coupling), it was agreed that as the Southern region needed new trains immediately the 508s would be built with an extra trailer and delivered direct to the Southern.
After the first batch of 455s were delivered (as 4 coach trains 4558xx) the immediate problems on the Southern were resolved so the second batch (4557xx) were built as 3 coach trains and were fitted with the extra coach removed from the 508s as they were transfered to Merseyside.