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Class 701 'Aventra' trains for South Western Railway: progress updates

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NSEWonderer

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20251209_171504.jpg

Surprised to see my Pass train being 701030 which was introduced today as earlier posts mention. Working up to Waterloo from Windsor this evening.
 
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GW43125

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But why did they only do this on Sunday? There was the same reversal at Twickenham on Saturday but I don't think there were any 701s on the Reading line at all.
4/9 Reading diagrams were 701 on Saturday.
None on the Barnes-Woking runs on Sunday so I wonder whether there's a crew competence gap there? (as well as the service only being hourly)
 

Peter Sarf

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The move is on for today, I forgot that the previous attempt the loco didn't look to leave Marchwood. 47739 doing the honours today, drag is approaching Eastleigh now:
Yes. Had me fooled, I was totally confused by the reported loco as well.

EDIT 10/12/2025 to clarify the unit delivered is reported to be 701038. /EDIT
So, there is another 5Q84 Marchwood to Wimbledon now shown on RTT for tomorrow (Wed 10/12) ans another for Thursday (11/12), 47727 appears to be in the area as well as 47739 - but surely Wimbledon will not be able to accommodate 3 "new" units ?? Wait and see what happens. 701002 appears to be out again on 5Qxx runs today, might this be an early contender to enter service?
Might be room with 701030 just flying the nest today and 701059 last Thursday. Four 455s will be gone this week as well (if Derby does not choke)..

Only
701022,
701029 &
701032.
Left at Marchwood.
 
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Snow1964

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73128

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Appears to be running a one off service today on the 2J92 07:52 Surbiton to Waterloo service, before returning to Wimbledon Park
Out again today. It's gone to Reading (Wednesday) morning.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

But why did they only do this on Sunday? There was the same reversal at Twickenham on Saturday but I don't think there were any 701s on the Reading line at all.
Saturday had Reading to Waterloo services only calling Kingston and Strawberry Hill, with Windsor services taking the roundabout paths and additional Kingston bay to Barnes trains. So 6 an hour!! There were 701s on Reading.
 

WWTownEnth

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Are we likely to get details of next weeks’s two new diagrams today? Or will they not show up in the STPs because they are being wrapped into the new timetable changes?
 

TEW

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Are we likely to get details of next weeks’s two new diagrams today? Or will they not show up in the STPs because they are being wrapped into the new timetable changes?
It is up to 32 diagrams but that does involve changes to current diagrams too with the start of the new timetable. I will type them out later when I get a chance.
 

Peter Wilde

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There will be a guarantee on the paint - around 8 years, maybe more. GBR is unlikely to wish to spend money repainting trains before that is up.
Interesting - but will the 8 years run from now, or the original date the stock was intended to start running?
 

Roylang

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It depends on who provides the guarantee - if it is the paint manufacturer then it'll most likely start from the date of application, so some will already be out of guarantee!
But isn’t that why vinyls became prevalent? The paint is untouched and remains within warranty.

Roy
 

Big Jumby 74

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I'm no expert in vinyls as applied to trains, but as has been touched on above, paint, and good quality/application of same, goes a long way to delaying corrosion in many applications. To my mind vinyls can be a good (and cheaper?) way of adding temporary themes to train body shells, be it Poppy Day appeal or what ever, something that can then be removed at a later date without causing any significant damage to the underlying paint.

From personal experience I found water based paint in the auto trade, has its drawbacks durability wise, but that's another story!
 

Ian Hardy

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But isn’t that why vinyls became prevalent? The paint is untouched and remains within warranty.

Roy
But the vinyls have to be applied carefully so that water cannot find it's way underneath the vinyl layer and then cause corrosion, i think that has been a problem with older stock.
 

Mike Machin

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The SW Desiro fleet went around 15 to in some cases nearly 20 years before a repaint. With the 450s and 444s having just had a major mid-term thorough repaint, I don’t think GBR is going to make much of an impact in our part of the world other than a few vinyl overlays and logos.

Back to the thread, living down in the Solent area although I have seen many 701s I think it could be quite a while until I have the opportunity to travel on one unfortunately.
 

Snow1964

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From Monday 32 10 car sets diagrammed each day on a variety of former 455 routes with 34(?) accepted for passenger use.
There is one more week where some 455s might be used, then Christmas and New Year weeks which are never as busy (mainline trains might be 8 cars releasing 450s),

The real test of diagrams will come Monday 5th January, when most people go back to work. It is unclear how busy it will be (especially as some big companies are upping office days for 2026) as SWR is still operating a thinned out timetable (and to old slower 455 timings) even though the recent ORR station usage figures showed some stations at a 25 year high (eg Virginia Water, Godalming etc)
 

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