Class 150/1 units... gangway doors?

[thelongestroad]

On some 150/1 units that I work, I notice some of the secondman sides have room built in on the corners of the desk in the cab where gangway doors are secured like on 150/2 units. They're either patched over with a strip of metal/plastic or on some units you can see the mold just like the 150/2 units.

Given that and that the area where the door should be is kept clear on 150/1s, were they built with adding a gangway door in mind at a later date?

 

[edwin_m]

Is this because the 150 was produced by minimum modification to the EMU build that was in York works at the time? This would probably have been one batch of 317 or 455, some of which have very similar ends but including gangways. If the client said they didn't want gangways then it would be logical to do the minimum of changes to remove them from the design - something which paid off when the next batch were specified to have gangways again!

 

[driver9000]

Most likely done at time of build to keep costs down. Why make 2 slightly different desks when one will do even if it has a small cut out section that isn't needed? As far as I'm aware there were never any plans to retro fit gangways to the front of the 150/1s, they would have needed the slam doors removing too.

 

[455driver]

Some have probably had replacement desks fitted in the past and all replacements are to the 150/2, 317, 455 style.