Class 455s on the West London Line

[43021HST]

Looking through some old photographs from around 2010, I noticed I'd taken pictures of some Class 455s at Kensington Olympia, after some sleuthing on this thread, I believe these operated as far as the North Pole Turnback siding but what was their destination in the other direction? was it only Clapham Junction or did these operate further?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

At least on service a day operated linked Olympia with Wandsworth Road as a 'Parliamentary' service to avoid closing a short section of line served only by withdrawn Cross Country services from Brighton to the north. IIRC it partially replaced the infamous weekly bus service from Ealing Broadway to Wandsworth Road which served the same purpose.

 

[GW43125]

Weekdays in 2011:
-10.04 Kenny O to Wandsworth Road 4/455 (came in ECS from Shepherds Bush), later in the day worked 16.12 Wandsworth Road-Kenny O & 16.34 to Clapham.
-Another 455 came in and out with the 16.48 Clapham Jn-Kenny O & 17.00 return.
-07.50 East Croyon-Shepherds Bush 4/377, returns in service to Clapham
-08.48 Clapham-Shepherds Bush 4/377, returns in service to Clapham
-08.39 East Croydon-Shepherds Bush 4/455 (ECS to Kensington to form the Wandsworth Road)
-09.24 Clapham-Shepherds Bush 4/377, returns in Service to Clapham
-17.20 Clapham-Shepherds Bush 4/455, shunts round and returns to Purley in service.

Weekdays in 2016:
-0814 Clapham-Shepherds Bush 5/377D returns to Clapham in service
-0850 Clapham-Shepherds 5/377D returns to Clapham in service
-0840 East Croydon-Shepherds Bush 4/455 shunts via North Pole and back to Clapham in service
-0924 Clapham-Shepherds Bush 5/377D, ECS back to Streatham Hill Depot
-1720 Clapham-Shepherds bush 6/377, shunts round & returns to Purley in service.

There were also two round trips Clapham-Kenny O but these ran with 6 car 377s.

So you timed it well to get the 455, only one was booked towards the end!

 

[Galvanize]

Sometimes on Sundays if there was a closure on the WCML, a Class 455 would be employed on Shepherds Bush-Clapham Junction shuttles, going up to North Pole Junction.

 

[D7666]

Going back further in time, to when the WLL was newly electrified from CLJ, there was a period when the CLJ-OLY peak SX shuttle was (on paper) a 455 and another period (on paper) a 4Cig.

I never managed neither 455 or Cig at that period: I had a 4Vep one way one day, and another day, a 3H the other way another day that was after the 4Vep, when booked EMU not DEMU. It /was/ a DEMU for a period up to electrification, but this was some weeks after EMU were the norm.

The other thing to note is the 21C 455s were from SN (i.e. from the Central side) whereas the 20C 455s were from the South Western side, as it was SWD provided those trains then.

Which is another example of why I say again and again do not assume that paper diagrams are actually what happened (q.v. 304/310 thread about LH cobblers).

It is interesting how that former SX peak service morphed through time with the way the route developed, the number of different train types I have had to/from 0lympia NOT counting railtours through the place that will grossly distort the picture

I make it
313
319
350
377/2 *
377/7 *
373 = not on a railtour
378 (3car and 4car and 5car)
455
456 - this was 2x456 vice 455 one Sunday - I still owe the controller who txtd me a pint for me to go for that one
4Vep
3H
3R
33+LH
33+TC
73+TC
73+TC+73
25 / 2x25 (motorail)
47 LH
50 LH

* IMHO a 377/2 and 377/7 are sufficiently different internally to count one type each

Someone will be along in a minute and wibble about 09s - this is largely a myth distorted out of all recognition from fact - there were maybe a miniscule number of such workings, maybe only 1-2 dates, if that, and at least one person I knew who alleged to have had two different ones was b**ls**t**g yet these alleged workings seem to have been believed. Anyone saying otherwise please provide _hard_ evidence.