London Overground Class 378’s

[Chas1979]

Hi all, I wondered if anyone could advise whether there is any distinction between which LO lines 378/1’s work versus 378/2’s - I ask this as have been out on a few excursions to try to mop these all up and I have found myself seeing most of the former (repeatedly!) and a lot less of the latter - leading me to think maybe they tend to be found assigned to particular lines as a generalisation? Does anyone have any perspectives on this please or has this just been a coincidence? Thanks, Chas

 

[JonathanH]

Hi all, I wondered if anyone could advise whether there is any distinction between which LO lines 378/1’s work versus 378/2’s - I ask this as have been out on a few excursions to try to mop these all up and I have found myself seeing most of the former (repeatedly!) and a lot less of the latter - leading me to think maybe they tend to be found assigned to particular lines as a generalisation? Does anyone have any perspectives on this please or has this just been a coincidence? Thanks, Chas

The 20 378/1s only work on third rail so only work from New Cross Depot on Highbury & islington / Dalston Junction to New Cross / West Croydon / Crystal Palace / Clapham Junction (East London Line) services

378/2s work on third rail and overhead electrics so can work on the Stratford to Richmond / Clapham Junction (North London Line) route. In practice, there is typically one or two on the Euston to Watford Junction line working alongside 710s and a number are needed to supplement the 378/1s on the Highbury & islington / Dalston Junction to New Cross / West Croydon / Crystal Palace / Clapham Junction routes.

So, if you go to the East London Line route, you will see both 378/1s and 378/2s but if you keep going back there it will take a long time for all the 378/2s to cycle round for a spell on that line.

 

[NSE]

One batch is DC only and you find them on the East London and South London lines. I can’t remember which. They have the panto wells for future conversion, just don’t have the attached. You get AC ones occasionally crop up (there’s a small bit of AC wiring at New Cross Gate depot (I assume) for testing/maintenance) on the ELL and SLL lines. The AC/DC fleet operate out of Willesden TMD so the Watford DC line is served by the dual fleet.

Although, as JonathanH points out, the 710’s are serving the DC line now!

 

[JonathanH]

You get AC ones occasionally crop up

Once the route through to Clapham Junction opened, maybe even before, there weren't enough DC only 378s to run all the services out of New Cross Gate depot so the use of 378/2s on those services is very much more than "occasionally crop up".

 

[StephenHunter]

The Romford to Upminster and GOBLIN lines are 710s only; the former operated 315/317/321 previously and the latter 172s before it was wired.

 

[Skoodle]

New Cross Gate is the main maintenance facility for the entire 378 fleet, so there will always be a number of dual voltage units on ELL routes. As others have said, the 378/1 DC only units ONLY stay on ELL routes.

 

[172101]

All the Clapham-Dalston diagrams except for one are booked for 378/2' and there are also 2 other 378/2 diagrams that work on the West Croydon section. All the rest rest are 378/1's

 

[swt_passenger]

I once went back through some of the various TfL board papers that explain the 378 orders. When they ordered and got the original trains, the dual voltage fleet was sized exactly for the NLL, WLL, Watford DC, and then the DC trains were just right for the initial ELL frequency.

As various small subsequent orders were made for frequency increases and eventually for the SLL, there was a conscious decision made that all later orders would be for dual voltage units wherever they were to be used. So the balance of the overall fleet gives them more dual voltage units than they need normally, but more flexibility overall.