Should a Class 365 unit be preserved?

[JonathanH]

If your going to preserve anything, it would be more sense to wait a few years and then preserve a 165 DMU rather than a 365 (or a 465 for that matter), as they are all much the same apart from method of traction, length, and speed; and a 165 could at least be used for excursions more widely. You could paint it in 365 colours if you wanted.

Would someone need to go to Booths and purchase the 'smiley' front end to make it look like a 365 as well?

 

[JKF]

I wish we had a few of the redundant EMUs used as ‘glamping coaches’ so they’d at least be retained for a few years until such a time that they might be noted as something historical. I’d love to stick a few 313s in a field somewhere for Airbnb if I had the money and site.

It’s strange we’ve had all these community uses for donated pacers on quite a scale but other series are becoming extinct.

 

[2192]

Would someone need to go to Booths and purchase the 'smiley' front end to make it look like a 365 as well?

Yes, why not, if they knew how to swop it! I don't suppose there is a recess in the roof to take a pantograph...

 

[Mikey C]

The 365 is surely the least important member of the "Networker/Turbo" family anyway, so would be an odd choice to preserve.

 

[Titch]

Correct. The damaged driving car, and one trailer. The other trailer was scrapped at Booths a year or two ago. This leaves the other driving vehicle unaccounted for - as far as we know this still exists, unless it has slipped away under the radar.

Cheers for the confirmation.

 

[bramling]

The 365 is surely the least important member of the "Networker/Turbo" family anyway, so would be an odd choice to preserve.

Depends how one looks at it. They’re generally regarded as having been the best of the Networker/Turbo family, which counts in their favour. Then there’s the claim to fame that 365541 can probably be regarded as the final BR train, as well as the final unit built at York.

I think they have as much claim as anything else. It wouldn’t go amiss to put one back to the original interior. Most of the “dumbing down” changes could be fairly easily undone.

I hope some get saved. It hasn’t helped that they have disappeared rather prematurely, so won’t really have been in anyone’s thoughts. This conversation should have been happening 10-20 years in the future.

I’d have a car in my garden if only I could get it in.

 

[43096]

The 365 is surely the least important member of the "Networker/Turbo" family anyway, so would be an odd choice to preserve.

In some ways the 365 is the most representative of the Networker electric sets, if you're only going to preserve one, as they are ABB bodywork/build with GEC-Alsthom traction kit.

 

[JonathanH]

I’d have a car in my garden if only I could get it in.

I reckon the cab would make a good greenhouse if you could get Booths to sell you the front end.

 

[Ianno87]

If we're talking about preserving to "capture the imagination" of the general public, then 365s probably don't pass that test. Good trains, but pretty functional commuter units at the end of the day, only regularly used on a contained, fairly unglamorous part of the network.

The other issue is the image of the units being synonymous with the Potters Bar accident. The sight of the driving car wedged sideways under the station canopy is still lodged in the consciousness of many.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 7 Oct 2021 ==

The 365 is surely the least important member of the "Networker/Turbo" family anyway, so would be an odd choice to preserve.

This.

As trains go, a relatively inconsequential fleet.

 

[westcoaster]

Correct. The damaged driving car, and one trailer. The other trailer was scrapped at Booths a year or two ago. This leaves the other driving vehicle unaccounted for - as far as we know this still exists, unless it has slipped away under the radar.

Didn't it reside at Wolverton iirc. Sure it was used for paint testing.

 

[bramling]

The other issue is the image of the units being synonymous with the Potters Bar accident. The sight of the driving car wedged sideways under the station canopy is still lodged in the consciousness of many.

Really can't see the issue there. Apart from that it was two decades ago, no one seems to suggest we shouldn't preserve something like an HST, which has of course had many TV appearances in unfortunate circumstances. In any case, the 365 performed reasonably well at Potters Bar considering it derailed at the full 100 mph.

 

[Mamorin]

Eversholt will allow a unit from 365441 to be preserved if a reasonable offer is put forward by like a museum or the like.

Photo is a screen shot from Rail Issue 942 where this is reported alongside infomation on the 365s that have been scrapped.

 

[skyhigh]

Photo is a screen shot from Rail Issue 942 where this is reported alongside infomation on the 365s that have been scrapped.

Sounds about right for Rail, with the headline 'Can a unit from 365541 be saved?', when the text is pretty clear they mean a vehicle as the whole thing is the unit....