THE EMUPS
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Hello! If you’ve just arrived here from: www.emups.org.uk
-fear not! You’ve
actually landed on a page on the Pontypool-and-Blaenavon Railway website,
which is temporarily hosting EMUPS material.
This page is therefore the EMUPS temporary home page. If we seem like odd bedfellows, read
on. We’d also be very pleased if you
take a peek at the more normal things you’d expect to find on a South Wales
Heritage Railway by clicking on the ‘return to homepage’ ticket at the bottom
of this page. If you want to get back
here, go to ‘Rolling Stock’ and navigate from there.. |
First uploaded 2 May 08
Small corrections 7 May 08
Link added 2 December 08
More links added 19 Dec 08
Tidied up
Minor changes
Updated
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There are a number of pages
relating to EMUPS activities linked to this page. Scroll to the bottom of this page to see
them. |
The PBR and EMUPS
What all
this then? It’s a rather odd initiative
from the PBR to accommodate a group and their train, which, in essence, and
through no fault of their own (more on that below), had been given their
marching orders from their previous home on the Dartmoor Railway. This happened at just the same time that the
PBR had decided to ‘cash-in’ on some of the spare siding capacity that it had
at its disposal. PBR are proud to serve
as hosts to another group of committed preservationists, and hopes for a long
and successful association.
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3-CEP 1198 rolls gently into Platform 1 at Furnace
Sidings Freshly painted in Rail Blue,
it was taking part in PBR’s first ‘Southern with Altitude’ event, a largely
unadvertised, ad hoc, event held over the weekend 14 and Here, on the Sunday, the unit is being driven
using ‘through control’ in order to ‘drive’ the class 73 locomotive at the
back of the train (photo Alistair Grieve) |
About EMUPS
The Electric Multiple Unit Preservation Society Ltd, (EMUPS) is a
registered company and limited by guarantee.
Its members are all committed volunteers, anxious to preserve a wide
cross-section of Electric Multiple Units
(EMUs). Our aim, eventually, is
to gain charitable status and benefit from gift aid and other advantages afforded
to such groups.
EMUPS saved, owns, and
maintains a three-coach third-rail Electric Multiple Unit (EMU), Unit
No.1198. A four-car unit was built in
1960 as a so-called 4-Cep class for BR(Southern Region) for the
The
Unit’s previous home, the Dartmoor Railway was owned by Ealing Community
Transport (ECT). Around January 2008 ECT
abruptly announced that they were going to close the
EMUPS has a few rules, one of
which is that if the line on which our unit resides requires our help, we drop
tools and help the host railway. Thus
the host railway does not just gain a working unit, but also expertise from our
members who can be called upon to provide skilled assistance. Our unit, 1198, was purchased as a working
train straight from the main line. We are therefore keen for it to operate on a
regular basis. Of course, currently, no
conventional heritage railway is electrified with the third rail (or overhead
for that matter), so the best we can do for the present is to haul the unit
with a suitable locomotive, such as a class 73 electro-diesel.
About us:
Who we are - what we do – special responsibilities
Chairman - planning and direction - Philip Roy
Vice Chairman - Liaison with other preservation societies - Albert
Mutton
Director - Administration work and organisation - Robert Burch
Company Secretary - Financial management and planning - Chris da
Silva-Skinner
Electrical engineer – ETH work - Martyn
Hewitson-Griffiths
Fitters – maintenance and exams – Darren Franklin and Julian Pope
Membership Secretary – Chris Newbury
Magazine editor - Norman Worsfold
Find out More
We have a Yahoo! Group, which you can join immediately if you are
registered with Yahoo.
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/EMUPreservationSociety/
If you are not
registered with Yahoo!, then click the button above to begin the registration
process
-we post events and so on, on the
group’s pages, so please feel free to join up.
How
you can help
Like all railway preservation
groups there is a perennial shortage of both funding and volunteers.
Insofar as funding is concerned,
donations of any amount will be gratefully received. If you want to volunteer then please contact
anyone on this website by either phone or email , If you can help in any other
way, please let us know.
Life membership of the EMU Preservation Society is £350, donate that,
and you are in for life.
If you cannot afford £350, then whatever you can manage will be
calculated in membership at £15.00 per year.
We now have 1198 at a line where it will be cared for, looked after
along with other EMUs – 1198 was 2314 before it became a 3-car unit and went to
the Lymington Line - and most importantly – run in service!
Send
donations and membership orders to
Chris
Newbury
EMUPS
c/o Hilary Press,
75,
Hendon,
Our Plans:
Once we have paid the transport costs we can return to our plans which are:
[1] Light and heat. Thanks to Martyn Hewitson-Griffiths,
1198 already has ETH fitted to the DMSA end, and we hope to add this to the
other end as well.
[2] Disability access. We are in the process of
fitting a disabled door, similar to that used in 1699 to allow a wheelchair
passenger to sit in a proper compartment with friends, family or carers.
[3] Safety features. 1198 is electrically complete,
and we are willing to consider the fitting of Secondary Door Locking and make
other changes in time to allow a return to the mainline. These fittings should
also permit over 25mph running on other lines, thus making the unit of use to
community-based as well as conventional preserved lines.
[4] Educational value. As a CEP, 1198 will provide a
contrast with the other three surviving CEP units; one of which is to be
retro-fitted and two are to remain post-Swindon (BR modifications 1970’s) but
with earlier liveries. 1198 will be taking things forward – how would the CEPs
have had to change had they been allowed to continue on the mainline?
[5] Flexibility of use. We are working on detachable
tables that can fit over the trinket trays to allow buffet operations using the
unit.
[6] Traction. We are looking into ways of fitting
batteries to the unit to allow limited amount of traction for running, shunting,
etc., thus saving on diesel propulsion and its fuel.
1198 on the mainline.
1198 started off as a Phase 2 Kent Coast
Electrification 4CEP [Corridored Electro-Pneumatic] unit, number 7175; it saw
regular use on Boat trains and other services from
It went for refurbishment at
It remained there until retirement; in its last years
it lost its buffet car and gained a TSO, (Trailer Second Open) reverting to a
4CEP, numbered 2314.
From June 2004, it was
transferred to run on the Lymington Line
till December of that year, and lost the TSO it had for a few months, becoming
a 3CEP, and numbered 1198. Staff on the
Lymigton branch unofficially named 1198 ‘Linda’. Another 3CEP, 1199, worked the branch before
Linda and was dubbed ‘Lucy’, whilst ‘Lisa’, a 3CIG (Class 421) came later and
worked the branch. Collectively they
were called ’The Lymington Flyers’. 1198 was secured for preservation in January
2005 when it went to the Dartmoor Railway
1198 since preservation
The start of 1198`s life after the mainline.
1198 nearly wasn’t saved; EMUPS had an agreement to
bring a FOUR car unit to
The plan was to convert 2315 into a 3 Car unit [The
Railway Inspectorate does not permit propelling of 4 or more vehicles so a 3
car was needed anyway] and use the TSO for stores, eventually donating it to
the EPBPG who own 2325/7105, thus giving them the complete original unit.
However a short-lived HSE restriction meant we could
only have 1198, but after the restriction lifted, we helped negotiate for both
2315 and 2311 to be saved at the Eden Valley Railway. In this way the only four
complete CEP units were saved; 2325, 1198, 2311 and 2315.
There have been a number of setbacks, after arrival
we were told the airbraked steam locomotive 1198 was to have worked with had a
damaged boiler and was unable to enter service; the replacement was vacuum
braked, and thus incompatible with our unit.
In autumn 2007 the unit was passed fit to run, and
the unit was used for several driver training runs at line speed to and from
Coleford with a class 73 loco working in multiple. The unit was popular with
the drivers and other operational staff at the line.
Unfortunately, later in 2007 a change of stock policy
by the railway rendered the unit surplus to their requirements. The storage
agreement ran out in April and so we had to find a new home for 1198 – and here
we are at Blaenavon.
The Unit.
1198 is a highly versatile unit; it consists of two
Driving Motor Second Open (DMSO) vehicles with 64 standard seats per carriage,
with a centre Trailer Brake Composite (TBC) vehicle with two toilets, four 1st
class compartments with 6 seats each, a guards brake, a goods area next to a
standard class compartment of 6 seats.
The unit is gangwayed throughout, making for easy
access for passengers and train crew to any part of the train.
Works already completed.
On arrival at the Dartmoor Railway, work got underway
to repaint 1198. We were told it had to be in Atlantic Coast Green, and we were
able to get it into the correct undercoat in time for the 2006 Diesel
Gala. We are not greatly concerned about
the colour scheme, so long as it runs in service; one more coat of paint is,
after all, more protection. Electric
Train Heating (ETH) was fitted to the DMSA end and provides light to the whole
unit and heat to the DMSA and TBC. Plans
to extend ETH to the third (DMSB) carriage are now on hold for the moment. A lot of work has been done to improve
flooring and window frames, repair lavatory valves, fix loose fittings etc.
These works, although minor, all add up to make 1198 a pleasant, comfortable
and safe unit.
Future Plans.
We have cut a doorway from the goods area to the
standard compartment to allow a wheelchair user to enter by the double doors in
the goods area and access the standard compartment by way of the new door.
Plans are also being made to fit removable tables; these would fit over the
existing trinket trays and have a fold-back leg, to allow the unit to work as a
dining train, or as it was built, or as a combination of both.
There are a number of files
relating to EMUPS activities linked to this page. They are listed below:
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Click
HERE for a brief history of ‘CEPs, CIGs and the rest’, by Albert Mutton (added Click
HERE for a selection of flyers, produced when
3 Cep unit 1198 was at Click
HERE for a debate on ‘in what livery should
1198 appear’ Click
HERE-to find out just what CEPs (and BEPs)
are left Click
HERE for that all-important resource
– - the ‘Preserved EMU’ spreadsheet – version updated 12 February 2009 |
