The Class 321 Farewell Tour - 29/04/23
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- Опубліковано 18 вер 2024
- Farewell Class 321s 1989 - 2023
On April 29 2023, Greater Anglia ran a farewell tour to mark the end of service of the Class 321. The event raised money for thee charities; East Anglia's Children's Hospices, Haven Hospices, and the Railway Mission.
The tour departed London Liverpool Street at 09:40 and arrived back at 18:57, after a day of travelling around Essex and Suffolk. I chased the tour managing to see it at quite a few places, those being London Liverpool Street, Bethnal Green, Colchester, Clacton-on-Sea, Thorpe-le-Soken, Manningtree, Ipswich, Southend Victoria, and Stratford.
The units used on the tour were 321307 and 321314, which are both Class 321/3s that were part of the Rents Project which extensively refurbished 321301-321330 to bring them to modern standards. The refurbishment included the installation of air conditioning, fixed panel windows and a new Vossloh Kiepe traction package. As a result of this the first 30 321/3s survived the longest with Greater Anglia, finally having their last day of scheduled service on April 3 2023.
The Class 321/3s were ordered by Network SouthEast in September 1987 to work the mid range services from London Liverpool Street, as well as on the then newly electrified routes to Ipswich and Harwich. They were built by British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) from 1988 - 1991. The units never strayed from their GEML base of operations and so have been a familiar sight for over 30 years.
Eversholt, who own the Class 321s, are looking for a new operator to lease the Rents units to, as their still recent refurbishment means the trains are up to modern standards and much better for passenger comfort than other units at a similar age to them. Hopefully a new operator presents themselves.
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Nice one!👍 I made it to Liverpool Street to see it depart.
Such a nice unit too.
I am a train enthusiast from Greece and I never knew about this train and I now regret it. It seems very shiny and reliable, and from what I can judge from both the interior and looks, it was revolutionary for its time. This really doesn't look like a train from the late 1980s. This tour reminds me of when we said farewell to the fifth batch of our metro trains here in Athens. I'm glad I can see that people in your country celebrate the life of your trains too.
These units were heavily refurbished in 2016 to give them air conditioning and other modern features.
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Let's face the facts. Class 309s, ( the Foster mothers of Class 321s ), had a life span to a maximum of roughly 38 years, which is not good enough, the Class 321s are having a lifespan of 35 years, which is even worse. I'm telling you 30 to 35 years in advance, as a warning; they're probably going to get rid of the Aventras when they are underaged. If they can do that to the 309s and the 321s then they can do that unfairly to the Aventras like 710s and 720s.