LNER electric units

In 1937 the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) received a fleet of articulated electric multiple units for use on the Tyneside Electric lines. These lines linked the English city of Newcastle upon Tyne with the coast at North Shields and South Shields. They were in service until electric services stopped in 1967.

 History 
 Construction 
In June 1935, the LNER ordered 132 cars from Metro-Cammell to replace the old trains from the early 20th century. 64 two-car sets were made from 128 cars. The remainder were two luggage vans and two parcel vans, both single units. The traction motors were sourced from . Westinghouse supplied the electrical control equipment. The new Tyneside units were the only articulated EMUs to be in regular service in Britain, until the Eurostar trains appeared in 1993.

 Service 
The new trains entered service on 30 July 1937. Round trip times were shortened from 63 minutes to 53.

The trains were originally painted red and cream. During the Second World War, they were recoloured blue and off-white. This was made to make enemy planes harder to spot the trains. In the post-war times, British Railways recoloured the trains again to green. Towards the end of their service life, some trains had some yellow on their front.

When built, the trains had some first-class seating. This was changed on 4 May 1959, when British Railways decided to make all of the seats second-class.

 Demise 
During the 1960s, fewer people took the trains. The South Tyneside service had 2.5 million passengers in 1961, which was less than 3.5 million in 1956. This may have been caused by the increase in automobile usage, housing development away from railways, and bus competition.

In March 1962, Dr.  made a speech at Newcastle. He noted about the falling finances on both the North and South Tyneside electric services. In addition, the cost of renewing the electrical infrastructure was becoming too expensive.

The South Tyneside line was the first to be de-electrified on 6 January 1963. Diesel multiple units were used as replacements. On 6 March 1967, a new timetable showed that more diesel trains were to be transferred from the Western Region. These replaced the remaining electric trains on the North Tyneside line. The last of the electrics were pulled from service on 17 June of the same year.

 Related pages 
 British Rail Class 416

 Notes 

 Explanatory notes 

 Sources 





 Other websites 
 The LNER Tyneside Electric Multiple Units - LNER Encyclopedia

LNER