British Rail Class 165
The British Rail Class 165 "Networker" is a fleet of suburban diesel multiple-unit passenger trains (DMUs), originally specified by and built for the British Rail Thames and Chiltern Division of Network SouthEast. They were built by BREL York Works between 1990 and 1992. An express version was subsequently built in the form of the Class 166 "Networker Turbo Express" trains. Both classes are now sometimes referred to as "Networker Turbos", a name derived some three years later for the project that resulted in the visually similar and EMUs. The class is still in service, now  operated by Great Western Railway and by Chiltern Railways. When operated originally by Network SouthEast, along with that operator's Class 166 trains, the Paddington suburban units were initially known as Thames Turbos, while the units operated on the Marylebone suburban network were known as Chiltern Turbos. Description. Class 165/0. Thirty-nine Class 165/0 Networker trains were built in 1990-91, in two batches, for the Chiltern subdivision of Network SouthEast, numbered 165001-039. Both 2-car and 3-car variants were built. Initially, thirty-three units were ordered (comprising the vehicles that made up units 165001-165022 and 165029 -165039) but an additional order was placed for a further six units (165023-028). Units 165001-028 were delivered consecutively, as 2-car units, whilst units 165029-039 were delivered as 3-car units. These vehicles have a top speed of . They are now all fitted with tripcocks for working over the London Underground lines between Amersham and Harrow-on-the-Hill, although upon delivery this equipment was only fitted to 165006-028. Automatic Train Protection is also fitted, making them one of the few classes to have both these features in Britain. Each unit was formed of two outer  driving motors, with an additional intermediate motor in the 3-car units. The technical description of the formation is DMOSL+MOS+DMOS. Individual carriages are numbered as follows: Class 165/1. Thirty-seven Class 165/1 Networker trains were built in 1992 for the "Thames line" subdivision of Network SouthEast, numbered 165101-137. Like the "Chiltern" units, both 2-car and 3-car variants were built. Units 165101-117 were delivered as 3-car units, followed by the 2-car units 165118-137. They are re-geared and fitted with bogie yaw dampers to allow a top speed of , more suitable for mainline use . Each unit was formed of two outer driving motors, with an additional intermediate motor in the 3-car units. The technical description of the formation is DMOCL+MOS+DMOS. Although still listed on the vehicle data sheets at DMCL vehicles, the first-class area has been removed from 2-car 165s operated by GWR. As such these vehicles are now technically DMOSL vehicles. The 3-car units were similarly de-classified, but the first-class accommodation has now been re-instated on these. Individual carriages are numbered as follows: Unit 165115 was destroyed in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash. Operations. Chiltern Railways . The 165/0 units were originally delivered in Network SouthEast livery for used on routes including fast services from London Marylebone to Princes Risborough and Banbury and local services from Aylesbury to London and Princes Risborough. In this role they replaced the DMUs. They were later used further afield, when Chiltern services were extended to serve Leamington Spa, Warwick, Solihull and Birmingham Snow Hill / Birmingham Moor Street railway station. In December 1993, due to a downturn in traffic as a result of the recession, units 165001-007 were transferred from the Chiltern lines of Network SouthEast to the Thames lines (from  Aylesbury to Reading depots). All vehicles had their tripcock equipment removed before transfer. The following year, unit 165007 was returned to the Chiltern lines, followed by 165006 in 1995. Due to unavailability of tripcock equipment upon their return, the units were coupled cab-to-cab and operated for some months between the vehicles of other units as semi-permanently formed four-car units - until tripcock equipment became available, allowing them to be restored to operational two-car units. Following privatisation, two former Chiltern units (165003 and 165005) were repainted into Thames Trains livery. Chiltern Railways inherited 34 Class 165/0 units  from Network SouthEast, and the remaining five were returned from Thames Trains in 2004 - leaving Chiltern Railways operating the whole subclass. After privatisation they continued to work similar services as before but, with the arrival of the faster Class 168 "Clubman" units, the 165 "Turbo" trains were displaced and are now found less often on expresses to Birmingham, generally working on shorter routes such as stopping services to Aylesbury, High Wycombe, and Stratford-upon-Avon and also the Birmingham Moor Street - Leamington Spa local services. A new depot was built at Aylesbury in 1990/1991 for the maintenance of these trains  and has been enlarged since British Rail days, with the addition of a wheel lathe. Light maintenance and refuelling is carried out at Wembley LMD and Tyseley TMD, and units can occasionally be found at Stourbridge LMD. Units are also regularly stabled in the Marylebone station environs, Aylesbury South Sidings and at Banbury, where a further depot is currently under construction at the south end of the station on the western side of the line. All Chiltern units were refurbished between late 2003 and early 2005. Air conditioning was added and the opening hopper windows replaced with sealed units. A  new passenger information system, similar to that on the Class 168 "Clubman" trains, CCTV cameras and an area designated for the use of wheelchair users were added and the first-class section was removed, as Chiltern became a standard-class-only railway in 2003. The original 3+2 seating at the outer ends of the driving vehicles was replaced by new 2+2 high-back seating. The existing 3+2 low-back seating was retained in the centre areas of the driving vehicles and throughout the centre vehicles of the three-car units. A cycle/wheelchair area  with tip-up seats was also added to each unit. A further refurbishment began in 2015, concentrating on the toilet areas, to make these units fully Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)-compliant for operation beyond 2020. They can often be found on the Aylesbury to London Marylebone routes including the Princes Risborough shuttle. Great Western Railway. Thames Valley. The Class 165/1 fleet were built for local services from along the Great Western Main Line; their main destinations included local trains to , , , , Oxford, and , and services along the branch lines to , , and . Following the privatisation of British Rail, the franchise was won  by the Go-Ahead Group, who operated it as Thames Trains from 1996 to 2004 and inherited all the Class 165/1 "Turbo" trains as well as the first five Class 165/0 "Turbo" trains that had been transferred from the Chiltern lines. In April 2004, operation of the Thames Trains franchise passed to First Great Western Link. In 2004, due to deliveries of new Class 180 "Adelante" units on sister company First Great Western, the five Class 165/0 "Turbo" units became redundant and were transferred to Chiltern Railways. In January 2010, First Great Western announced an £8 million refurbishment programme  for its fleet of Classes 165 and 166 Turbo DMU trains: In 2012, First Great Western took delivery of Class 180 "Adelante" units for Cotswold Line services, and three-car "Sprinter" units for Reading to Basingstoke Line services, allowing Class 165 and 166 units to be used to reinforce Thames Valley services. In late 2015, as part of the rebranding to GWR, the Class 165 fleet had all first-class sections removed to increase capacity. Following the electrification of the Great Western Main Line up to Didcot Parkway, as well as the Reading-Taunton line as far as Newbury, services  between London Paddington and Didcot Parkway, as well as between Reading and Newbury, have been operated by new Class 387 electric multiple units, allowing much of the existing Class 165 fleet to move to the Bristol area. Class 165s continue to service the aforementioned branch lines, but no longer run to London Paddington except during peak hours. Bristol area. Following the transfer of the 166 units to St Philip's Marsh depot in July 2017, some of the 165 services have since followed on with the first 165 operating in the Bristol area in July 2018. Since then and alongside  the 166s, they have rapidly been introduced on other services such as the Weston-super-Mare to Filton Abbey Wood (now Weston-super-Mare / Bristol Temple Meads to Severn Beach / Filton Abbey Wood)services, the Cardiff Central to Taunton services, the Golden Valley Line, the Heart of Wessex Line and also some services on the Wessex Main Line as far as Warminster and Southampton Central. In January 2019, they began operating the regional service between Cardiff Central and Portsmouth Harbour which allowed more of the Class 158 units that solely operated this service to move more west. The transfer of the  165 (and 166) units to services in and around Bristol and Exeter have overall allowed units that previously operated these services to move further west, such as the Class 150 and Class 158 units. More so than the 166 units, a lot of the 165 units remain to be based at Reading TMD where they continue to operate Thames Valley services until they are replaced by Class 769 units. Once all of the units are replaced in this area, it is planned that they will all be refurbished internally with improved interiors that are better suited for the longer journeys  they are doing now. Hybridisation. It was reported in September 2018 that Angel Trains was to convert class 165 units for Chiltern Railways to hybrid diesel and battery-powered trains. In April 2020, two-car unit 165004 was sent to LORAM rail at Derby for HyDrive conversion. In February 2022, the unit was reported to have entered revenue service. Both diesel-hydraulic drives were replaced by electric drives. The battery is charged by diesel engines, making the drive effectively a hybridized diesel-electric drive.