444 019 Northam Jct 14.6.21
The updated face of traction on the South West Main Line in the summer of 2021. Class 444 Desiro 444 019 leads 1B27, the 13.35 London Waterloo to Poole as it skirts the edge of the Itchen on its approach to the Mount Pleasant Road crossing in Southampton. Fully refurbished and repainted in new SWR house colours, the unit has also been embellished with rainbow stripes on its cabsides as SWR’s ‘Trainbow’, having assumed the role to mark the start of Pride Month in June 2020.
The 45-strong fleet of Class 444s were built by Siemens at their Vienna plant before undergoing extensive trials on the test-track at Wildenrath. The trains are formed of five cars, comprising a DMSO, two TSOs, a TSRMB, and a DMCO. One carriage in each unit is fitted with a recess for a pantograph. The 444s entered service in early 2004, replacing 4-CEP, 4-CIG, and 4-VEP slam-door stock, and latterly the Class 442s, on main line services from Waterloo to Weymouth, Bournemouth, Southampton, and Portsmouth. Originally delivered in their own largely white ‘Stagecoach Long-Distance’ livery, the 444s operate alongside, and frequently in multiple with, their fellow Desiros, the 450s, rarely straying from former L&SWR metals.
444 019 Northam Jct 14.6.21
The updated face of traction on the South West Main Line in the summer of 2021. Class 444 Desiro 444 019 leads 1B27, the 13.35 London Waterloo to Poole as it skirts the edge of the Itchen on its approach to the Mount Pleasant Road crossing in Southampton. Fully refurbished and repainted in new SWR house colours, the unit has also been embellished with rainbow stripes on its cabsides as SWR’s ‘Trainbow’, having assumed the role to mark the start of Pride Month in June 2020.
The 45-strong fleet of Class 444s were built by Siemens at their Vienna plant before undergoing extensive trials on the test-track at Wildenrath. The trains are formed of five cars, comprising a DMSO, two TSOs, a TSRMB, and a DMCO. One carriage in each unit is fitted with a recess for a pantograph. The 444s entered service in early 2004, replacing 4-CEP, 4-CIG, and 4-VEP slam-door stock, and latterly the Class 442s, on main line services from Waterloo to Weymouth, Bournemouth, Southampton, and Portsmouth. Originally delivered in their own largely white ‘Stagecoach Long-Distance’ livery, the 444s operate alongside, and frequently in multiple with, their fellow Desiros, the 450s, rarely straying from former L&SWR metals.