Ground-level view of 444 019 in its South Western Railway 'Trainbow 2023' graphics
The fleet of five-car Siemens class 444 Super Desiro EMUs were built between 2004 and 2005 to replace the veteran fleet of South West Trains' (as was) former BR Southern Region class 411 (4 CEP), class 421 (4 CIG) and class 423 (4 VEP) slam-door EMUs dating from the early 1960s through to the early 1970s on South West Trains' express services from London Waterloo out to the likes of Portsmouth Harbour, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. When new these class 444s originally carried the traditional BR Southern Region unit type code of '5 DES' although this terminology was never applied to the front ends of the units. Since their operation with South Western Railway from 2017 the class 444 EMUs are normally confined to the express services from London Waterloo out to Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth with the London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour services normally being in the hands of their higher-density class 450 sisters.
Ground-level view of 444 019 in its South Western Railway 'Trainbow 2023' graphics
The fleet of five-car Siemens class 444 Super Desiro EMUs were built between 2004 and 2005 to replace the veteran fleet of South West Trains' (as was) former BR Southern Region class 411 (4 CEP), class 421 (4 CIG) and class 423 (4 VEP) slam-door EMUs dating from the early 1960s through to the early 1970s on South West Trains' express services from London Waterloo out to the likes of Portsmouth Harbour, Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Weymouth. When new these class 444s originally carried the traditional BR Southern Region unit type code of '5 DES' although this terminology was never applied to the front ends of the units. Since their operation with South Western Railway from 2017 the class 444 EMUs are normally confined to the express services from London Waterloo out to Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth with the London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour services normally being in the hands of their higher-density class 450 sisters.