Hello, and welcome back to the last post in my series about the classes of train that I've been on. Today, we have another 6 classes of train to discuss, some of which I have stronger memories of than others.
We start with the class 365, which I used between London Kings Cross and Cambridge on one of my trips to the city. They are very similar to some of the other units that have been operated by Thameslink over the last decade, so I don't think there's a huge amount of new things I can say.
The next train today is one that I can say quite a lot about as it operates on one of my local routes. The class 377 "electrostar" units are operated by Southern and primarily cover some of their longer-distance services, rather than the services that operate to suburban London destinations. I do really like these trains, particularly the fact that they have air conditioning, which is a blessing on hot days. I like the mix of seats with and without tables, although I'm not a huge fan of the sections of these trains with 3+2 seating because it's a pain to get bags behind you. I've done a couple of shopping trips to the Westfield centres in London and when you've got several carrier bags it can be a bit of a struggle if you get on a 3+2 carriage, so I always aim not to do this!
I remember the class 387 units mostly from their days on Thameslink, although I don't hugely remember them. They were okay I guess, seeing as nothing has stuck in my head which was overly positive or negative.
The 390 "pendolino" units are one of my favourite trains in operation in this country at the moment. Operated by Avanti West Coast (and previously Virgin Trains) on the West Coast main line, I've never had a bad experience on them, although take that with a pinch of salt because I've only used them 4 times, and all in first class. The first time I used one was between London Euston and Manchester Piccadilly on a family holiday (we came home via York), and we had booked first class tickets because, with our friends and family railcard it was close enough in price to the standard ticket that we actually saved money versus travelling in standard and having to purchase food for lunch (we were on a lunchtime departure). It was certainly a good call as the food kept coming! The "Uglies" chocolates are literally my favourite thing on earth! We also all amused ourselves because we all thought the the "sausage roll" mentioned on the menu would be of the variety commonly sold by Greggs... and that was fine, that was lunch. And then the sausage roll arrived, and it was a sausage in a roll, which we were all thrilled about. The staff's customer service has always been brilliant as well. We received similarly good service on a short trip between London and Birmingham (and return) last year. My most recent trip with them (and the only one of these trips that was actually after Avanti took over the franchise) was in January, when I needed to head from London to Manchester for a careers event, having been in London for a theatre trip (the good old days!). I was travelling alone, and was unmistakably the youngest person in first class, but had splurged to save myself the hassle of buying lunch, and because I'd had a rough couple of weeks around when I'd booked the trip and wanted a treat, if I'm honest. I also love the lounge at Euston, particularly the chocolate brownie.
The next train will soon be disappearing from the network and is the class 483 units, which operate on the Isle of Wight. Formed of former 1938 stock due to the clearance at Ryde Tunnel not being great enough for standard national rail size trains, I've used these trains quite a bit over the years on numerous trips to the Island, particularly to Shanklin and the Isle of Wight Steam railway, connecting at Smallbrook Junction. My last couple of trips to the island have been by road, with a uni group, so I've not been on board for many years, but I always used to love the bounciness of them. I even remember the dinosaur livery from the early 2000s, although I was pretty young at the time! Considering their age and the reliability issues which have plagued them, I do think it's time for them to be retired, however much I love them. I'm hoping to go to the Isle of Wight very soon to visit them again before they go and will be aiming to go soon after the line reopens next year to try out the new trains and see the changes. This will also be my first trip on a big ferry (well, catamaran) since COVID-19 hit so it will be interesting to see how things have changed there. I probably won't have long to spend on the Island, but I'll be hoping to go and get fish and chips from a proper chip shop! I say a big ferry as I have done Gosport recently, and that will be in a blog post next week!
And so we come to the final train of this series of posts, which is another favourite (again because it operates locally to me), and that is the Thameslink class 700. I like the walk through nature of the trains, which makes it easy for passengers to spread along the length of the train when it's busy. They also seem altogether bigger inside than some of the older trains they replaced and have a great deal of space for people to stand and sit. Plus they are really long! My only bugbear with them is the fact that it's always quieter at the front/back and the entrance to my local station is in the middle of the train, but I will live!
That's it for today, but on Saturday there will be a post about how I hit 10% completion!
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