By Phil Barnes
The first EPB to grace the rails of the new British Railways in 1951 was 4 car unit number 5001; over the years different batches of EPB were built, totalling 283 4 EPBs and 114 2 EPBs. Around half of these vehicles were built on recycled underframes, and the batch of 2 EPBs that worked down to my home town of Horsham in the early 1990s were of this breed.
With the writing on the wall for the EPBs on the Horsham to Dorking and London Victoria services, I decided to photograph them at the southern end of their route, i.e. either side of the Surrey/Sussex border. By this time the service was worked by the refurbished ‘Facelift’ Class 416/3s in the number series 6301 to 6334, the upgrade programme being circa 1983 onwards. These machines were built at Eastleigh around 1958/9 as numbers 5651 to 5684 and used recycled 2 NOL underframes.
Although late in the EPB build sequence the units featured a lot of pure Southern design; they not only had recycled 2 NOL underframes but also SR 4 SUB type bodies, albeit that both cars had open saloons. When built they were initially referred to as 2 NOPs but this was later changed to 2 EPB. In keeping with all the other batches of EPB, these units had EE507 motors, which were also what was fitted to the 4 SUBs which they ultimately replaced. Under the TOPS scheme they were designated as Class 416/1s When first in service, the units worked the Waterloo to Weybridge and Windsor services and later saw use on the London Midland Region North London Line from Broad Street to Richmond, and from 1986 were based at Selhurst. It was in this period that units 6313 to 6328 were fitted with bars on their door windows in the interest of safety, due to clearance restrictions in Hamstead Heath Tunnel. When the EPBs were replaced by Class 313s on this route around 1989, some were then used on the Central
