News from HDL

Unit 1001 is currently...

...at St. Leonards Depot, ready for action.

1001 was hired by TOC [GBRf] on Saturday 28 June 2008, for a staff outing to Bournemouth. Photos, timings and details can be found in a news article.

Our DEMU in its 5-carriage formation passes Hinton Admiral on its way down to Bournemouth, with a staff special outing on Saturday 28 June 2008. This was its first passenger-carrying outing for nearly 3 years. Photo taken at 12:35 by Peter Milford.

Our train now has five vehicles re-certified for main-line use, including the Buffet car. See the Current fleet status of CDL for further details. All five of these vehicles passed their annual ultrasonic axle tests recently.

1001 went on a test run to Redhill and Clapham Junction in its 5-car formation on Thursday 26 June; details and photos are in a news article.

The DEMU Diary section contains details of all workings on the main line since March 2003. See also the HDL Railtour archive.

The unit’s current formation at the depot is thus:
[Ashford end] 60118 Tunbridge Wells-60501-69337-60529-60116 Mountfield [Bexhill end]

This “rolling news” article is correct to 18:30 BST on Sunday 29 June 2008.

News articles

News articles which are fresh, still being updated, or still current and relevant, are linked below. Older news articles, all closed, have been placed in the News Archive.

Visits to St. Leonards Depot

Since 18 May 2003, St. Leonards Depot (leased and operated by HDL’s sister company St. Leonards Railway Engineering Limited) has been playing an increasingly active role as an operational railway depot, dealing as it does with the day-to-day fuelling, cleaning and examination of Southern’s fleet of DMUs, among other tasks. As it has thus become in effect a “main line” depot, with trains arriving and departing from/to the Network Rail network at all hours, we regret that casual visits are not possible. We thank you in advance for your understanding.

This striking study by Andy Armitage was taken on 1 March 2007 just before Motor Coach Hastings led two cars of 1001 out of the depot on “The Soap Run”, delivering supplies to [South Eastern]’s carriage-washer near Bopeep Junction. That little outing was also a test-run for Motor Coach Mountfield following completion of modifications in preparation for the fitting of CDL/OTMR. In the background can be seen Motor Coach Tunbridge Wells, Ex-4TC Driving Trailer 76215, and [GBRF]’s Electro-Diesel loco no. 73 205.