Network Southeast Class 35
(Requires Lexi’s Hymek pack).
Network Southeast was a sector of British Rail, initially launched in 1982 under the ‘London & South East’ name. It was rebranded as NSE in 1986, and throughout its existence it operated commuter trains around London, as well as many regional services to places such as Exeter, Weymouth, Brighton, Hastings, Dover, Shoeburyness, Peterborough, Cambridge and Banbury. They even operated the Waterloo & City Line (now part of the London Underground) and the Ryde to Shanklin service on the Isle of Wight.
NSE ceased to exist in 1994, when it was broken up into different franchises in the lead-up to privatisation. Today the ex-NSE routes are now operated by the following train-operating companies – c2c, Greater Anglia, Chiltern Railways, Great Western Railway, Great Northern, Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern and South Western Railway.
A huge variety of locomotives and multiple units were painted in NSE colours over the years, most of which are listed below:
(Locomotives)
Class 03 (only 03179)
Class 33
Class 47
Class 50
Class 73
Class 86 (only 86401)
(MUs)
Class 104
Class 121
Class 159
Class 165
Class 166
Class 207 ‘Thumper’
Class 302
Class 313
Class 315
Class 317
Class 319
Class 321
Class 365
Class 411 ‘4-CEP’
Class 415 ‘4-EPB’
Class 421 ‘4-CIG’
Class 423 ‘4-VEP’
Class 438 ‘4-TC’
Class 442 ‘5-WES’
Class 456
Class 465
Class 466
Class 483
Class 485 ‘4-VEC’
Class 486 ‘3-TIS’
Class 487
(My favourite carrier of the NSE livery is the Class 487, mainly because I find the Waterloo & City line so incredibly fascinating).
In real life, none of the Class 35 ‘Hymeks’ ever carried Network Southeast colours, as they had all been withdrawn by 1975. It’s also worth mentioning that I gave this re-skin a fictional Total Operations Processing System (or TOPS) number. Despite receiving a TOPS classification, the Hymeks were never given 35xxx series numbers, and – instead – retained their D7000 to D7100 numbers throughout their whole lives. If they had lasted long enough to get TOPS numbers, I think they would have become 35000 to 35100, hence why D7025 is depicted as 35025 here.
This re-skin is based on one specific locomotive; Class 47 No. 47596 ‘Aldeburgh Festival’. 47596 was built by Brush Traction of Loughbourgh in 1966, and is now preserved on the Mid-Norfolk Railway. As for the real Class 35 No. D7025, she was built in 1962, and had an early withdrawal in January 1972. Unfortunately this engine did not survive into preservation.
(The website for 47596’s owners).
https://www.stratford47group.co.uk/
