Chiltern Railways - Rolling Stock

Rolling Stock

Chiltern Railways inherited a fleet of 34 Class 165 Turbos from British Rail. In December 2004 a further five Class 165s were transferred from First Great Western Link. All 39 were overhauled by Bombardier, Ilford in 2003 - 2005 including the installation of air-conditioning and removal of the hopper opening windows. As they are more of a suburban rather than InterCity train they tend to now be concentrated on services to Aylesbury and Banbury although they still frequently operate to Birmingham.

Chiltern ordered several batches of Class 168 Clubmans entering service between 1998 and 2006, and now has nine three-carriage and ten four-carriage sets. These operate across the network.

In April 2003 Chiltern restored a Class 121 Bubble Car for use on the Aylesbury to Princes Risborough shuttles, a second following in May 2011 after overhaul at Tyseley TMD.

In January 2008 Chiltern ordered four two-carriage Class 172 Turbostars. These entered service in May 2011. Because they cannot be fitted with tripcock safety equipment necessary to operate on London Underground lines, they cannot operate via Amersham unless attached to a Class 165 or 168. Although initially intended for use on the all stops services out of London, they frequently operate to Birmingham.

From December 2010 Chiltern commenced operating two peak-hour loco-hauled services consisting of a Class 67 hauling Mark 3 carriages and a Driving Van Trailer. One set was hired from fellow DB Regio subsidiary Wrexham & Shropshire to operate a Birmingham Moor Street to London Marylebone service while the other was made up of some DB Regio owned Mark 3s painted in British Rail blue/grey and Virgin Trains livery and operated from Banbury to London Marylebone.

With Wrexham & Shropshire ceasing operations in January 2011, Chiltern began using a second ex Wrexham & Shropshire set from May 2011. For the introduction of Chiltern's new timetable in September 2011 they had Mainline signwriting and blue stripes added to their silver livery. Motive power is provided by Class 67s, 67010, 67012-015 and 67018 that have all been modified to operate with Driving Van Trailers.

In 2012 the ex Wrexham & Shropshire Mark 3s were overhauled fitted with sliding plug doors (similar to those fitted to South West Trains' Class 444 Desiros) and toilet retention tanks by Wabtec, Doncaster. Once this programme is complete, a further ten Mark 3s will be overhauled by Wabtec to create a fifth set and bring the existing sets up to six carriages. In 2012 the DB Regio owned Mark 3s used on the peak-hour Banbury service these were given a light overhaul at LNWR, Bristol and the Virgin liveried examples repainted into British Rail blue/grey.

To allow Class 168s to be cascaded to the new Oxford services as part of Evergreen 3, more Mark 3s are to be returned to service in the future.