The

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

Class 206 or 3R was a type of

Diesel-electric multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are als ...

(DEMU), introduced in 1964. They were not 'built' as such but rather re-formed from Class 201 and EPB vehicles for use on -- (

North Downs Line The North Downs Line is a passenger-train line connecting Reading, on the Great Western Main Line, to Redhill and , along the Brighton Main Line, linking many centres of population in that part of the North Downs which it traverses en route. ...

) services. Six three-car sets were created, numbered 1201-1206.

Creation

By 1964, the majority of services on the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the sout ...

had been converted to diesel and electric operation. However, steam locomotives continued to operate the entire service on the

. New trains for that route could not be justified because passenger numbers were relatively low. Following service cuts on the Hastings Line, twelve carriages from Class 201 diesel-electric units were available for use, so a decision was made to combine those vehicles with six redundant

driving trailer A control car, cab car (North America), control trailer, or driving trailer (UK and Ireland) is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or two driver compartm ...

s from 2-EPB electric multiple units (EMU). Several changes were made to the vehicles before they entered service. The EPB vehicles were fitted with buckeye couplers to allow them to attach to the DEMU vehicles. A three-bay luggage area was created in the former EMU carriages to cope with the high level of mail traffic on the Reading to Tonbridge route, while the engines in the former DEMU vehicles were uprated by 100 hp. The new units were given the numbers 1201-1206, and entered service in January 1965. They were commonly referred to as 'Tadpoles' due to the difference in body profiles between the 201 and EPB stock. Following the adoption of

TOPS Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom. TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), S ...

in the late 1960s, the units were given the Class number 206.

Operations

Because the Class 206 had no first class seating, their use was limited. As well as working on the

, the units were occasionally used on the

Oxted Line The Oxted line is a railway in southern England and part of the Southern franchise. The railway splits into two branches towards the south and has direct trains throughout to London termini. It was opened jointly by the London, Brighton and ...

when other units were unavailable, and on some journeys between and . They were replaced by Western Region diesel multiple units from February 1979. It was intended that four of the units should be broken up into component carriages from May 1979, with 1205 and 1206 retained for other uses, but delays in the introduction of Western Region units saw 1204 survive until August and 1203 until September. From September 1979, only one unit was required for the North Downs Line, with the other used on the

Marshlink Line The Marshlink line is a railway line in South East England. It runs from Ashford, Kent via Romney Marsh, Rye and the Ore Tunnel to Hastings where it connects to the East Coastway line towards Eastbourne. Services are provided by Southern. T ...

between and Ashford. Following a derailment at in March 1980, 1205 and 1206 were temporarily separated to provide cover for damaged Class 201 vehicles. The separation of 1205 became permanent in November 1980. In May 1981, the last surviving unit, 1206, was replaced on the Reading to Tonbridge route by a Western Region unit, but was used between Hastings and Ashford for a further four years.

Class 206/1

In June 1986, the Class 206 number was reused for another hybrid unit. Class 205 unit 1113 was involved in a collision at in May 1985, causing two of its three carriages to be damaged and later scrapped. It re-entered service in April 1986 with two vehicles from a withdrawn Class 202 unit, and was re-designated as a Class 206 two months later, taking the

number 206101. It operated regularly on the

until October 1987, when it was withdrawn.Welch (2004) p.86

Technical details

Power car (one per three-car set) * Weight: * Transmission: Electric, two English Electric traction motors * Train heating: Electric

References

External links