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 488 are unpowered trailer sets, converted from Mark 2F coaches for the ''

Gatwick Express Gatwick Express is a high-frequency rail passenger service between , Gatwick Airport, and in South East England. It is the brand name used by the Govia Thameslink Railway train operating company on the Gatwick Express route of the Thameslink, ...

'' service from

London Victoria Victoria station, also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Victoria, in the City of Westminster, managed by Network Rail. Named after the nearby Victoria Street (not the Q ...

Gatwick Airport Gatwick Airport (), also known as London Gatwick , is a major international airport near Crawley, West Sussex, England, south of Central London. In 2021, Gatwick was the third-busiest airport by total passenger traffic in the UK, after H ...

. The sets were converted from conventional locomotive-hauled coaching stock in 1983–1984, and were used in combination with Class 73

electro-diesel locomotive An electro-diesel locomotive (also referred to as a dual-mode or bi-mode locomotive) is a type of locomotive that can be powered either from an electricity supply (like an electric locomotive) or by using the onboard diesel engine (like a diese ...

s and Class 489 luggage vans. Two variations were converted: 2-car sets (containing first class accommodation) and 3-car sets (containing standard class accommodation only). They are officially formed of two subclasses. The two-car units are classified as Class 488/2 and are numbered in the range 488201–488210 and the three-car sets are Class 488/3 and are numbered 488301–19.

Operations

After privatisation, the entire Class 488 fleet passed to the

franchise. One unit, 488301, was withdrawn before privatisation, following an accident at

Battersea Park railway station Battersea Park is a suburban railway station in the London Borough of Wandsworth, south London. It is at the junction of the South London Line and the Brighton Main Line (although the physical connection between the lines has been removed), mea ...

in 1985.

Gatwick Express

Immediately after privatisation the Class 488 fleet was used exclusively on

trains. They were painted in the Gatwick Express variation of

InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...

livery. Some sets were later reliveried with

Continental Airlines Continental Airlines, simply known as Continental, was a major United States airline founded in 1934 and eventually headquartered in Houston, Texas. It had ownership interests and brand partnerships with several carriers. Continental started o ...

advertisements, including units 488203/04/07/08/10, 488304/05/10/14/19. From 2000 onwards, new trains in the form of Class 460 units were introduced to replace the old stock. By 2004 just six sets, formed into three 5-car rakes, were still in use with Gatwick Express. By January 2005 this had decreased to four sets. The sets were used sporadically during early 2005 but their use declined as the Class 460 reliability improved. Their final scheduled use was on 28 July following a special trip involving the two remaining Class 73 locomotives. They were replaced by two Class 458 units hired from

South West Trains Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited, trading as South West Trains (SWT), was an English train operating company owned by Stagecoach Group, Stagecoach, which operated the South Western franchise between February 1996 and August 2017. SWT op ...

. They were used a few times after this date for emergency cover, but have now been withdrawn.

Network Rail

After retirement from Gatwick Express several sets were purchased by

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

for use as test trains or simply as brake-force runners. These sets have been repainted into either the now obsolete

Railtrack Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from 1994 until 2002. It was created as part of the privatisation of ...

blue/lime green livery or the new Network Rail yellow livery. Two sets, 8307 and 8309, have been reclassified as Class 910 departmental units and renumbered 910002 and 910001 respectively. In addition two coaches have been converted for departmental use with Network Rail: *72503 (ex 488204) - converted to hot-box detection coach no. 977983 *72715 (ex 488316) - converted to structure-gauging train coach no. 977985

Northern Ireland Railways

In 2001 eight carriages were sold to

Northern Ireland Railways NI Railways, also known as Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) ( ga, Iarnród Thuaisceart Éireann); and for a brief period Ulster Transport Railways (UTR), is the railway operator in Northern Ireland. NIR is a subsidiary of Translink, whose parent ...

for further use as locomotive-hauled stock in combination with the 111 Class locomotive, and renumbered 8941 to 8948. *72605 (ex 488305) - renumbered 8943 *72609 (ex 488305) - renumbered 8944 *72626 (ex 488314) - renumbered 8945 *72627 (ex 488314) - renumbered 8946 *72634 (ex 488318) - renumbered 8941 *72637 (ex 488318) - renumbered 8942 *72646 (ex 488319) - renumbered 8947 *72647 (ex 488319) - renumbered 8948 The NIR coaches were withdrawn on 19 January 2005, but were re-introduced in September 2006 to provide extra capacity on the

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

to Belfast Central service, making one trip every morning. (Coaches 943+944 did not re-enter service and were used for parts). In 2009 the locomotives and coaches were due to be converted to push-pull operation following the purchase by NIR of a

DBSO A Driving Brake Standard Open (DBSO) is a type of railway carriage in Great Britain, converted to operate as a control car; this is not to be confused with DVTs, such as those in InterCity 225 sets. Fourteen such vehicles, numbered 9701 t ...

last used by

National Express East Anglia National Express East Anglia (NXEA) was a train operating company in England owned by National Express that operated the Greater Anglia franchise from April 2004 until February 2012. Originally trading as ''One'', it was rebranded National Exp ...

. However, this never happened and the entire fleet was withdrawn on 18 June 2009.

Ministry of Defence

*488210 has been sold to the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

for use at Marchwood Military Port in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

. It has replaced two former Class 501 vehicles as passenger vehicles for personnel movement around the site.

Preservation

Several complete sets have been preserved. These are listed below. *488202 -

Ecclesbourne Valley Railway The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway is a long heritage railway in Derbyshire. The headquarters of the railway centre on Wirksworth station, and services operate in both directions between Wirksworth and Duffield and from Wirksworth to Rave ...

*488206 -

Barry Tourist Railway The Barry Tourist Railway (formerly the Barry Island Railway) is a railway developed to attract visitors to Barry in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It is a key element of the Barry Rail Centre which also includes engineering and training ...

*488311 -

In addition, 72641 is preserved at Dalton and 72707 the

Lincolnshire Wolds Railway The Lincolnshire Wolds Railway (LWR) is a heritage railway based at Ludborough station, near Louth, Lincolnshire, England and the only standard gauge steam railway in Lincolnshire open to the public. The line is part of the original Great Nor ...

. Ian Welch of the

Mainline Steam The Mainline Steam Heritage Trust is a New Zealand charitable trust devoted to the restoration and operation of historic New Zealand Railways and overseas mainline steam locomotives. Regular day excursions and multi-day tours are operated over ...

Trust in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

has purchased a number of ex-BR MkII cars formerly used on this service. Three cars comprising set 488313 (TSOLH 72624 and 72625, TSOL 72172) and a further two from 488209 (TFOH 72508 and TSOH 72644) arrived in New Zealand in 2008, still bearing the Intercity livery with 'Gatwick Express' branding. Most of the cars are in interim storage at Hutt Workshops in Wellington, while others have been trucked to the MLST Wellington base at Plimmerton. These cars at present have not been equipped with bogies, and are transferred from Hutt to MLST Wellington by road. They will be fitted with either x-28020 bogies ex-FM guard's vans, or x-27750 'Kinki' bogies ex-FS steam-heating vans as part of the overhaul to bring them up to code-compliance for operation in New Zealand. Unlike most MkII cars in New Zealand, they are receiving only minor modifications to allow them to run in New Zealand, and will receive new numbers. They will also receive new names as well as the new MLST MkII livery of Pearl Grey roof with Midnight Blue body and white window band. The ex-NIR carriages are now owned by RPSI, and currently in storage until they can join the RPSI's existing Mk2 fleet sometime in 2019.

Fleet status

Class 488/2
Class 488/3

References

{{British Rail EMU 488 Train-related introductions in 1983