Southwest Trains 159014 at Exeter St Davids

After arrival from London Waterloo, Southwest Trains Class 159, 159014, awaits departure empty stock to Waterloo Yard to the north of the station.

The Class 159's have been the power of the former London & South Western Railway route from London Waterloo to Salisbury, Exeter, Bath and Bristol since their introduction in 1993, providing a strong and reliable set of units to operate one of the most vital parts of the South West's connection with London.

The story behind the Class 159's goes back to the late 1980's, when the then current locomotive-hauled stock, consisting largely of Class 50's and ex-Scotrail Class 47/7's working with ageing MkII carriages of the 1960's. Reliability and service quality on this route was very poor as the Class 50's weren't suited for the frequent stop/start nature of the service, whilst the Class 47's suffered numerous problems of their own. These reliability issues meant that on the single-track sections beyond Salisbury, the entire service could be crippled in the event of a breakdown.

Operator Network SouthEast sought many alternatives to these old trains, including shortened Class 43 HST sets, electrification, or an entire fleet of new locomotives and stock, as well as the express version of the Class 165 Thames Turbo units known as the Class 171's. After much deliberation, the company was left with the options of new DMU stock or electrification, but with the recession making money harder to come by, the former was seeming more favourable.

Hope came in the form of Regional Railways, who had ordered too many of the Class 158 Regional Express units for a market that was in decline, and thus NSE chose to take on these surplus units and convert them for express passenger workings on the LSWR mainline. Originally, 22 units were built and converted into Class 159's by Babcock Rail at their works in Rosyth, before being officially handed over to Network SouthEast on the 6th January, 1993. These units are capable of 90mph, and multiple power units allow for faster acceleration than their loco-hauled forerunners.

By the time the Class 159's had been handed over, near enough all of the Class 50's had been retired, and following the introduction of the fleet of 22 new units, the Class 47's were soon to follow, most being handed over to Rail Express Systems (RES) for use on the Mail Train. At the same time, the new Salisbury Traincare Centre was opened to maintain the entire fleet, although units are often stabled at Clapham Junction Carriage Sidings, and in the past at Laira in Plymouth.

Upon their introduction, the Class 159's worked Network SouthEast's extensive operation in the Southwest of England, including services to Bristol Temple Meads via Salisbury, Westbury and Bath, Exeter St Davids via Yeovil and Honiton, and, until 2009, services beyond Exeter to Paignton, Plymouth and, on some occasions, Penzance. Services beyond Exeter were axed in 2009 following the opening of the Axminster loop, allowing services to be increased to hourly with the reorganisation of the units.

In February 1996, the Network SouthEast franchise for routes to the Southwest of London was taken over by South West Trains, who repainted them from their original Red, White and Blue into a stylish Red, Orange and Blue, also known as their 'Express' Livery, applied also to Class 444 Desiro units and previously Class 442 'Wessex Electric' units. In 2007, South West Trains inherited a fleet of surplus Class 158's from Trans-Pennine Express following the introduction of the Class 185's and former South West Trains Class 170's in the north. SWT took these units on and converted them into Class 159's, coinciding with a fleet refurbishment in 2008 to upgrade the interiors. Ex-TPE units are numbered 159/1's, although 11 Class 158's are retained for services to and around Salisbury.