Southern Railway publicity photograph
photograph: Glen Woods collection

When building the stock for the Medway electrification of the lines from Gravesend to Gillingham, from Strood to Maidstone West and from Otford to Maidstone East the Southern produced the very basic, utilitarian 2 Hal which was in considerable contrast to the comfortable 2 Bil, 2 Nol and 4 Lav stock that preceeded them. In place of deep comfortable cushions the 2Hals had firm, thinly padded bench type seats in a dull brown and fawn pattern, many of them in six-a-side non-corridor motor brake thirds. In complete contrast, however, the first class had well-padded lift-out cushions trimmed in an oriental patterned tapestry! In place of the normal Victorian style teak and mahogany interior woodwork, wooden surfaces were painted cream or grey, with the panelling trimmed in a cotton fabric.

The body was, however, constructed differently in that it had a wooden frame, galvanised steel sheet sides and boarded, canvas-covered roof as previously, but with new plywood partitions and a welded steel cab. Some 76 were built for the Medway scheme, the largest batch of main line semi-fast stock that the Southern Railway ever built.

photograph by Keith Harwood

The next 16 units, built during November and December 1939, were virtually the same as the Medway units but with more cheerful upholstery in the third class compartments. By June 1940 all these units were working Brighton to Ore and Seaford to Horsted Keynes services but then, from autumn 1941, they were moved to the Waterloo to Aldershot services enabling Reading/Aldershot trains to be strengthened to eight coaches to deal with the huge amount of military traffic to and from the Aldershot area.

No Hals were lost during WWII, but a number of other units were, so an order was placed for five Hals in the autumn of 1944 to replace these units. No sooner did that happen than another 2 Bil was lost (to a V2 rocket) so the order was amended to five main line and two suburban units, then amended to seven main line units. These were eventually completed towards the end of 1948 and went to work on the eastern section, later transferring to the Victoria-Littlehampton service, detaching one portion at Gatwick. These post-war Hals were of all steel construction, which earnt them the nick-name of "Tin Hals".

The last, and most weird, 2 Hal was 2700, which had a suburban saloon for its motor brake third, taken from 4 Sub 4590.

The Hals remained in service (with the odd loss through accident) until withdrawals started in 1969, their replacements being the new 4 Vep units. The last three Hal units went during July 1971,

photograph by John Edgington and reproduced from the book 'A Southern Electric Album', by Michael Welch, by kind permission of Capital Transport Publishing.

photograph by Keith Harwood