The class 458 built by Alstom for South West Trains. Its introduction to service was, along with many new units awaiting Railtrack type approval, been prolonged and in this class' case plagued with problems. For a considerable period at best only two units were been in passenger service whilst Alstom grappled with a number of problems including the air-conditioning, bogie ride quality, corridor connections and the driver's on-board computer system. To make matters worse in mid September 2000 all Juniper type units were banned from service by Railtrack following both a class 334 and a class 175 rolling away without drivers - both were derailed on catch points.

These steel bodied air-conditioned outer suburban units are intended to be used on the Waterloo to Reading line, but when available were tested on the SW main line and the Alton branch. In true Southern tradition the styling of the cab front will not win any beauty prizes! Three vehicles in the formation are motored with two Alstom ONIX 800 270kW motors per car. The fourth vehicle is a trailer with the facility for a pantograph installation. Maximum speed is 100mph. They have the facility for both disc and regenerative braking. These vehicles can only work in multiple with other members of their class, thus repeating the inflexibility when class 508 units were first introduced on the Southern Region. The units are formed driving motor composite (DMC(A)), pantograph (not fitted) trailer standard (PTS), motor standard (MS) and driving motor composite (DMC(B)). The driving motor cars are 21.16 metres long and the intermediate cars 19.94. Power operated sliding doors are fitted.

photograph by Mike Wilson

photograph by Colin Duff

photograph by Michael Taylor

photograph by Colin Duff