The Class 309: Legend Of The Clacton Express

The Class 309 also affectionately known as “Clacton Express” had been a local legend on the Great Eastern Mainline out of London Liverpool Street towards the sunny seaside resort of Clacton-On-Sea from 1963 all the way up to 2000. In collaboration with the Clacton Express Preservation Group, we are delighted to introduce 309 624 to the Rail Tags fleet. (Exclusively available via the Clacton Express Group).

The Class 309 Clacton Express 1: Pre History & Production:

The Class 309’s earliest history originates from the 1955 British Railways Modernisation Plan which intended to electrify the majority of mainline routes in and out of London with 25kv AC OLE. Due to intervention by the British Transport Commission the plan was drastically cut down to just three lines being the East Coast Mainline to Cambridge and Leeds, South Eastern Mainline to Dover & Folkestone (done to the standard of 750v DC third rail) and the West Coast Mainline to Manchester and Liverpool via Birmingham.

For electrification of the East Coast Mainline, British Rail intended to produce a standard multiple unit capable of 100mph to work semi fast and express services between London Kings Cross, Cambridge and Peterborough.

Designated as the Class AM9 these at the time revolutionary multiple units were built at Holgate Works in York in three subclasses: the /1s (601-608) which were two coaches long, 2/s (611-618) which consisted of four coaches one of them containing a “griddle car”, and the /3s (621-627) which were standard four car units. These units were built with the intention to be used in tandem increasing peak time capacity to ten coach services during the peak.

The AM9s featured a pullman gangway on the front of driving coaches to allow passenger access to the “griddle car” from anywhere in a consist. The design of the AM9s was derived from the AM3 (Class 303) with a key difference being the inclusion of said pullman gangway. Rather stunningly these new units were fitted with wrap around cab windows which was unfortunately modified to have an additional pillar placed between the front and side of the cab window due to the costs involved in replacing the glass. (This design choice was later seen again on the Class 442 Wessex Electrics which you can read about here) The AM9s would receive a “British Rail Maroon” livery which was standard at the time for coaching stock. Unlike other vehicles of the same generation, the AM9s were built to use Commonwealth Bogies in contrast to the BR1 model due to problems encountered with these bogies which were already used on MK1 coaching stock.

 

2: New Fleet Without A Home:

As previously mentioned the original intention was to deploy the AM9 fleet onto the East Coast Mainline on semi fast and express services to Peterborough and Cambridge in 1962. Now we’re pretty good at coming up with good projects before abandoning them and restarting them later and that is exactly the case of what happened on the East Coast Mainline. The electrification project was abandoned due to the cost of modernising the roof at Kings Cross Station to accommodate overhead line equipment, leaving this strong fleet of brand new multiple units without a suitable home which at the time was a shock to commuters and the taxpayers who funded the development of the AM9s with all of this occurring before one could carry a single fare paying passenger…

Thankfully this period of redundancy was short lived as previously in 1959 the Great Eastern Mainline and it’s respective Sunshine Coast Line was electrified to 25kv OLE. With electrification required the need to boost service capacity and operate summer resort trains, both which the AM9s perfectly catered to.

In 1962 twenty four sets entered service on the Great Eastern Mainline (seven /1s, seven /2s and ten /3s) with the inaugural service commencing in August on a London Liverpool Street to Clacton-On-Sea / Walton-On-The-Naze service. These services would start in a 10 car formation running fast to Colchester before diverging off the GEML and onto the Sunshine Coast Line where an intermediate stop would be made at Thorpe-Le-Soken where the front four carriages split down to Walton-On-The-Naze and the rear eight heading towards Clacton.

The introduction of the AM9 fleet on the Great Eastern Mainline was revolutionary replacing the BR Standard Class 7 Britannia steam locomotives on the Sunshine Coast Line which were seen at the time as the flagship traction. The efficiency of drawing power from overhead line equipment paired with their boost in capacity led to quicker journey times and increased customer satisfaction levels. The top speed of the Britannia Locomotives was 90mph whilst the AM9s were capable of 100mph operation, achieving that top speed way faster then it took steam traction to reach their line speed thanks to the sheer horsepower of these units.

2.1: The TOPs Transfer of the 1970s:

We’ve touched on the introduction of the TOPs system in our Class 423 Blogpost and also our Class 86 Blogpost and how the introduction saw the reclassifications take effect. In the same timeframe as the 4VEPs were reclassified to Class 423 and AL6 becoming the Class 86, the AM9s were reclassed to the Class 309.

3: Setting Their Reputation & Modifications / The Network SouthEast era: 

The Class 309s very quickly gained a very positive reputation amongst commuters and holiday makers on the Sunshine Coast and Great Eastern Mainline into London Liverpool Street due to their fabulous comfort levels and high performance also being well liked by traincrew who operated them on a near day to day basis. From 1971 further tweaks were made to Class 309 operations extending services to twelve carriages through an additional 309/1 unit being added to the ten car formation.

This formation did not last long however as from 1973 the two car formed Class 309/1s were extended to four coaches per unit through the modification of redundant Mk1 coaches previously used in loco hauled formations.

In 1982, the British Rail brand was replaced by the iconic Network SouthEast sector. Three years later starting in 1985 and finishing in 1987, the Class 309 fleet saw a midlife refurbishment take place at Wolverton Works.

This comprised of being repainted into the Network SouthEast toothpaste livery, single-glazed wooden framed windows being replaced by aluminium-framed glazed windows with the addition of hopper ventilation, open 2+2 seating in standard class replacing the old style compartments leading to an increase in capacity and the unfortunate removal of the “griddle cars” with justification being the requirement to boost capacity as much as possible for peak time services.

Additionally the wrap around glazed units were replaced completely on all units for reasons mentioned previously in this blogpost.

In 1986, British Rail had invested in extending electrification beyond Colchester towards Ipswich and Norwich which saw the Class 309 serve beyond the Sunshine Coast and continuously up the Great Eastern Mainline including services to Harwich International for connection to ferry services.

4: A Premature Goodbye?:

Despite major investment in the Class 309s and extended services deeper into Essex, Network SouthEast had earmarked the Class 309 units and other first generation rolling stock for withdrawal and replacement by completely modern rolling stock. This saw the introduction of the Class 321 in 1989 (nicknamed Dusty Bins) which rapidly withdrew operations of Class 305, 307, 308s, notably operating high capacity commuter and express diagrams to Clacton, Ipswich and Norwich. In 1992 Class 321 units started replacing diagrams operated by Class 309s and by May 1993 the Class 309s were withdrawn from their flagship Clacton-On-Sea operations, a premature end at only 31 years of passenger service.

Some units were retained to work specifically on peak time diagrams whilst other units were completely withdrawn and sent to scrap. (location unknown)

On January 22nd 1994, three units comprised the 1800 London Liverpool Street to Clacton-On-Sea being the final Class 309 diagram to run fare paying passengers on the Great Eastern Mainline after 33 years of service closing the chapter on the Essex Electric revolution seen in the 60s, poetically giving them one last run on the route that cemented their legacy.

After final withdrawal from “home” operations seven units were retained for use in the Manchester area under Regional Railways’ North West division and were subsequently transferred to Blackpool Carriage Sidings. This occurred a year later in 1995 to act as an interim solution due to ongoing delays and problems with the newly built Hunslet Class 323s. These 309s would operate services between Manchester Piccadilly, Manchester Airport, Stockport, Stoke-On-Trent and Crewe.

A year later in 1998, 309 624 (our unit, and now yours) was repainted in a promotional Regional Railways Manchester Airport Express livery to commemorate the new service.

After privatisation these transferred units would operate services for North Western Trains which became First North Western shortly after.

Despite the trains now being 35 years old at the time the operating area served by the 309s would expand to serve Birmingham International as well as a short lived stint on express services from London Euston to Manchester Airport subbing in for Class 322s. In May 2000 the seven transferred units would be finally stood down after being replaced by Class 175 and Class 323 units and put into storage at MoD Pigs Bay in Shoeburyness.

 

5: Post Revenue Departmental Operations And Swansong:

Pre service withdrawal the Class 309 would operate a number of rail tours to commemorate the legacy left on the iron road most notably The Pudsey Express between Colchester & York in October 1990 which treaded the rails they were originally intended for, achieving a top speed of 108mph in the Hitchin area.

An attempt to preserve a Class 309 was first attempted in 2000 when a special service ran between Liverpool Street and Clacton-On-Sea where plans never materialised before the Class 309 was officially retired to all passengers.

However the story of Class 309 history continues… as three out of seven units were saved for departmental use and converted at Eastleigh Works into the Class 960 for in cab signalling tests at Old Dalby prior to a refurbishment plan for the West Coast Mainline which never materialised.

The 960 units were withdrawn in 2004 and stored at Pigs Bay MoD. This opened the window for preservation, where ex 309616 and 306624 were transferred for static exhibition at the Electric Railway Museum in Coventry., 309616 was repainted into the post NSE refurb Jaffa Cake Essex Express livery.

Unfortunately the Electric Railway Museum was closed in 2017 as part of a planned regeneration of the local area. This saw 309616 transferred to the Tantat Light Valley Railway in Oswestry where it still resides today, soon to be accompanied by recently preserved Class 507 001.

309624 was sold to the Lavender Line and arrived in 2018 where some conservation work was carried out but nothing more, eventually being put up for sale in 2021 due to a change in priorities, thus making it surplus to requirements. A serious but possible risk was the scrapping of the unit being broken up for spare parts..

During the same year, a new preservation group was founded called the Clacton Express Preservation Group which had one aim and one aim only: preserve 30624 (classed as 960102 at the time)

Fighting through a lot of fundraising, campaigns to save the unit and doubts about the viability from the public by March 2022 it was formally announced that the money had been secured via a benefactor to purchase 960102 saving it from scrap and ensuring a preserved future awaits.

Initial restoration works took place on the Lavender Line after an 18th month deal to keep the unit there was agreed, during this time the unit suffered a vandalism attack damaging several internal and external windows which were costly to replace.

Despite the setbacks, in May 2024 it was officially announced the Class 309 was to return back onto Anglian soil finding a suitable home at the East Anglia Railway Museum in Chapel and Wakes Colne where coaches 75965 and 61928 now reside, whilst 75972 is currently located at the Rushden, Higham and Wellingborough Railway awaiting it’s own solo restoration.

75965 and 61928 arrived at the East Anglia Railway Museum in the same month as the announcement, suffering another vandalism attack days before the move occurred where they now reside.

How we met the CEPG and 309624:

Our involvement with the CEPG and 624 started in September 2024 when I met Chairman Brad Wright on the Class 323 WMR Farewell Tour at their sales stall where I decided to introduce myself and tell him about Rail Tags. We immediately started talking about the preservation sector as a whole and asking him a few questions on what it takes and how he managed to get where he did today. It was suggested that the CEPG and Rail Tags could work together to help generate funds for the restoration of the vehicles at the EARM. That led to a few discussions where we could help fund 309624s restoration through the production of tags from metal that needed to be removed from a vehicle during restoration works.

It all came ahead in November 2024 when BDTC 75965 underwent extensive restoration and fabrication works to the exterior.

After taking delivery of the metal and finishing the 4VOP tags we have worked very close with the CEPG to ensure they were equally as happy with the tags as we were. In March 2025 we visited the CEPG and 309624 at the East Anglia Railway Museum to see the unit close up and use every part of the unit we could for a photoshoot for the tags. Since November 2024 BDTC 75965 has been repainted into the Network SouthEast toothpaste livery and work on the interior progressing with 61928 next in line for restoration work after 75965 has been completed.

We worked together with the intention to have these tags ready for the Essex Electrics Exhibition being hosted at the museum on April 12th as a part of their plan to celebrate Railway 200 where the tags will debut.

From start to finish this has been a really enjoyable Edition to produce with some good friends made along the way and all of possible thanks to a casual approach and introduction on a railtour a few months ago for units which funnily enough played a part in the history of the Class 309.

I personally have learnt a lot about the story of 309624s journey from the Lavender Line to the East Anglia Railway Museum. It shows the art of preservation in it’s rawest form: anyone from anywhere can achieve anything but it takes a LOT of determination, effort and coordination to pull it off. There are risks involved and it can be very time consuming and financially draining, but with the right mindset you can make it work. All aspiring railway preservations should learn from Brad & the CEPGs story.

I highly encourage all to read about the success behind the Clacton Express Preservation group at this BBC News article.

Let’s Talk Tags:

Rail Tags Edition 8: Class 309 624 will be an exclusive release to the Clacton Express Preservation Group, first being made available at The Essex Electrics Exhibition on April 12th and will be made available for wider purchase on the Clacton Express Preservation Group Online Shop shortly after the event (SUBJECT TO STOCK AND AVAILABILITY POST EVENT). I highly encourage as many of you to attend the event not only for the tags but to learn the important history the Class 309 has played a part in, it wasn’t until I started working on this release that I realised the sheer value these workhorses has provided to the Anglian region. As always every release is a learning experience understanding the value old units provide for our society and regions as well as their unique charm as rolling stock. I hope this release will be able to provide some financial support towards the preservation of this fantastic unit.

It has been a true joy to work on this lot of tags, make new friends and learn something new especially about the value these trains have provided to their respected regions. We’re proud to consider the Clacton Express Preservation Group our partners and friends of Rail Tags.

I would like to thank Brad Wright & Teddy Leport for their enthusiasm towards working on the tags and for their warm hospitality showing me around the East Anglia Railway Museum, 309624 as well as explaining the intentions for 309624s future. The preservation story behind 309624 is a humble story about fighting to help preserve history and teach future generations the importance of an era lost to time.

Welcome to our fleet, Class 309 624.