Preservation of British EMUs or locomotives has generally been bypassed for one reason or another – despite their place in history. Nicola Fox visits Locomotion at Shildon and reports on the superb volunteer restoration of a humble commuter carriage from a 2-HAP EMU. 

THE National Railway Museum in York is widely known for its collection of high-profile exhibits, from Flying Scotsman to Mallard and the crucial Dynamometer car, the Royal carriages and so much more. 

It’s fair to say the museum at York has proudly danced in the spotlight for a considerable number of years. 

Meanwhile, further north at Shildon, the lesser-known cousin, Locomotion, has been quietly building a reputation for superb restoration projects over the last 10 years. These include LMS ‘Crab’ No. 1300, ‘A4’ No. 4489 Dominion of Canada during its UK visit, Churchill’s funeral car – No. 2464, ‘Deltic’ No. D9002, and GWR ‘57XX’ pannier tank No. 5775 (star of the 1971 film The Railway Children), to name a few. 

The latest in this long line of restorations is arguably not the most celebrated of vehicles; it has no shining nameplate, it broke no speed records nor was it a ground-breaking new design that ushered in a new age of railways. Instead it was a workhorse of the Southern rail network, having travelled the equivalent distance of the moon and back five times during its working life, carrying more than 5.3 million passengers: introducing the 2-HAP.

Essentially a motorised Mk1, the 2-HAP is an Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) BR Class 414 that ran on commuter lines for four decades before being taken out of service in 1995. 

Read more and view more images in the April 2019 issue of The RM – on sale now!

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