Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Originally all of the PEP trains built by British Rail in the 1970s and 1980s were more or less them same but Merseyrail's Classes 507 and 508 trains (plus a few Class 315s based in the London area) have been retrofitted with Electrostar type light clusters and have an additional light at each end of the train above the cab door.
When this additional light is illuminated it (together the other white lights at that end of the train) create a triangle shape, which some people say has a safety benefits.
Cover image information -
Upper row - trains in original 'as built' format
left: Class 315 in London
right: Class 314 in Glasgow
Lower row - trains in rebuilt format
left: Class 508 in Liverpool
right: Class 315 in London - at night as it better shows the triangle effect.
The PEP trains are Classes 313, 314, 315, 507 and 508. Class 316 trains would also have been part of this family but the service they were intended to operate never came to fruition and as a result construction of Class 316 trains was cancelled. This was the Manchester Picc-Vic link that would have been an underground railway... instead Manchester got the Metrolink light rail system.
This film includes some media from other people -
Photo of Class 314 train in Scotrail livery
Pencefn / Wikimedia Commons License CC-BY-SA-3.0
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:314212_at_Patterton.jpg
Music: Super Friendly by Kevin MacLeod CC-BY-3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100825
Originally all of the PEP trains built by British Rail in the 1970s and 1980s were more or less them same but Merseyrail's Classes 507 and 508 trains (plus a few Class 315s based in the London area) have been retrofitted with Electrostar type light clusters and have an additional light at each end of the train above the cab door.
When this additional light is illuminated it (together the other white lights at that end of the train) create a triangle shape, which some people say has a safety benefits.
Cover image information -
Upper row - trains in original 'as built' format
left: Class 315 in London
right: Class 314 in Glasgow
Lower row - trains in rebuilt format
left: Class 508 in Liverpool
right: Class 315 in London - at night as it better shows the triangle effect.
The PEP trains are Classes 313, 314, 315, 507 and 508. Class 316 trains would also have been part of this family but the service they were intended to operate never came to fruition and as a result construction of Class 316 trains was cancelled. This was the Manchester Picc-Vic link that would have been an underground railway... instead Manchester got the Metrolink light rail system.
This film includes some media from other people -
Photo of Class 314 train in Scotrail livery
Pencefn / Wikimedia Commons License CC-BY-SA-3.0
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:314212_at_Patterton.jpg
Music: Super Friendly by Kevin MacLeod CC-BY-3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100825
