The East Anglian Railway Museum has added a Class 317 electric driving vehicle to its collection.
The latest addition is a driving vehicle number DTSO(B) 77092 from Class 317 number 317345. Whilst in service, Class 317 electric multiple units worked extensively on West Anglian routes out of Liverpool Street.
Angel Trains, the UK's leading rolling stock asset manager, donated the vehicle to the museum following its withdrawal from Greater Anglia service earlier this year after nearly 40 years of service. The museum plans to put the vehicle on static display, with displays added to its interior telling the story of the Class 317, electrification in East Anglia, and the science behind electric trains.
The Museum's collection is based at Chappel & Wakes Colne station near Colchester. Arrival of the DTSO comes at an exciting time for the Museum, with a new exhibition hall is being constructed, and the museum's flagship steam engine, LNER class N7 No. 69621, undergoing an extensive overhaul.
69621 will return in its original identity of LNER 9621, hopefully in time for its centenary in 2024. It was one of a class of over 100 locomotives built in the 1920s to work the Great Eastern Railway's intensive service out of London's Liverpool Street.
As well as the latest addition, the collection includes vintage coaches that originally ran on the Great Eastern railway in the 1880s, and steam and diesel locomotives. Both N7s and Class 317s worked extensively on the West Anglia routes from Liverpool Street.
The recent addition will give the Museum an opportunity to show the story of over 50 years workings on Eastern suburban services.
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Wonderful. Maybe the Class 317s could be upgraded to become Hydrogen multiple units or Battery powered MU and for Greater Anglia to reinherit some of them to operate on the Gainsborough branch line and Felixstowe branch line services.