Last week I and a few other Irish folk made the trip across the Irish Sea to say our farewell to the Mk3 based 19 year old Class 442 EMU's, which have been withdrawn by South West Trains as a way of "boosting capacity across its network". In effect what SWT have done is a "Sligo & Rosslare job" to its London - Portsmouth line by casading 3 year old Express EMU's (Class 444) to the London - Bournemouth / Weymouth service to replace the 442's and replacing these trains with outer suburban Class 450's on the Portsmouth line.

Besides saying farewell to the 442's we also managed to cram in the FGW London Paddington - Penzance sleeper and a HST run up the Great Western Main Line.

Overall a very enjoyable trip.

For further information on the best EMU ever built in the UK please visit the following link:

http://www.semg.org.uk/gallery/class442_1.html