#3908
British Rail Class 423
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by British Rail· from 1967· class of 194 British 4-car electric multiple units
10 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. 3445 at Waterloo East: Phil Scott ( Our Phellap )· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. 4VEP 5250850791: Steve Jones https://www.flickr.com/photos/tutenkhamunsleeping· CC BY 2.0
- 3. Class 423 3545 on the East Kent Railway - Shepherdswell: Kentrailobserver37· CC BY-SA 4.0
- 4. Class 423; 4-VEP 3498 - 9550324140: hugh llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 5. Class 423; 4-VEP 3498: hugh llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 6. Class 423; 4-VEP 7701: hugh llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 7. Class 423; 4-VEP 7721: hugh llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 8. Class 423; 4-VEP 7745: hugh llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 9. Class 423; 4-VEP 7772: hugh llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 10. Class 423; 4-VEP 7808: hugh llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
what is it?
The British Rail Class 423 (4 VEP), electric multiple unit passenger trains were mostly built by British Rail (BR) at York Works from 1967 to 1974, although the MBSOs and TSOs of the first 20, 7701-7720, were built at Derby Works. They have manually opening doors next to every seating row and were the last coaching stock built in this pattern for BR. They were mostly found working outer-suburban services in South London and rural services in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire, up to 2005 when they were finally replaced by Electrostar and Desiro units. The fleet had a working life of 38 years.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 59 years ago, in 1967.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- 746 kW is about 9 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 26 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 20.1 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 38 years (1967–2005).
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1967
- in service from
- 1967
- retired
- 2005
- status
- retired
- number built
- 194
- kind
- multiple unit
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- British Rail
- operators
- British Rail, InterCity, Network SouthEast, Connex South Eastern, South Eastern Trains, Connex South Central, Southern, South West Trains
- top speed
- 145 km/h
- power
- 746 kW
- electric system
- 750 V DC third rail
- formation
- 4 cars per trainset:, DTCsoL+MBSO+TSO+DTCsoL
- length
- 20.1 m
- weight
- 158 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4970807, Wikipedia: British Rail Class 423 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.