#3863
British Rail Class 438
🇬🇧 United Kingdom ·built by Holgate Road carriage works· from 1966· class of 34 four-car push-pull trailer cars
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Weymouth Quay railway station 1986: John Lucas· CC BY-SA 2.0
what is it?
The British Rail TC (Trailer Control) multiple units were unpowered fixed formations of 3 or 4 carriages with a driving position at each end of the set, converted by BR's Holgate Road carriage works from locomotive-hauled Mark 1 carriages in 1966–1967 and 1974. The units built on experience gained from the prototype 6TC unit. In time the 3 car units (3TC, numbered in the series 3xx) were reformed into four car units (4TC numbered in the series 4xx) to match the rest of the fleet and later classified as Class 442.
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 60 years ago, in 1966.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Weighs about as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 19.7 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
- Seats 202: 4 full city buses (~50 seats each).
- Served for 23 years (1966–1989).
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1966–1974
- in service from
- 1966
- retired
- 1989
- status
- retired
- number built
- 34
- kind
- multiple unit
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- builders
- Holgate Road carriage works
- operators
- British Rail
- top speed
- 145 km/h
- power
- —
- formation
- 4 car sets - DTSO-TFK-TBSK-DTSO
- length
- 19.7 m
- weight
- 32.5 t
- capacity
- 202 passengers
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q4970811, Wikipedia: British Rail Class 438 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.