CLASS 385 MULTIPLE UNITS

67015+385102 at WhiffletWith more EMUs required for the electrification of the Glasgow Queen Street - Edinburgh Waverley line, a new fleet of Class 385's are being built.

67015 is seen hauling 385102, the first 385 to arrive in Scotland, through Whifflet on 5X09 Merchant Park Sidings - Shields TMD EMU move 10.12.16 The class 385s are Scotrail's newest fleet of EMUs.  Built in 2016, 70 units were built, with the fleet consisting of 46 three car and 24 four car sets.   The Hitachi AT200 family of units were built between Hitachi's Kasado works in Japan and their Newton Aycliffe works in North East England.

The 385 has a maximum speed of 100 mph and sets are formed of two powered driving cars and one or two unpowered intermediate cars. The four carriage variation have four powered bogies per set, whilst the three-carriage version has three powered bogies per set. The passenger doors are plug type. Seating is in a 2+2 configuration with a mixture of four-seat table bays and airline seating with seat back tables. A toilet is fitted in each driving car. The trains are fully air conditioned.

The class 385s were built not only to service some of the newly electrified lines around Central Scotland, but also to replace a number of 156s, 158s and 170s that were going off lease and the elderly fleet of class 314 EMUs operating in Glasgow.  The newly electrified lines that the 385s would serve included:

• Edinburgh Waverley - Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High (electrified in 2017)
• Edinburgh Waverley - Dunblane (electrified in 2017)
• Edinburgh Waverley - Glasgow Central via Shotts (electrified in 2019)
• Glasgow Queen Street - Alloa (electrified in 2018)

The first of the class to reach Scotland was 385102 which arrived on Saturday 10 December 2016 hauled by DB's 67015 as 5X09 22:00 Merchant Park Sidings to Shields TMD.

385103+104 at Prestonpans385103+385104 depart Prestonpans with 2Z24 Edinburgh Waverley - Dunbar test run 13.2.18 Prior to its move north, four-car unit 385102 had ScotRail 'Saltire livery' applied to the driving cars only, with the windows also blanked out. 385102 was displayed to the media at Shields Depot, Glasgow the following day.

The first class 385s were expected in service during 2017, however due to delays with infrastructure works such as extending platforms, station upgrades, rebuilding bridges and installation of Overhead Line Equipment.  There were also issues with the trains themselves including problems with the visibility and curvature of the driver windows, leading to drivers seeing "two or three signals", when only one exists and computer issues.   The delay in entry to service meant that Scotrail were short on units as several DMUs had gone off lease, meaning the short term loan of 10 class 365 units to fill some gaps.

385104+385003 operated a special run for the press from Edinburgh Waverley - Glasgow Queen Street and back on Monday 23rd July 2018, with the first units entered service on 24th July 2018, also on the Glasgow Queen Street - Edinburgh Waverley route.

A gradual introduction of class 385s into service as well as the Station Hotel adjoined to Ayr station being deemed to be dangerous meant less units travelling there and allowed a start to be made with the withdrawal of the elderly class 314 fleet.  This was reversed however when the 385s were removed from service on 4th October 2018, after the discovery of a critical issue, however they re-entered service on 13 October 2018.

385012 at Lenzie385012 pauses at Lenzie with 2N60 13.44 Alloa - Glasgow Queen Street service 31.1.20 By December 2018, 32 class 385s were in service, rising to 58 in May 2019, with all 70 units in service by December 2019.

Class 385s can be seen across Central Scotland either singly as a 3 or 4 car units or in formations of 6, 7 or 8 cars.   Routes covered are:

• Edinburgh Waverley-Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk High (usually 8 cars)
• Edinburgh Waverley-Glasgow Queen Street via Shotts (usually 3 or 6 cars)
• Edinburgh Waverley-Glasgow Central via Carstairs (usually 3 or 4 cars)
• Glasgow Queen Street -Alloa (usually 6 cars)
• Edinburgh Waverley-North Berwick/Dunbar (usually 3, 4 or 6 cars)
• Edinburgh Waverley-Dunblane (usually 4 cars or 6 cars)
• Glasgow Queen Street - Cumbernauld / Falkirk Grahamston (3 or 4 cars)
• Glasgow Central-Gourock/Wemyss Bay (3 cars)
• Glasgow Central-Lanark (usually 3 or 6 cars)
• Cathcart Circle, Newton and Neilston (usually 3 cars)

Fleet List