Returning 4VEP 3417 to the Mainline

Welcome to the Southern Electric Traction Group. My name is Steve Upton - Senior Minion, SETG Social Media Muppet, Tea Monitor, Allowed Own Shoelaces and Bacon Butties Dun-While-U-Wait.

For the last 10 years I have been part of a small group of dedicated volunteers, working to restore the only remaining 4VEP Electric Multiple Unit, the Bluebell Railway’s No 3417 ‘Gordon Pettitt’.

As I stand at Waterloo station typing this into my phone, the SETG are 80% of the way towards bringing 3417 back into traffic; that means we can once again carry passengers on preserved railways and recreate 40 years of railway operating history. But our ambitions run far further than that.

The next stage of our project is about to begin, and we would like to invite all of you to be a part of it. No electric slamdoor unit has ever been restored to mainline service before; it has happened for steam locomotives, diesel and electric locomotives and even diesel units… but no one has yet managed to bring an electric unit back into mainline service.

We are aiming for 3417 to be the first.

Your help will allow us to fit the equipment needed to bring the unit up to modern standards, and allow the mainline stations of the Southern Region to echo again to the sounds of slamming doors….