Talk:British Rail Class 304

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CLASS 304s OUT OF LIVERPOOL STREET

Just a minor point, Class 304s were briefly used out of Liverpool Street because there were problems with the introduction of the 305s. The 305 transformers had a habit of blowing up and had to be modified. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 114.75.179.254 (talk) 02:12, 17 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

304s from Stafford to Manchester Piccadilly via Stoke and Macclesfield

The article does not appear to mention that for most of their lives class 304s were the sole commuter stopping train providing an hourly service along the 55 mile Manchester Piccadilly to Stafford route via Macclesfield, Congleton and Stoke-on Trent with additional peak time services terminating at Macclesfield. I mention this as it was probably their longest route and class 304s dominated the stopping service on this route from electrification in the 60s until replacement by 323s in the 90s (323s still serve this line although the service now terminates at Stoke) 2A00:23C6:1770:E201:7CE5:A293:EBE2:FB61 (talk) 06:11, 20 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Are you aware of any references - books, websites, magazines - that can be used to confirm this? 10mmsocket (talk) 07:41, 20 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I grew up in Bramhall which is on the Stoke to Manchester Piccadilly line and throughout my childhood in the 60s-70s Branhall was serviced almost exclusively by class 304s and so every resident who commuted to Stockport or Manchester will have travelled on these for a 30 year period. As a student I travelled daily from Bramhall to Stoke for four years by train, always on 304s, which terminating mainly at Stafford, however there was an occasional service to Birmingham New Street.

There is mention of 304s being built for the Stafford to Piccadilly line here (see post by ‘Taunton’ 2 Dec 2013) https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/class-304s.93311/. They actually ran on this line before the Altrincham line since this was initially still running on DC electrification. 2A00:23C6:1770:E201:95BD:76D5:8065:652B (talk) 05:57, 21 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The 304s didn't just terminate at Stafford - they also ran through to Birmingham New Street. I also saw them at Rugby on occasion, having worked from Stafford via Lichfield (TV). --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 17:15, 20 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]