Once again many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to sign this petition.

Although it was announced that SWR would have their farewell tour for 21st December at the start of November, I (the petition starter) only found out the devastating news yesterday after riding on one from Waterloo Station.

By the end of this year these trains will have been in service for 42 year, with the median year of their service life (2004) being an intriguing one indeed.

2004 was a fantastic year for us rail enthusiasts, on the mainline we had:

Class 455s, Slammers (CIGs VEPs CEPs etc), Class 442s, Class 159 Sprinter DMUs, Class 170 Turbostar units, Class 458 Juniper units, a Class 73 electro-diesel locomotive and the then-new Class 450/444 Siemens Desiro trains.

Although the demise of the Class 455s has been on the cards since 2017, when South Western Railway took over from its predecessor, South West Trains - the fate of them for me feels like a huge void in my life having grown up with them.

The 455 units had recently been re-motored with the Vossloh Kiepe motors taking over from the original English Electric motors at the time of the announcement of their withdrawal.

With the exception of the occasional Class 450, 456, Slammer, 458 or 707 units on the suburban network, the loss of the 455s will be unprecedented as nobody under the age of 40 will have known a time without them!

The Class 442 units (which held the world speed record for the fastest DC third rail EMU) were completely mothballed and so were the Class 456s.

THIS CLASS IS AN "ENTRAINGERED" TRAIN SPECIES WITH ITS FUTURE HANGING IN THE BALANCE, LETS GET OUR VOICES BEFORE THE DAY WE'VE ALL BEEN DREADING ARRIVES!