Train restoration dubbed Project Yellow Submarine

Two railway enthusiasts have joined forces to restore an electric train saved from scrap.

Lakshman Pathak, 25, from South Woodford, London, and Brad Wright, 23, from Needham Market, Suffolk, merged their separate railway preservation groups in 2025 and are now restoring a Class 315 train.

On Saturday, the renovation - dubbed Project Yellow Submarine - reached a milestone when the new livery was revealed.

From the 1980s, Class 315s operated from London Liverpool Street on commuter routes in Essex and Hertfordshire. Pathak eventually hopes to move the train from Wales, where the restoration is taking place, back to Essex.

Pathak's group The Class 315 Preservation Society merged with Wright's Clacton Express Preservation Group to form the Alternating Current Multiple Unit Society (ACMU).

Wright had restored a Class 309 train, known as the Clacton Express and both men shared the goal of preserving electric trains.

ACMU is restoring the Class 315 at the Llanelli and Mynydd Mawr Railway in Wales.

Class 315s were four-coach trains. They entered service in 1980 and ran up until 2022, operating for First Great Eastern on routes from London to Shenfield and on the Romford to Upminster line and the Lea Valley lines.

After raising £1,500, ACMU organised a 10-day trip to Wales early in 2026 to refurbish the front carriage.

One side was completed in a green, blue and grey pattern, not seen in more than a decade.

The restoration is called Project Yellow Submarine because the end of the train's cab is yellow, Pathak loves The Beatles' song and the train's interior was soaking wet from leaks.

Pathak said his "ultimate dream" was to bring the Class 315, a train he had fond memories of travelling on as a child, back to Essex.

But he said finding space for it would be the "real challenge".

Wright believes electric train restoration is often overlooked compared with steam locomotives.

He argues that, in some ways, electric trains are even more significant than famous steam engines such as The Flying Scotsman.

"Because in its day, unless you were fabulously wealthy, you'd never travel on the Flying Scotsman, but yet you would always commute to work on one of these trains," he said.

"You would always go see your family, go on holiday.

"They really were the backbone of the country and the trains that got you home, but because they're not glamorous and because in preservation there's struggles to find commercial uses for them, then they often just get overlooked and forgotten."

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