The Class 502 Preservation Trust’s Annual General Meeting will take place on 27th April 2025. Full details of venue and time have been sent out to members. If you want to get involved and take part at the AGM, it isn’t too late to join!

The beginning of the end for the 502s came in 1978, when the first class 507 unit was delivered from BREL's York works. Over the next two years the 502s were progressively withdrawn, the final examples surviving until the end of September 1980.

Feb 15, 2024 · Work on the class 502 in Burscough is progressing nicely. Over the past few months, work has focused on the bodywork and windows on the trailer coach. With the co-operation of our friends at MTT, the buses have been shuffled around to allow access to the other side of the unit to allow welding to be carried out.

Sep 3, 2024 · The Class 502 Electric Multiple Unit that made the final journey that evening brought to a close some sixty years of electric train operation over part of the former West Lancashire Railway route from Preston to Southport.

May 2, 2017 · Fortunately – thanks to the efforts of Steamport Southport, the Northwest Friends of the NRM, and now the Friends of the 502 Group – an example of the much-loved class 502 trains survives. Meanwhile, our friends over at the Suburban Electric Railway Association are taking care of the Wirral class 503 unit.

We’re flashing back to March 2012, when the 502 was moved from its temporary home at Tebay to undercover storage at the MTT in Burscough, where it remains to this day. This video, by one of our members, Paul Gorton, shows the process of …

To commemorate the 60th anniversary, the Class 502 Preservation Trust has produced a new book focusing on the Crossens Electrics, with plenty of photographs and information about this lost part of the region’s electric rail network.

The preserved 502 is shunted at Steamport, prior to repainting in LMS maroon (picture courtesy of Fred Kerr) A 2-car set, formed of motor car 28361 and driving trailer 29896, was earmarked for preservation by the National Railway Museum.

At Burscough, the 502 is now in secure, undercover storage for the first time in nearly two decades. The 502 is now near Liverpool, easily accessed by the majority of the group's members. We can be found working at Burscough most weekends.

Membership will give you the opportunity to take part in all Group activities. In addition to receiving our newsletter and an invite to our private internet discussion forum, you will be able to visit the 502 as part of a work party to help out with restoration work. However there is absolutely no obligation to take part in ‘hands on’ work.