In the 90's a new short lived service was launced from Ashford to Brighton. These were operated by the 207/2's which were modified for this duty.
207201 carried the name "Ashford Fayre" and is seen here leaving the bay road at Hastings in 2002.
207202 was named "Brighton Royal Pavilion" and can be seen hear leaving Hastings on route to Ashford.
What must be the biggest nameplate ever is seen on 207203
Given a reprive in 1986, 1011 was returned to service primarily on the Marshlink service. To mark this occasion it was repainted into green livery and for some strange reason numbered 203001; even though it was a 202 and never a 203.
It also carried a nameplate "St Leonard's" after the depot which cared for the unit during its entire life. This unit survived in service for another 3 years until being withdrawn and then became departmental unit 1067
Image by Alan Towler
A close up showing the "St Leonard's" plate on the side of motor car 60014
Image by Alan Towler
The Preserved Main Line Unit
These are the vehicles which everyone thinks about when you mention a named thumper
The plates have been done in the same style as 203001 and many people think that 203001 is part of this unit, but sadly not.
Motor Car 60000 in the preserved unit is seen at Treherbert in South Wales and the "Hastings" nameplate can clearly been seen on the side.
60016 originally from 1012, was named "Mountfield" and is seen near Reading on a railtour in 2012
Seen at the rear is 60018 on the same tour as the shot above on 7/7/2012,
If you notice the plates on each motor car are a different colour making them easily identifiable from a distance.
Also in the 90's Eastligh gave some units unnoficial names which were painted on the front above the headcode box.
I dont know how many were named and what they were but so fat these are the ones I have tracked down.
1111 Michelle
1129 Cassandra
1131 Belind
1313 Ajax
1313 showing its unnofical name "Ajax" at St Leonards
All images unless stated by Amy Adams
Named Units
It's only in recent years since the demise of locomotive hauled trains that multiple units have been named and over the years a handful of thumpers have carried nameplates.
The one which everyone immediately thinks of is the preserved Hasting Unit 1001, but those vehicles were only named in preservation and there were a handful which carried names in regular passenger service.