The British Rail Class 483 electrical multiple units were originally built as 1938 tube stock units for London Underground. They were extensively refurbished from 1989-92 by Eastleigh Works, for use on the Isle of Wight railway network on 'mainline' service from Ryde to Shanklin. This was despite having already worked for nearly fifty years on the London Underground. The units replaced the even older and life-expired Class 485 and Class 486 units, which were introduced in 1967, but were originally built as 'Standard' stock units for the London Electric Railway in 1923.

Nine two-car units were refurbished, numbered 483001-009, although only the final three digits were carried on the cab ends. Units were painted in the new Network SouthEast livery, of blue with red and white stripes. A tenth unit, was also shipped to Ryde, although this was for spares only and was never used in passenger operation on the Island. This unit was unofficially given the unit number 483010.

Each unit was formed of two driving motor vehicles, numbered 121-129 and 221-229. The technical description of this formation was DMSO(A)+DMSO(B).

When the units were first introduced, the final digit of the unit number and the final digit of the carriage numbers corresponded, such that unit 001 was formed of vehicles 121 and 221. However, since then, many reformations have taken place to the unit formations.

In 1996, with the privatisation of Britain's railways, the Ryde-Shanklin became part of the Island Line franchise, which was won by the Stagecoach Group. In the late 1990s several units were withdrawn from service as surplus to requirements. From 2000 onwards the rest of the fleet were overhauled and repainted into a new livery of blue and yellow, with pictures of dinosaurs. Two units, nos. 007 and 009, were later repainted into their original London Transport red livery.

Fleet Details

Six of the nine units remain in service, the others having been taken out of service in the late 1990s.