The 4 TC to Eastleigh works

This is correct. The reason why is a closely guarded secret - and no, I'm not privy to why.

Have the collision pillars been replaced? are they still attached to the underframe? these problems catch all Mk1 stock eventually.

I think the secret is not the fact that the unit is going to Eastleigh, but what will happen there!

They aren't going to scrap it, are they?

No not for scraping for a paint job and some other work to the unit, I will guess Carl Watson web will have photos not to long.

Well, they may be scraping it to get the old vinyl off. But not for scrapping!

According to comments elsewhere she's receiving CDL (central door locking), hopefully that isn't a new requirement for LU operations but some kind of mainline use? Also been suggested she'll return with the inspection saloon.

The old hands in every Carriage and Wagon dept that I have met always called the Carriages girls / she / her... Including trimmers that started work for the Southern Railway in 1930!

I can't be the only person to have misread that as scrapped?

that's not a scraper in the photo - it's heating up the vinyl to make it easier to remove

The 4TCs were largely adaptions and modifications to existing Mk1s. However when they were rebuilt and re-appeared as 4TCs they were initially in all blue as were the 4REPs which pushed/pulled them.

Is that buckeye coupler painted blue?

The 4TCs were provided for the Waterloo to Weymouth line, which was elecrified only as far as Bournemouth. When the train left Waterloo it consisted of 2 x 4TC, and pushed by a 4REP unit. These units looked like the 4BEP and $CEP sets operating to Brighton, but whereas on each of these there was only one powered car in the middle of the set, the REPs had 2 power cars, one at each end. As on leaving Waterloo the power was at the back, there was a lot of slack in the couplings and if travelling in the front car, it could be a rough start. The trains travelled to Bournemouth, where a class 33 was attached at the Weymouth end, and either one or two TC sets were pulled to Weymouth.
On return the TC or TCs were propelled by the 33 to Bournemouth, where they were coupled up behind the REP to travel to Bournemouth.
The most interesting period was in the early nineties, when the line was elecrified to Weymouth and the REPs were slowly taken out of service to have their electics rebuilt into the class 442s. One REP provided tthe motors for 2 442s. Whilst this was going on the variety of trains was incredible.

In wintry conditions they were reformed to have the REP in the middle, thus ensuring that there were sixteen axles clearing the track ahead of the powered wheels whichever way the train was going. It did, however, mean that only one TC unit could continue to Weymouth, but that was normal in the winter months anyway - partly lack of demand, but also because the extra power needed to heat the train would make eight coaches a bit of a strain for a 33 on the hill out of Weymouth.

One curious formation in the early 80s was a twice daily service train that divided at Basingstoke for Salisbury and Southampton. The rear portion was a pair of VEP emus. The front portion was a class 33 diesel + TC. The train would leave Waterloo with both portions under power, controlled from the cab of the 33. A true hybrid. Careful handling was needed on starting as a diesel takes time to get moving as the engine revs rise, whereas a straight electric starts to move as soon as power is applied. The result could be a sharp jolt as the electric units at the rear started to move before the diesel at the front.