did not happen. However, the end was in sight, because as part of their franchise commitment, FNW had to replace their slam-door rolling stock, including the Class 309 units. New Class 175 diesel multiple units were introduced in 2000, and FNW discontinued its Manchester-Euston service. This meant that the "Clacton Express" units were surplus to requirements. As a farewell gesture, three units were used on a final railtour from Manchester to their old haunt of via London Liverpool Street. Following this tour, all seven units were withdrawn in late 2000, and sent for storage at MoD Pig's Bay near Shoeburyness. Two of the units later saw further use in departmental service, whilst the remaining five were scrapped in 2004. Further use Following withdrawal from normal service, three units were transferred to Eastleigh works: numbers 616, 617 and 624. In 2001, two of these units were converted to Class 960 departmental units for cab-signalling tests at the Old Dalby test track. They were reduced in length to 3 cars and painted in a blue and white livery. The new units' designations were 960101 (ex-309616), named West Coast Flyer, and 960102 (ex-309624), named New Dalby. They were withdrawn in 2004, following completion of the tests and were stored at MoD Pig's Bay, near Shoeburyness, Essex, until early 2009 when they entered preservation. The third unit, 617, was used as a spares donor and sat derelict at Eastleigh until it was scrapped in August 2004. Finally, one vehicle from 309623 survives; its TSO was purchased by West Coast Railways in 2003 for eventual spares use. It has, however, remained unrestored at Carnforth MPD, still in its Regional Railways livery Preservation Several attempts since their original withdrawal from the London to Clacton route in 1994 have been made to preserve a class 309 by a number of organisations that have never come to much more than attempts. Preservation actions have included trying to originally preserve 309605 and 309606 at Ilford in spring 1994, an attempt around their completion of First North Western services to preserve a unit (309623), then and at least one other time all not coming to any fruition. However, once no further work was found for them in test train use, units 309616 and 309624 were successfully preserved by AMPSRail Limited in 2009, and went to the Electric Railway Museum, Warwickshire. However, when this was forced to close in 2018, the