26 July 2015 the South Central franchise ended and its services were incorporated into TSGN franchise; Govia announced that they would continue to use the Southern and Gatwick Express brands. In August 2017, South Western Railway commenced operations in the South Western franchise. Trains and rolling stock At the time of its creation the Southern Region still had large numbers of steam locomotives The Southern Region also owned three locomotive works at Ashford, Brighton, and Eastleigh, two carriage works (Eastleigh and Lancing) and a wagon works at Ashford. Most of these closed before privatisation. Unlike the other regions of British Railways, the Southern Region did not rush to withdraw its steam locomotives, instead using them right up to the completion of large-scale electrification. Consequently, the Southern Region was the last region in Britain to regularly use steam on high speed expresses and to have steam operated branch lines. Steam traction over the region finally ended in July 1967, to be replaced by a combination of multiple units and locomotives. The region had ordered large fleets of slam-door electric multiple unit rolling stock with Mark 1 bodies in the 1950s and 1960s, but some Southern Railway-style units survived until the mid-1990s. By that time, much of the Region's slam door fleet reached the end of its design life of 35–40 years and was replaced by more reliable sliding- and plug-door stock - much of it after privatisation (mainly using Electrostar and Desiro trains) - although BR started to replace inner suburban trains from the 1970s. A fleet of diesel-electric multiple units, also known by enthusiasts as "Thumpers" because of their distinctive engines, ran on non- or partly-electrified routes. These include the Oxted line, the Hastings line and the North Downs line. Isle of Wight railway lines used elderly steam engines cascaded from the mainland for many years, but in 1966 the Southern Region acquired some redundant "Standard" tube stock from London Transport that varied build dates between 1923 and 1934. Most of the lines in the island had been closed in the 1950s and early 1960s, but the remaining route from Ryde to Shanklin was electrified to normal Southern Region third rail specification, and the "Standard" tube stock was converted (from LT's fourth rail to third) so that it could be run on it. In the late-1980s these trains were replaced by more redundant LT tube stock, this time dating from