A Stock

The London Underground had two types of A Stock, A60 and A62 Stock. Both types operated on the Metropolitan Line from 12 June 1961 until 26 September 2012. The stock was built by Cravens of Sheffield in two batches (A60 and A62) in the early 1960s and replaced all other trains on the line.

The stock was the oldest on the Underground until September 2012, and also on any Subway system in Europe. It was the only stock to have luggage racks and separate motoring and brake controls, and the last to have no automated announcements. The A Stock has since been replaced by the S Stock on the Metropolitan Line.

The design was formulated by W S Graff-Baker of the London Passenger Transport Board as part of the electrification of the Metropolitan Line from Rickmansworth to Amersham and Chesham under the 1935-1940 New Works Programme, and owes much to the smaller 1938 Stock. The work was delayed due to World War II and also the lack of funds after the war. In 1946 two experimental trailers similar in exterior appearance to the production trains were built using underframes from the T Stock, but they were scrapped when the trials finished. Unfortunately Graff-Baker died in 1952, before the trains were built.

Electrification commenced in 1959; therefore London Transport placed an order for 31 trains A60 Stock trains to replace T Stock on services to Watford and Rickmansworth. Also, loco hauled services to destinations north of Rickmansworth. 5004 and 5008 were the first units and entered service to Watford in June 1961. The Amersham/Chesham services began later that year. London Transport then ordered another 27 trains, A62 Stock. These replaced 63 F and P Stocks on the Uxbridge service. By December 1963, the roll-out was complete and the whole Metropolitan Line had A Stock.

The trains were A Stock to mark the electrification of the Metropolitan line to Amersham.

The stock was a compromise between the needs of longer distance "outer suburban" passengers on the outer reaches of the line and short distance "urban" passengers over the heavily used Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. Therefore the trailer cars have three sets of doors per car.

 A feature that made the stock distinctive was the use of transverse seating throughout the train. This is very uncommon on the Underground. The Stock was built like this because it was designed for journeys which may last over an hour. Most of the transverse seating was high capacity with a 3 + 2 arrangement. There were four tip-up seats located at the rear of the driving motor. Despite each 8-car train seating 448 passengers, the stock provided fewer seats than the locomotive-hauled T stock trains that they replaced, but more seats than the S Stock, which started to replace them on 31 July 2010. The stock had luggage racks and umbrella hooks, they only Underground stock to have these features, very distinctive!

A60 and A62 stocks were nearly identical in appearance. The most significant differences were the border around the destination window on A62 motor cars and the make of compressor under the trailer cars: A60 stock used the Westinghouse DHC 5A, A62 cars the Reavell TBC 38Z.

At 116" they were the Underground's widest trains. Refurbishment took place between 1993 and 1998 by Adtranz (now Bombardier) Derby. Car end windows were installed , the seating was reupholstered, and the livery was updated. At the time of refurbishment the Metropolitan line had a low priority for receiving new trains.

 Each unit consisted of four cars: two powered driving motors at each end and two non-powered trailers in between. Each unit was further divided into two semi-permanently-coupled sets, a driving motor and trailer. Although the intention was to operate four-car trains in the off-peak, this practice was short lived, except for the Chalfont & Latimer-Chesham shuttle which was always operated by a single four-car unit. For its main services the stock operated in a two-unit formation of eight cars between Aldgate and Amersham, Chesham (peak hours only), Uxbridge and Watford.

It was the world's fastest 4th-rail train with the top speed of 70 mph, but from the late 1990s/early 200s it was restricted to 50 mph to improve reliability.

London Underground held the final public trip, organised by the London Transport Museum on 29 September 2012. Starting at Moorgate it travelled the whole Metropolitan line, including Watford, Amersham, Aldgate, Uxbridge, Chesham and the Watford curve. The tour ended at Wembley Park: on the final stretch from Finchley Road, the trains was unofficially recorded at 74 mph.

A60 Stock reached 50 years of service on 12 June 2011. The age of the stock made spare parts harder to obtain and vehicles had to be cannibalised to keep the rest of the stock in operation. S8 Stock replaced the stock, with the first unit being introduced in July 2010. The main differences between the S8 and S7 Stock are the layout and number of seats and the provision of two sand hoppers for each rail due to the different conditions at the country end of the line. The withdrawal of A Stock commenced on 9 October 2010.

 London Transport Museum began offering luggage racks from withdrawn A stock for sale in February 2012.

The last train ran in passenger service on 26 September 2012, formed of 5034 + 5062. The same train was used on 29 September 2012 for the final ticket-only railtour. One of the driving motor cars, 5034, was part of the first (as 5008) and also the last A Stock train, giving it a life of over 51 years. It was sent to Northwood sidings on 8 October 2012 and was loaded on trucks to be scrapped: 5034 was taken to the Acton Museum Depot to be preserved.

At ITV News report stated that a car later identified as 5034 would be preserved by the London Transport Museum. The stock outlasted many former British Rail EMUs: the Scottish Class 303 managed 43 years, the Class 309 Clacton Express units 38 years and British Rail Class 312 only 28 years. The former Southern Region 4CIG and 4CEP managed 46 years and 49 respectively. The stock was one of Britain's longest-serving types of train, although far from the ex-1938 Stock still in use on the Isle of Wight around 75 years after construction, or the 81 years of Glasgow Underground rolling stock between 1896 and 1977. The stock may be outlasted by the InterCity 125 HSTs.

Acton Museum Depot March 2014

Acton Museum Depot is storage for the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Acton opens it's depot doors twice a year in this case it was for the 15th and 16th March 2014. Also they open the doors once a month for guided tours. The Piccadilly and District Line passes the depot, so it is a great opportunity for pictures and videos.

The depot holds many heritage trains and buses. Sometimes it will have Met No.1 in light steam and even Sarah Siddons and the Jubilee Carriage No.353 which you can go in. This is also a great opportunity for collectors as around the depot is many transport stalls.

Some heritage trains they have are the 1938 Stock which sometimes goes out and does tours. They have an A Stock driving car and even a 1986 prototype. You can also sometimes go in the cabs of these trains. The Acton Miniature Railways runs outside as well.

Personally, this is my favourite place to go to get collectors items.

At the last Acton Depot day I brought this A Stock destination blind in fully working order, it now sits above my bedroom door.

As you can see it still has the original blind in for the Metropolitan Line and also the East London Line.

This is also from the A Stock but is for the train number, this was bought from the London Transport Museum Friends stall.

A range of Metropolitan Line timetables also from the London Transport Museum Friends.

More timetables.

Pictures of various stations and trains. Top left is Hatton Cross station with Concorde just taking off. Top middle is a Northern Line train going through the train wash at Morden Depot. CO-OP Stock at Uxbridge at the bottom left.

A dead mans handle which I think is from the A Stock. Two Jubilee Newsletters and a ticket for Steam on the Met.

Various leaflets from various different stalls.

Farringdon station sign although this isn't enamel.

 

Another sign which is from the London Transport Museum Friends.

S8 Stock

The S Stock is a fleet of sub-surface rolling stock used on the London Underground. Delivered by Bombardier Transportation in Derby, the S Stock replaced the A Stock on the Metropolitan Line. This stock has many differences from the S7 Stock, one being the seating arrangement and another being number of cars. Both types have air-conditioning and low floors to ease accessibility for disabled people, and it is possible for a passenger to walk from one car to the next while the train is moving with the new gangways between carriages, unlike older sub-surface stock.

Passenger service began on the Metropolitan Line in July 2010 and completely replaced the A Stock in September 2012.

The S designation stands for Sub-surface, following the London Underground tradition of designating surface stock with a letter associated with its intended route - A Stock on the Metropolitan Line to Amersham.

Part of Bombardier's Movia family, the stock consists of 58 eight-car trains for the Metropolitan line. S8 Stock entered service between 2010 and 2012, operating all services by September 2012.

The stock has faster acceleration than the previous A Stock although its top speed is 62 mph, 8 mph slower than A Stock but faster than C and D Stocks. During the period of dual operation with both A Stocks and S Stocks, the stock had its performance capped to match that of the older trains in order to comply with signalling constraints and avoid bunching of the service. S8 Stock seats 306 passengers compared with 448 for A stock although it can accommodate 1,226 standing passengers compare to 976 and even has dedicated space for wheelchairs.

Eventually the voltage will be increased from normal 630 volts to 750 volts. This will allow the stock to perform better and also increase power demands of air-conditioned, fully-motored-axle trains, and allow the trains to return energy to the network through regenerative braking.

At present the stock is operated manually, but London Underground will hopefully activate automatic train operation once the necessary signalling is in place by 2018.

Features:

The S stock is air-conditioned throughout: the sub-surface tunnels (unlike deep-level tube lines) allow the exhausted hot air to disperse, and two-thirds of the sub-surface network is in the open air. The stock has regenerative brakes, returning around 20% of their energy to the network and thus increasing energy efficiency.

End external displays show two lines of text: the top line for the destination, and the bottom for the line. Internally, it has a larger dot matrix indicators (DMIs) than D Stock (C Stock lacks DMIs, as did A Stock). The DMIs show destination and line, and can display other messages such as safety notices. There are also DMIs on the exterior, with text alternating between destination and line, and on the S8 stock the type of service, i.e fast, semi-fast or all stations.

Another new feature is that to prevent accidental pressing of emergency alarms there are flaps over the alarm buttons where the wheelchair spaces are.

Air-conditioning is a first on any London Underground train is by Mitsubishi and has two circuits so that if one fails there is still 50% capacity. Through gangways from car to car are another innovation, as the London Overground's Class 378 also has the same feature.

Passengers can now move from crowded cars to one with more room without having to get off at the next station and board another car. This provides extra room for standing and creates a sense of security.

 CCTV enables the driver to see into every car, while track-to-train video links give the driver a view of the train exterior before leaving a station.

There is a fold-out set of steps in each driver's cab to allow fast evacuation in an emergency, all trains on the London Underground have this feature.

The stock has cantilevered seating for easy cleaning and accessible storage of bags. S8 Stock has a mix of transverse and longitude seating with four wheelchair spaces per train. S8 Stock trains are 133.68m.

The stock is the first on the Metropolitan line with DMIs and automated voice announcements. It uses the same announcer voice as 2009 stock on the Victoria line and C Stock on the Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines.

All stock can operate on all sub-surface lines, with selective door operation used at stations that are shorter than the train.

S8 Stock may operate as a seven-car S8-1 formation.

Entry into service:

S8 was initially tested overnight between Amersham and Watford via the Watford North Curve from 9 November 2009. Driver training began in early January 2010, and the first train entered revenue service on 31 July 2010, shuttling between Wembley Park and Watford.

By 27 June 2011, S8 Stock was running along the whole Metropolitan line. Deliveries were suspended by Transport for London in November 2011 due to concerns over reliability. A number of trains were delivered to London Underground's Neasden depot, but were not accepted to enter service. Deliveries resumed in mid-December 2011.

In August 2012, London Underground confirmed that strap handles would be introduced on S8 Stock, in response to passenger complaints over the height of the handrails as compared with the old A Stock.

All 58 S8 trains had been delivered to Neasden Depot by 15 September 2012. 11 days later the A Stock trains were completely withdrawn. It was reported that 37 of the new trains would be sent back to Bombardier for urgent modification and drivers were unhappy with the driver's cabs.

Baker Street

Baker Street is one of the most complicated Tube stations on the network. With two facing platforms (at cut and cover level) for Circle and Hammersmith & City Line trains. There are four platforms in the open for Metropolitan Line trains - two through lines, two which terminate. There are then four deep level Tube line platforms for Jubilee and Bakerloo line services.

Baker Street is located in Zone 1 on the Tube Map and is between Great Portland Street and Finchley Road if you are on the Metropolitan Line. The station opened as part of the very first underground railway, opening in January 1863.

On the Hammersmith and City/Circle line platforms, there is a historical display in the arches. of the wall with photographs of what the station used to look like when it was first opened. On the deep level Tube lines, tile work pays homage to the fictional Sherlock Holmes character.

Great Portland Street

Great Portland Street opened in 1863 as part of the original London Underground network. It opened between 'Bishop's Road' (now Paddington) on the Hammersmith & City Line and 'Farringdon Street' (close to the present-day Farringdon station). It was originally called 'Portland Road', then it was renamed to its present name in 1917. The station is a cut & cover station with two facing platforms, where just to the west is the junction for Metropolitan Line trains.

Look at the windows on the bridge (inside the station) between the two platforms. You can peer through the windows down onto the tracks and trains directly below.

This station is located in Zone 1 on the Tube map and is found between Euston Square and Baker Street. It has connections with the Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City Lines. The Great Portland Street station building is listed as a building of National Significance. The current structure was built in 1930 on a traffic island. The station is within easy walking distance of Regent's Park and Warren Street Tube stations.

As part of the 150 year celebrations MET No.1 and Sarah Siddons passed though this station in January 2013.

London Underground Tour Part 1

Starting at London Bridge we took the Northern Line to King's Cross St. Pancras. After a Lunch break we took the Piccadilly Line to our first stop Manor House.

Manor House:

Manor House has two separate platforms for the Piccadilly Line located in Zone 3 on the Tube map. This station is a deep level Tube station. Manor House opened in 1932 as part of the Piccadilly Line extension to Cockfosters. It was named after a pub on the corner of the Seven Sisters road. Unfortunately the pub no longer exists although there is a sign on the wall that tells you where it was. There used to be another exit going right up to the tram stops on Seven Sisters Road but it closed in 1950.

This is a Piccadilly Line train to Cockfosters the next station is Turnpike Lane.

Turnpike Lane:

Turnpike Lane has two separate platforms linked together by crossover passages located in Zone 3 on the Tube map. This station is a deep level Tube station. The station opened in September 1932 as part of the extension to Cockfosters. It has a nice Charles Holden designed building, and could have been called 'North Harringay' or 'Ducketts Green'.

The station has yellow frieze tiles marking out the distinguishing features. All stations on this part of the Piccadilly Line have them but they are all in different colours. Manor House tiles are Blue, Wood Green tiles are Green, Bounds Green tiles are Red and Southgate tiles are orange.

This is a Piccadilly Line service to Cockfosters the next station is Wood Green.

Wood Green:

Wood Green is a deep level Tube station located in Zone 3 on the Tube map. It has two separate platforms linked by cross-platform passageways. In September 1932 this station opened as part of the Piccadilly Line extension to Cockfosters, and was listed as a Grade II building in July 2011.

Like at Turnpike Lane this station has green frieze tiles marking out distinguishing features as well. All stations on this part of the Piccadilly Line have them but they are all in different colours. Manor House tiles are Blue, Turnpike Lane tiles are Yellow, Bounds Green tiles are Red and Southgate tiles are orange.

Wood Green is a Grade II listed building. The spacious and lofty elliptical ticket hall has three adjacent entrances separated by two rectangular piers clad in Cornish granite. A low iron balustrade is at the base of each pier on a granite base projecting onto the pavement below the canopy. The newel posts carry a disc and diamond motif used by Holden on other projects. Original bronze poster panels either side of the entrance bays. The ticket hall has a flat lantern roof with Crittall clerestory windows braced by four deep reinforced concrete beams. Below the roof is a white painted concrete ring beam with a further ring beam at entrance level decorated by a shallow stepped pattern matching that on the canopy.

 

 

 

This is a Piccadilly Line train to Arnos Grove the next station is Bounds Green.

 

Bounds Green:

 

Bounds Green is a deep level Tube station, underground with two separate platforms linked together by the exit crossover and other crossover passages. As part of the Piccadilly Line extension to Cockfosters this station opened in September 1932 and was listed as a Grade II building in 2010. At the north end of the westbound platform there is a memorial plaque remembering those who died when a bomb fell on the station during the Second World War.

 

 



 



This is a Piccadilly Line train to Arnos Grove the next station is Arnos Grove where this train will terminate. When leaving the train please ensure you take all of your personal belongings.

Arnos Grove:

Arnos Grove is above ground and in the open and has two island platforms giving three platforms in total. Through trains run on the outside and the middle platform is used for terminating trains. This is where the Piccadilly Line first comes above ground at the northern end of the Line. The station opened in 1932 and used to be the end of the Piccadilly Line before it was extended to Cockfosters. In the ticket hall there is the bronze ticket hall windows still from 1933.

Trains will often wait here for a minute or two as there is a depot nearby, and this station is therefore a changeover point for drivers coming or going off shift. The same depot, Arnos Grove Drivers' Depot won Best Newcomer and Best Overall Garden for their new project which also got them an award in the London In Bloom competition.

Arnos Grove has a striking design with a prominent circular booking hall providing both an effective landmark and hugely impressive interior space. Its large panels of glazing making it particularly evocative when lit at night.

Next stop Southgate.

Southgate:

Southgate is an underground station, even though the stations either side are overground. This is because Southgate is on a hill. There are two separate platforms with crossover passages between them. This station opened in 1933 and could have been called 'Chase Side' or 'Southgate Central'.

The station is beautiful old building with many features that should be admired and not ignored with your head down on your daily commute. The parade of shops constructed around the central circular station building is also lovely. The shops even have their names written in underground-style font. If you go outside the station and look up at the roof, you'll see a 'pylon' shaped object, resembling an electrical insulator.

Next stop Oakwood.

Oakwood:

Back in the open Oakwood has one single island platform with steps from the ticket hall to platform level. The station opened in March 1933 as part of the Cockfosters extension and originally called 'Enfield West', it serves as the terminus of the line for seven months until Cockfosters station was finished. There is a magnificent ticket hall at this station which is a great example of Charles Holden's architecture. It has a large and imposing box-shape, with the ceiling being particularly monumental and bold. This is definitely worth taking a moment to stop and admire.

There is a free bus service for Middlesex University students which runs from the station to the nearby Trent Park campus.

Platform 1 is labelled 'Westbound', and Platform 2 as 'Eastbound' even though from an aerial view platform 1 trains from Oakwood head east, and platform 2 trains head west to Cockfosters.

Oakwood is also a Grade II listed building that has multi-coloured stock brick walls with reinforced-concrete roofs and ring beams. Flat roof with projecting eaves and plain concrete bands below with metal windows and horizontal oblong panes. The entrance portico has a projecting reinforced-concrete canopy whilst there is also reinforced-concrete, plain cantilevered canopy on platform. Outside, the Oakwood Station and the sign form an artistic group.

 
This is a Piccadilly Line service to Cockfosters. The next station is Cockfosters where this train will terminate. All change please. When leaving the train please ensure you take all your personal belongings.

Cockfosters:

Cockfosters is the northern terminus of the Piccadilly Line. There are three lines here with four platforms in total. The station opened in July 1933 as the new northern terminus of the Piccadilly Line, and was nearly called 'Trent Park'.

Look out for the gnomes!

Cockfosters was also our final stop although we had to get all the way back to Waterloo. So, we got back on the Piccadilly Line to Finsbury Park changed on the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus for quickness and then on the Bakerloo Line to Waterloo.