London Underground 1920 Tube Stock

The 1920 Tube Stock is notable for being the first tube stock with air operated doors. Forty cars (half control trailers, half trailers) was built for the Piccadilly Railway just after the First World War. They were marshalled into six-car sets along with twenty cars of Gate Stock which had been modified with air operated doors. The driving cabs had oval windows like contemporary F Stock.

1920 Tube Stock trailer, notice the central door post [3]

Information
Number built:	60 (40 new build, 20 conversions) (6-car sets)
Built:	1920-22
Builder:	Cammell Laird (conversions Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company)
Motor:	2 British Thomson-Houston electric motors per motor car
Power:	400 hp (298 kW) per motor car

Unlike standard practice in later trains, the air operated doors on the 1920 Tube Stock closed against a central post [1]. The doors were remotely controlled from a guard's panel at each end of the train [2], powered by compressed air [3]. To enable interoperability between the new and rebuilt stock, the new control trailers used the same BTH equipment as Gate Stock, and this was re-used from Gate Stock which had been converted to trailers.

The tube stock entered service in the early 1920s, they were considered to have drab interiors, especially compared to later stock, with mock leather seating. They had all longitudinal seating from new but gained some transverse seating during refurbishment as well as an improved interior. The 1920 Tube Stock was transferred to the Bakerloo Line in 1932 and withdrawn from passenger service in 1938. 

Although there were plans to re-use them on other lines most cars were scrapped after the Second World War. Five cars survived as an engineering instruction train until final withdrawal and scrapping in 1968.

Interior view [3]

[1] Brian Hardy, Underground Train File Tube Stock 1933-1959 (Capital Transport, 2001) p. 16

[2] Piers Connor, The London Underground Electric Train (Crowood Press, 2015) p. 83

[3] "New Piccadilly Railway Rolling Stock", The Electrical Review Vol. 87 No. 2, 247 (December 17 1920) p. 771

Class 485 4-VEC

In the 1960s, as with other railway lines across the country, the Isle of Wight's once extensive railway system was devastated by Dr Beeching. Indeed only one line was saved which ran from Ryde Pierhead to Shanklin. BR decided to modernise and electrify this line (to the Southern Region 630V DC third rail system) in the late 1960s. The problem however was the question of which stock to run on it? Tunnels at Ryde have always precluded the use of standard gauge stock on the island due to the limited clearance. In the end there was a very British solution: use former London tube stock! [1]

Former TSO trailer from 485 044 at Acton Depot, still in NSE colours

Information
Number built:	24 cars (converted) to form 4 car sets
Built:	1923 Converted 1966-67
Builder:	Metro Cammell / Union Construction Company / Cammell Laird Converted at LT Acton / BR Stewarts Lane
Engine:	4 English Electric traction motors (630V DC third rail)
Power:	960 hp (716 kW)
Formation:	Driving Motor Brake Standard Open (DMBSO)+ Trailer Standard Open (TSO)*+TSO+DMBSO * Some TSOs had an isolated driving cab, officially DTSOs

The Class 485, and its 3-car sister the Class 486 (originally classified as Class 452 and 451 respectively), were converted from withdrawn London Underground Pre-1938 Standard Tube Stock which had already been hammered daily on the underground for over forty years. [2] After heavy refurbishment/conversion [3] which included changing from LT 4-rail to SR 3-rail (an earlier plan to convert the stock to DMUs was mooted but later abandoned [4]), the Class 485/486s ran for a further twenty-five years on the Island before being replaced by the Class 483, slightly less ancient tube stock, in 1992.

The Class 485/486 entered service in 1967, painted in BR blue with yellow ends and indeed were the first full units in BR's new corporate livery. In the 1970s they were repainted in the slightly more pleasing blue and grey livery for passenger stock and they ended their lives in Network South East colours. The Class 485 was given the SR Alpha code of 4-VEC and the 486 3-TIS. When they worked in multiple they were known as 7-VECTIS, Vectis being the Roman name for the Isle of Wight! Later in their lives they were reformed as 5 car sets (5-VEC) and the 486s 2 car 2-TIS sets.

During conversion BR considered also creating dedicated parcel traffic trailers but scrapped the idea because standard luggage cages would not fit in the cars because of their tube profile [5].

No Class 486s have survived withdrawal but two cars (a DTSO and a TSO) from the Class 485 have survived and have been reunited at the London Transport Museum with other Standard Tube Stock cars with the eventual aim of creating a working museum train of Standard Tube Stock.

DTSO trailer from 485 043

Standard Stock cab

Inside the electric switchgear compartment behind the cab

Front of Standard Stock DM

[1] Brian Hardy, Tube Trains on the Isle of Wight (Capital Transport, 2003) p. 14
[2] Brian Haresnape & Alec Swain, Third Rail DC Electric Multiple Units (Ian Allan, 1989) p. 92
[3] Colin J. Marsden, DMU and EMU Recognition Guide (Ian Allan, 2013) p. 369
[4] Colin J. Marsden (ed.), "3-TIS, 4-VEC", Modern Locomotives Illustrated No. 220 August-September 2016 (BR Southern Region Electric Multiple Units), p. 48
[5] R.J. Maycock & R. Silsbury, The Isle of Wight Railways from 1923 Onwards (Oakwood Press, 2006) p. 250

London Underground Standard Stock / 1923 Tube Stock / Pre 1938 Tube Stock

As the 1920s dawned the London tube network was growing rapidly but there was also a need to replace much of the first generation tube stock which has mostly been built without air operated doors. To fulfil this need for a lot of rolling stock what became known as Standard Stock was built over an eleven year period though in a number of production batches. They have also been called 1923 Tube Stock and Pre 1938 Tube Stock (the 1938 Tube Stock being the next major type to be built).

Information
Number built:	1466
Built:	1923-34
Builder:	Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company, Cammell Laird, Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company, Leeds Forge, Metropolitan-Cammell, Union Construction Company
Motor:	GEC WT54 or Metropolitan-Vickers MV152 traction motors (630v DC fourth rail)

To start with six experimental cars (5 trailers and 1 control trailer) were ordered in 1922 for evaluation purposes [1], they came from a variety of manufacturers who were given a general specification for the trailers but free to follow their own design internally [2] though the stock generally had the same external appearance. These cars were later known as 1922 Tube Stock or Competition Stock.

The control trailers and motor cars were a Underground Group design with a wooden mock-up being built at Golders Green of what would soon be a very familiar sight to London's commuters [3]. The first production order came in 1923 for 191 cars. Further orders came in subsequent years for extensions to the tube network and also as original plans to retrofit earlier stock with air doors were abandoned. The Standard Stock trains to start with used a mixture of GEC and Metropolitan-Vickers electrical equipment, the equipment being stored in switch compartments behind the cabs in the motor cars.

As the 1920s continued more orders were placed but differences were made to the design. Production builds in 1926 and 1927 began to have British Thomson-Houston traction equipment which had been used on earlier tube stock and proved to be more reliable than GEC and MV's equipment [4]. The 1927 batch also had modified bogies with smaller wheels. Batches made in the 1930s had electro-pneumatic brakes and modified control equipment to allow for higher speeds. After the completion of the final production batch in 1934 a total of 1466 cars had been built comprising 645 motor cars, 270 control trailers and 551 trailers.

Standard Stock operated on the Northern, Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines of the Underground. Later on they were also ran on the Central Line. Originally built as 5-car trains later batches were ordered as 6 or 7 cars, some were later run as 8 car trains [5]. Some shorter formations were also run such as on the Piccadilly Aldwych branch [6].

By the 1950s the Standard Stock fleet was starting to wear out, many had been stored in the open air during the war and this hadn't done them much good. They were unable to cope with the more intensive service patterns required. Replacement took place in the early 1960s with the last Standard Stock passenger trains being run on the Northern City Line in 1966. Some continued in departmental use until 1978.

The story of Standard Stock was not over though. In the late 1960s the Isle of Wight was in need of EMUs for its soon-to-be electrified Island Line. A number of Standard Stock cars became the Class 485 and 486 EMUs for British Rail [7]. They served on the Isle of Wight until 1991, nearly 70 years after the building of the first experimental cars!

Preserved 3327 at London Transport Depot

Former L131 departmental vehicle at LTM Depot Acton

Front view of 3327

Cab of 3327 

3327 interior

Note the switch compartment behind the cab

[1] Brian Hardy, Underground Train File Tube Stock 1933-1959 (Capital Transport, 2001) p. 21
[2] J. Graeme Bruce, The London Underground Tube Stock (Ian Allan, 1988) p. 53
[3] Paul Moss, London Underground (Haynes, 2014) p. 65
[4] Piers Connor, The London Underground Electric Train (Crowood, 2015) p. 48
[5] Piers Connor, "The London Electric Train: a post-script", Underground News No. 670 (October 2017) p. 683
[6] Antony Badsey-Ellis & Mike Horne, The Aldwych Branch (Capital Transport, 2009) p. 68
[7] Brian Hardy, Tube Trains on the Isle of Wight (Capital Transport, 2003) p. 13