The London Underground B Stock was built in 1905 for the

District Railway The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an " inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first par ...

(now the

London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...

District line The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited servic ...

). 420 vehicles were built, formed into 60 seven-car units.

History

140 cars were built, divided equally between the two suppliers, in Britain by both

Brush Traction Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of Wabtec. History Hughes's Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works Henry Hughes had been operating at the Falcon Works since t ...

and Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, with the remaining 280 built in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

by Les Ateliers de Construction du Nord de la France. 192 of the cars were driving motors, thirty-two were control trailers and the remaining 196 cars were trailers. These units were wooden-bodied and were based on the prototype A Stock. The trailers had wooden

underframe An underframe is a framework of wood or metal carrying the main body structure of a railway vehicle, such as a locomotive, carriage or wagon. See also * Chassis * Headstock * Locomotive bed * Locomotive frame * Undercarriage Undercarriage is t ...

s as well as wooden bodywork. This proved to be insufficiently robust, resulting in their premature withdrawal. The B Stock motor cars (with steel underframes) were therefore modified as trailers in the early 1920s, the electrical equipment being used for new G Stock motor cars. As originally built, the B Stock cars had air-operated sliding doors. This proved to be unreliable and was quickly modified to a hand-operated system, with balancing weights. The hand-operated doors could be opened by passengers whilst a train was in motion. This potentially dangerous system remained in use on some District line trains until the late 1950s. The remaining B Stock cars were later reclassified as H Stock. Following their withdrawal (by the mid-1940s) all other remaining

trains with hand-operated doors were designated as H Stock. The final cars were withdrawn by the 1940s. Afterwards, at least three cars were transferred into departmental service, being used as a weed killing train. No vehicles have survived into preservation.

References

* Metropolitan District Railway B Train-related introductions in 1905 {{London-tube-stub