London Underground battery-electric locomotives are
battery locomotives used for hauling engineers' trains on 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 counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
network where they can operate when the electric traction current is switched off. The first two locomotives were built in 1905 for the construction of the
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London.A "tube" railway is an underground rail ...
, and their success prompted the
District Railway to buy two more in 1909, which were the only ones built to the
loading gauge of the subsurface lines. Following this, a number of battery vehicles were built by converting redundant motor cars, with the batteries placed in the unused passenger compartment. One exception to this was made by the
City and South London Railway
The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing ...
, who used a trailer car to hold the batteries, and wired them to a separate locomotive.
From 1936, battery locomotives were built as new vehicles, although in most cases, some components, particularly the bogies and motors, were refurbished from withdrawn passenger cars. The batch of nine vehicles supplied by
Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company
Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (GRC&W) was a railway rolling stock manufacturer based in Gloucester, England from 1860 until 1986. Products included goods wagons, passenger coaches, diesel multiple units, electric multiple units ...
between 1936 and 1938 set the standard for subsequent builds. Including this batch, 52 machines had been built by 1986, in six batches from four manufacturers, with one built at London Transport's
Acton Works. Each new batch included some improvements, but most used electro-pneumatic traction control equipment made by
GEC, and so could be operated together. The exception were three from the 1936 batch, which used an experimental
Metadyne A metadyne is a direct current electrical machine with two pairs of brushes. It can be used as an amplifier or rotary transformer. It is similar to a third brush dynamo but has additional regulator or "variator" windings. It is also similar to an ...
system, and the final batch of six, built in 1985, which used controllers manufactured by
Kiepe
Kiepe Electric GmbH (formerly Vossloh Kiepe) is a German manufacturer of electrical traction equipment for trams, trolleybuses other road and rail transport vehicles, as well as air-conditioning and heating systems, and conveyor device components. ...
.
Improvements since manufacture have included the replacement of low-level Ward couplers by
buckeye couplers, which has resulted in less damage from shunting accidents, and the fitting of draught excluders and cab heaters for use in winter when the locomotives operate on sections of line above ground. A number of the machines were fitted with
Automatic Train Operation (ATO) equipment to enable them to work on the newly opened
Victoria line
The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely underg ...
. Subsequently, some have been fitted with
Automatic Train Protection (ATP) equipment, compatible with the system used on the
Central line, and some with ATP equipment which enables them to work with the replacement Distance-to-Go Radio (DTG-R) system on the upgraded Victoria line.
Early vehicles
The first two battery locomotives supplied for the London Underground were manufactured by
Hurst Nelson and Co, who were based in
Motherwell. They were delivered in August 1905, and were used during the construction of the
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR), also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London.A "tube" railway is an underground rail ...
, where they were numbered 1B and 2B. The vehicles were long, with a tube-gauge cab at both ends. Braking and electrical control equipment was housed in a compartment behind one of the cabs, and the central section was lower, housing the 80 batteries, arranged in two rows of 40 either side of a central divide, which also supported metal covers for the battery compartments. The batteries were supplied by
Chloride Electrical Storage Company
The chloride ion is the anion (negatively charged ion) Cl−. It is formed when the element chlorine (a halogen) gains an electron or when a compound such as hydrogen chloride is dissolved in water or other polar solvents. Chloride salts ...
. Each locomotive weighed 55
tons, and could haul a 60-ton load at . They were not fitted with current collector shoes, as none of the rails were electrified during construction. Once their task was completed, they were moved by road to the
Hampstead Railway.
Encouraged by the performance of the vehicles, the District Railway purchased two of their own in 1909, which were larger as they were built to subsurface-gauge. The manufacturer was W. R. Renshaw and Co Ltd, who were based in
Stoke-on-Trent in
Staffordshire, and the vehicles were fitted with current collector shoes, so that they could draw power from the rails when it was available. During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, they were used as shunting engines at
Ealing Common Depot
Ealing Common Depot is a London Underground railway depot on the District line, located between Acton Town and Ealing Common stations in west London, England. It is the oldest of the main depots on the Underground, having been built in 1905, whe ...
, where power was always available, and so the batteries were removed, and subsequently neglected. New batteries could not be obtained, as batteries of this type were needed for submarines as part of the war effort. The vehicles were numbered 19A and 20A when supplied, but were renumbered as L8 and L9 in 1929, when the batteries were no longer fitted. As electric locomotives, they were upgraded several times, receiving two new types of motors in 1951 and 1955, and new traction control equipment in 1958. They continued to be used to move stores between Acton Works and Ealing Common Depot, until they were superseded by road vehicles in 1969.
Conversions
The next batch of battery locomotives was made by converting existing stock. When it opened, the
Central London Railway
The Central London Railway (CLR), also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railwayA "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a cylindrical tunnel by the use of a tunnelling shield, usually deep below g ...
(CLR) had suffered from vibration problems, caused by the heavy locomotives, and had experimented with multiple unit operation, with motive power provided by converting four trailer cars to motor cars. Around 1910, two of these motor cars, numbered 201 and 202, were fitted with batteries, and worked on a number of lines in addition to the Central London Railway. In 1915 they were loaned to the
Bakerloo line
The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs partly ...
, when it was being extended to
Queen's Park. Car 202 had its 'Nife' battery updated to one with 263 cells made by Edison Accumulator Ltd in 1924, while the number of cells in car 201 was increased from 200 to 238 in 1932. For working on other lines, they were fitted with outside shoes, since most lines used a four-rail system, whereas the CLR used only three. The vehicles were numbered L22 and L23 in 1929, and were scrapped in 1936 and 1937.
When the
City and South London Railway
The City and South London Railway (C&SLR) was the first successful deep-level underground "tube" railway in the world, and the first major railway to use electric traction. The railway was originally intended for cable-hauled trains, but owing ...
was being reconstructed in 1922, a number of "padded cell" trailer cars – so-called because of their lack of windows – were stripped out, so that lead-acid batteries and charging resistances could be placed in the resulting space. Each car was then coupled to an electric locomotive, and the batteries were connected to the shoe fuses of the locomotive. The current rail shoes were removed, so that the batteries did not energise the rails. Recharging was arranged at certain points, by means of switches and cables connected to the supply that normally fed the rails.
Two Hungarian
gate stock cars, which had previously been used as ballast motor cars, were converted to battery operation. When working as passenger vehicles on the
Piccadilly line, they had been numbered 34 and 39. In 1929 they were transferred to the
Hampstead line, where they were numbered 113 and 118, becoming L11 and L12 in 1936. Shortly afterwards, the numbers were swapped, so that L11 became L12 and L12 became L11. They used batteries made by DP Battery Company, each with 220 cells. The final conversion was of Bakerloo car 66, originally made by the
American Car and Foundry Company
ACF Industries, originally the American Car and Foundry Company (abbreviated as ACF), is an American manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of motor coaches and trolley coaches und ...
, and fitted with a 220-cell DP battery weighing 6.5 tons in 1932. It was numbered L32, and was scrapped in 1948.
Main battery locomotives
![LT battery locos at Croxley Tip 1971](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/LT_battery_locos_at_Croxley_Tip_1971.jpg)
In 1936, the decision was taken to purchase a batch of new battery locomotives, and an order was placed with the
Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Company
Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company (GRC&W) was a railway rolling stock manufacturer based in Gloucester, England from 1860 until 1986. Products included goods wagons, passenger coaches, diesel multiple units, electric multiple units ...
for nine vehicles, six of which would be fitted with
GEC traction control equipment, while the other three would be fitted with
metadyne A metadyne is a direct current electrical machine with two pairs of brushes. It can be used as an amplifier or rotary transformer. It is similar to a third brush dynamo but has additional regulator or "variator" windings. It is also similar to an ...
units. The GEC-fitted machines weighed 53.8 tons, and were numbered L35 to L40, while the Metadyne-equipped ones weighed an extra 2.2 tons, and were numbered L41 to L43. Both types, when pulling a 200-ton ballast train, could run at when supplied with power from the current rails, and at half that speed when working on batteries.
The metadyne-fitted locomotives had new bodies, but the bogies and motors were removed from redundant
Metropolitan line stock and refurbished at Acton Works. Similarly, the metadyne equipment was removed from an experimental train and reused. A metadyne unit consists of a rotating machine, which converts the constant voltage supplied by the battery to a constant current, which feeds the motor. The metadyne system is more efficient than conventional starting resistances, particularly when the locomotive starts and stops frequently, or when it needs to run for long periods at slow speeds. For cable laying work, the metadyne-equipped locomotives could pull trains of 100 tons at for considerable distances, without any sign of overheating. Despite the advantages, their complexity resulted in them becoming unreliable, and they were withdrawn in 1977. L41 and L42 were scrapped soon afterwards, but L43 was used for testing purposes for a further three years.
The locomotives fitted with GEC controls used an electro-pneumatic controller, with 28 steps, which allowed the four motors to be connected in series, in two parallel-series pairs, and all in parallel as the speed increased. Pairs of locomotives could be operated in multiple, and motors 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 could be selected if there was a failure of the other pair. As built, the vehicles were long, and could pick up power either from a standard four-rail configuration, or the three-rail configuration of the Central London Railway, until it was converted to four rails in 1940.
The next batch of seven vehicles were manufactured by R. Y. Pickering and Co Ltd, who were based in
Wishaw
Wishaw ( sco, Wishae or Wisha ; gd, Camas Neachdain) is a large town in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, on the edge of the Clyde Valley, south-east of Glasgow city centre. The Burgh of Wishaw was formed in 1855 within Lanarkshire. it form ...
, Scotland. The traction control equipment was by GEC, although the batteries had a larger capacity than the previous batch. The motors were reused from passenger stock which was being withdrawn at the time. One important improvement was the addition of runners and a lifting device, which enabled any battery cell to be removed from its rack and lowered to the ground through an aperture in the floor. This feature meant that the batteries could be changed without using an overhead crane in a lifting shop, freeing it for more important work. An eighth locomotive was built by staff at Acton Works in 1962, partly as an exercise to prove that the workshop could compete for this type of work. This vehicle was initially numbered L76, and took part in the Metropolitan Railway centenary celebrations, held on 23 May 1963, when it propelled a replica of the original inspection train of open wagons used by
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
and other dignitaries.
Metro-Cammell
Metro-Cammell, formally the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon Company (MCCW), was an English manufacturer of railway carriages, locomotives and railway wagons, based in Saltley, and subsequently Washwood Heath, in Birmingham. Purchased ...
received the order for the next batch of thirteen locomotives, which were numbered L20 to L32. The first one was delivered on 8 December 1964 to
Ruislip Depot. They were part of a programme to phase out the last remaining steam engines, but the
Victoria line
The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely underg ...
was also being built at this time, and some of the battery locos were fitted with automatic train operation (ATO) equipment, to enable them to work on that line. Traction control equipment was by GEC, with the batteries supplied by DP Battery Co Ltd. As with previous batches, parts of the locomotives were refurbished; in this case, the bogies, traction motors and compressors were supplied by Acton Works. Unlike earlier models, each vehicle was fitted with two compressors, allowing them to work singly. The last steam engines were withdrawn soon afterwards, and an order for five more battery locos was placed with Metro-Cammell in 1969. These worked on the
Jubilee line
The Jubilee line is a London Underground line that runs between in east London and in the suburban north-west, via the Docklands, South Bank and West End. Opened in 1979, it is the newest line on the Underground network, although some secti ...
construction, and were numbered L15 to L19.
The construction of the Jubilee line and the
Heathrow
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...
extension of the Piccadilly line required yet more works trains, and eleven more locomotives were ordered in 1972, with delivery in 1973. They were built at
Doncaster Works
Doncaster Railway Works is a railway workshop located in Doncaster, England.
Also referred to as The Plant''", it was established by the Great Northern Railway in 1853, replacing the previous works in Boston and Peterborough. Until 1867 it u ...
by
British Rail Engineering Limited
British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was the railway systems engineering subsidiary of British Rail. Established in 1970, the maintenance arm was split as British Rail Maintenance Limited in 1987, and the design and building of trains was ...
. The motors were refurbished from redundant District line stock, but the bogies were new. Although based on the standard Z-type bogie used since the 1930s, they incorporated roller bearings, rather than
white metal
The white metals are a series of often decorative bright metal alloys used as a base for plated silverware, ornaments or novelties, as well as any of several lead-based or tin-based alloys used for things like bearings, jewellery, miniature f ...
axleboxes and suspension bearings. Three of the locomotives were built to replace the three metadyne vehicles, but those were not actually withdrawn until 1977.
A final batch of six locomotives was built by Metro-Cammell and delivered in 1985 and 1986. They incorporated all of the improvements made to the previous vehicles. For the first time, they were specified in metric units. New features included entry to the cabs through a central door, rather than a side door, strengthened windscreens with windscreen wipers, and the ability to charge the batteries while operating on electrified lines. One departure was the fitting of traction control equipment by
Kiepe
Kiepe Electric GmbH (formerly Vossloh Kiepe) is a German manufacturer of electrical traction equipment for trams, trolleybuses other road and rail transport vehicles, as well as air-conditioning and heating systems, and conveyor device components. ...
, which prevented them from working in multiple with any of the previous machines. They were not a success, as five of the six had been withdrawn from service by August 1993, while a decision was made about their future, and the sixth was withdrawn some time later. They were numbered L62 to L67, and all were still in store in 2002.
Roster
Design
All locomotives were built to a similar design, but with a number of variations included over the years of development. Numbers L41-L43 had
Metadyne A metadyne is a direct current electrical machine with two pairs of brushes. It can be used as an amplifier or rotary transformer. It is similar to a third brush dynamo but has additional regulator or "variator" windings. It is also similar to an ...
control gear.
The locomotives have a cab at each end and are built to the standard 'Tube' loading gauge so that they can work over all lines on the London Underground network. They are equipped with buffers and drawhooks, for coupling to standard main line vehicles. Earlier vehicles had hinged buffers, which could be raised upwards when not in use, but this job was arduous, and a programme of replacing them with retractable buffers was carried out. They were also fitted with a 'Ward' coupler, mounted at a height suitable for tube cars, but this made the locomotives prone to significant damage in shunting accidents. In 1980, two locomotives, L18 and L38, were fitted with
buckeye couplings, as an experiment. These automatic couplings are mounted at the height of the main frames, and so shunting damage is significantly reduced. The success of the experiment led to buckeye couplings being retro-fitted to all locomotives built from 1964. Additionally, they all have train air-brake equipment.
The body sides take the form of louvres to allow ventilation around the batteries, although most locomotives had four solid body panels on one side only. All body panels are hinged to allow the batteries to be removed. Following the withdrawal of steam engines, the vehicles often worked on open sections of line, rather than in tunnels, and the need to heat the cabs in winter became apparent. Draught excluders have been added to all cab doors, and additional heaters have been fitted into the cabs.
The original livery was grey, but crimson lake was applied from the early 1960s using supplies of LT steam locomotive paint. This was changed to yellow in the early 1980s, which was deemed to be more safety conscious.
Power
The locomotives can draw power from the 630 V
electrified rails like a normal tube train, or run on 320 V DC traction batteries when the power is switched off. Since most of the traction motors were removed from redundant stock for fitting into the vehicles, Acton Works have had to convert them from 630 V operation to work on 320 V. The
lead-acid batteries are usually recharged inside a
depot
Depot ( or ) may refer to:
Places
* Depot, Poland, a village
* Depot Island, Kemp Land, Antarctica
* Depot Island, Victoria Land, Antarctica
* Depot Island Formation, Greenland
Brands and enterprises
* Maxwell Street Depot, a restaurant in ...
, although the 1985 batch of locomotives could recharge their batteries from the power rails while moving.
Protection
All battery locomotives are fitted with
tripcocks which are operated by trackside equipment if the train passes a signal at danger. Eighteen (L15–L21 and L44–L54) are also fitted with Central line
Automatic Train Protection (ATP). When they were built, locomotives L25 to L32 were fitted with Automatic Train Operation (ATO) equipment, which allowed them to work on the
Victoria line
The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely underg ...
. The tripcock could be isolated, and a trip valve performed a similar function, except that it was operated by the ATO controller. A special setting was provided that allowed the vehicles to move if they were not receiving safety track signals, but the maximum speed in these circumstances was limited to . By the mid-1980s, this equipment had ceased to be used, as works trains were only run on the Victoria line when engineers had possession of the whole line. Subsequently, some locomotives (L27–L32) have been fitted with a new type of Victoria line ATP equipment which was designed by
Metronet Metronet may refer to:
*Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008.
*Metronet (Western Australia), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...
on behalf of Transplant, the operator of the fleet. This system was installed during 2007 at Ruislip Depot. It is compatible with the new Distance-to-Go Radio (DTG-R) ATP system which has been implemented on the Victoria line by
Westinghouse Rail Systems
Westinghouse Rail Systems Ltd (formerly ''Westinghouse Signals Ltd'') was a British supplier of railway signalling and control equipment to the rail industry worldwide. Its head office was in Chippenham, Wiltshire, where it manufactured a varie ...
.
Ownership
The locomotives are, since the start of London Underground's
PPP scheme, in the ownership of TransPlant. The locomotives are all based at
Ruislip Depot.
Use
![Battery locomotive at baker st](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Battery_locomotive_at_baker_st.jpg)
The traditional use of these locomotives has been to haul trains using power from the rails until they reach the area where work is to be undertaken, where they switch to battery operation if the traction supply has been isolated. They are also used for transporting diesel powered equipment such as track tamping machines through tunnel sections. Normally one locomotive is marshalled at each end of the train, allowing the train to be reversed easily. The connections between different Underground lines often require reversals on route. Early locomotives were not allowed to operate on their own as they only had a single air compressor, but twin compressors were fitted to vehicles built from 1964 onwards, to allow single operation.
With the building of the Jubilee line,
diesel-powered locomotives manufactured by
Schöma of Germany in 1996 took over some of the duties of the battery locomotives.
Metronet battery locomotives
In February 2006,
Metronet Metronet may refer to:
*Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008.
*Metronet (Western Australia), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...
received four small battery locomotives. These were named ''Walter'', ''Lou'', ''Anne'', and ''Kitty'', names that
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
the name of the line they were bought to work on,
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 counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England.
The ...
's
Waterloo & City line
The Waterloo & City line, colloquially known as The Drain, is a London Underground shuttle line that runs between Waterloo and Bank with no intermediate stops. Its primary traffic consists of commuters from south-west London, Surrey and Hampsh ...
. They are used for hauling materials and equipment and were specially designed and built for work in narrow tunnels with tight curves and steep gradients.
Clayton Equipment of
Derby
Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...
designed and built them in about four months. The locomotives weigh 15
tonne
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...
s each and have 200 Volt DC motors providing to each axle. As a
fail-safe
In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. Unlike inherent safe ...
feature they have spring-applied disc brakes that are automatically applied if something goes wrong. Built-in cameras are connected to screens in the cab to make shunting easier.
Unlike the earlier battery-electric locomotives, these locomotives cannot draw power from the electrified rails. Under normal use this is not a problem because they are designed to work on engineering projects in tunnels where the power is cut off anyway, but it does mean they have to return to the depot to be recharged.
References
Notes
Bibliography
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{{London Underground Rolling Stock
Battery-electric
Standard gauge locomotives of Great Britain
Battery electric locomotives