The London Underground R Stock
electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...
s were used 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 ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
's
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 ...
from 1949 to 1983. Composed of new cars and converted
Q38 Stock trailers, the cars were built and converted in three batches between 1949 and 1959. The cars were driving motors (DM) or non-driving motors (NDM), there being no unpowered trailers. The second batch, introduced in 1952, was constructed from aluminium, saving weight and one train was left unpainted as an experiment. Considered a success, trains were left unpainted or painted white or grey to match in 1963–68. Originally designed to operate in trains with six off-peak and eight cars during peak hours, the trains were reformed as fixed seven-car trains in 1971. R Stock trains were replaced by the
D78 Stock and withdrawn between 1981 and 1983.
Construction
![R Stock painted and unpainted at South Kensington](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/R_Stock_painted_and_unpainted_at_South_Kensington.jpg)
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
it was decided to replace the London Underground trains that remained with hand-operated sliding doors. R Stock was ordered to replace such trains on the District line and the LPTB considered 200 cars were needed, but due to the shortages of labour and materials following the war only 143 new cars were authorised. Some
Q stock trailers that had been built in 1938 were converted into R Stock driving motor (DM) cars. The new cars were designated R47 and built by
Birmingham RC&W and Gloucester RC&W and the 82 Q Stock trailers converted by
Gloucester RC&W from Q38 trailer were designated R38/1. The first car arrived in 1949 and entered service in 1950.
A second batch was ordered to allow the
F Stock to be transferred to Metropolitan line and so allow the
Circle Stock to be withdrawn. The 90 new R49 cars were constructed from aluminium and built by
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 ...
, reducing the weight of a train by . An eight car train from this batch was unpainted as an experiment. A third batch of R59 twenty cars, 13 new, was built to allow the transfer of Q stock trailers to increase the length of Circle line trains to six cars.
Description
Although visually similar to the R Stock trains there were some differences from the
O, P and
Q Stock trains. These included external 'door open' indicator lights,
roller destination blinds,
fluorescent
Fluorescence is the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. It is a form of luminescence. In most cases, the emitted light has a longer wavelength, and therefore a lower photon energy, tha ...
lighting and a modified way of displaying the internal advertisements and District line route maps. One of the most noticeable differences between the R38 Stock and the rest of the R Stock fleet was that the R38 cars featured four small windows in the central saloon between the double doors, whereas the R47, R49, and R59 cars featured just two larger windows in the same location. All R Stock cars seated 40 passengers, however whilst the R38 cars featured two sets of transverse seats in the centre bay, the rest of the fleet featured just one set of transverse seats, and more longitudinal seating.
History
Cars were formed into semi-permanent units and when first placed in service, these were either four-car units with the cab at the west end (DM-NDM-NDM-NDM) or two-car units with the cab at the east end (NDM-DM). For off-peak service, one unit of each type was coupled together to form a six-car train, whilst at peak times, several such trains would be lengthened to eight cars by the addition of a second two-car unit. A maximum of 36 eight-car trains could be formed, with the remaining 15 running as six-car. Initially the R Stock trains were painted red, to match the O, P and Q Stock trains, but one eight-car train of R49 stock was left unpainted, as an experiment. The R59 stock was also unpainted; the R38/3 stock that was converted to run with it was painted silver-grey to match. Since the trains were regularly reformed between 6 and 8 car lengths it became usual to see trains of mixed red and silver formation, so in 1963–68 all the red R Stock trains were repainted to match the unpainted aluminium cars.
In 1962/63 one train of R stock featured in early trials of automatically driven trains, prior to the larger scale trials on the Central Line which preceded the use 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 undergr ...
. These trials involved the one eastbound District Line train travelling in automatic mode between
Stamford Brook and
Ravenscourt Park
Ravenscourt Park or RCP is an public park and garden located in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England. It is one of the Borough's flagship parks, having won a Green Flag Award. Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park tube stations ar ...
stations. In 1971 it was decided to abandon the practice running trains with six cars off-peak and eight cars during the peak; instead all District line trains would be seven cars in length. 36 of the four-car units were reduced to three cars; these units would in future always be coupled to two two-car units to form a seven car train. The remaining 15 four-car units were lengthened to five cars by adding one of the released cars; these units would work with a single two-car unit. This left 21 cars (all of R47 type) spare that were sent for scrap.
Withdrawal and preservation
Twenty-one cars were withdrawn between October 1971 and February 1972 as a result of the reformation into 7-car trains and others were withdrawn between 1971 and 1982 due to fire damage. General withdrawal began in March 1981 and was completed in March 1983. The
Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways showed interest in purchasing 60 cars of R stock, for use in five-car trains, since the dimensions of that system were similar to the District Line, but the deal fell through.
They were replaced by the new
D78 Stock, except on the
Edgware Road
Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...
-
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
route, where shorter platforms necessitated the use of
C Stock.
Three vehicles have been preserved.
* R38 DM no. 22624
Mangapps Railway Museum
The Mangapps Railway Museum (previously Mangapps Farm Railway Museum) is a heritage railway centre located near Burnham-on-Crouch in Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cam ...
* R49 DM no. 21147
Beaconsfield
Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...
- Private Owner
* R49 DM no. 22679
London Transport Museum
The London Transport Museum (often abbreviated as the LTM) is a transport museum based in Covent Garden, London. The museum predominantly hosts exhibits relating to the heritage of London's transport, as well as conserving and explaining the h ...
,
Acton Acton may refer to:
Places Antarctica
* Mount Acton
Australia
* Acton, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Acton, Tasmania, a suburb of Burnie
* Acton Park, Tasmania, a suburb of Hobart, Tasmania, formerly known as Acton
Canada ...
See also
*
G-series (Toronto subway car)
The G series was the first rolling stock of rapid transit cars used on the Toronto subway, built 1953–1959 by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company of Gloucester, England, for the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) of Toronto, Canada. ...
- influenced by R-stock and Q38 stock and built by same builder
Notes and references
Notes
References
*
*
Further reading
*
*
External links
{{London Underground Rolling Stock
R
Metropolitan Cammell multiple units
Train-related introductions in 1949