Britain's Oldest Commercial Train - 1938 Stock/Class 483

with their recent withdrawal in january 2021 the class 483 units a redesignation of the former 1938 london underground stock were the oldest trains in commercial use on the uk network having spent 83 years plying their trade both beneath the streets of london but also along the rural lines of the isle of wight the construction of the 1938 stock is owed to the new works program outlined by the newly formed london passenger transport board or lptb in 1935 a rolling scheme of upgrades to the underground train tram trolleybus and bus services in the capital in the surrounding regions the program was to develop many aspects of the public transport services run by the lptb and the suburban rail services of the great western railway and the london and northeastern railway and was backed largely by government assistance as well as by the issuing of financial bonds and was estimated to cost 42.3 million pounds or approximately 2.89 billion in 2021 the 1938 stock was conceived as part of the proposed extension of the northern line from edgeware to bushy heath and the two extensions of the central line east from liverpool street via stratford to connect and take over the el ninos lines to epping anger and haynaut and west from northachton to connect and take over the great western suburban line to denham with the announcement of the plan chief mechanical engineer for the london underground ws graph baker set to work developing a new generation of tube train that would replace the earlier 1923 stock units which had been built with the traction equipment situated behind the driver's cab in the motor trailer and thus took up nearly a third of the entire car length the new stock replaced this practice by having the equipment positioned under the floor so as to leave all available space inside the car bodies with the exception of the driving cabs available for passenger seating while the design of these traction motors would be smaller and evenly distributed along the train length as well as being comprised of the most modern and efficient electrical equipment available for the time after early tests on the 1923 stock unit a dedicated test bed of 12 two car units which were marshaled into four six-car trains were built in 1935 and fitted with differing equipment supplied by a variety of manufacturers these units being dubbed the 1935 stock of which nine sets were completed with an art deco streamlined cab to improve aerodynamics and speed while the final three sets had a more conventional flat front following exhaustive testing it was found that the streamlined fronts yielded few performance benefits and was somewhat impractical thus the flat fronted sets were chosen to form the basis of future standard sets with equipment supplied by crompton parkinson while the streamline sets were placed into storage before being converted to trailer cars and inserted into future 1938 stock sets the production stock designated 1938 stock was nearly identical to the flat-fronted design of the last three 1935 stock units and were built in four and three car sets a four car being formed of a driving motor at each end which had a driving cab and two motor axles with an unpowered trailer and a non-driving motor or ndm coach in between the ndm having two powered axles like the driving motors but with no driving controls while a three car had the same vehicles but omitted the ndm in total 121 cars were built between the two manufacturers contracted to deliver the stock metro camel of washwood heath and the birmingham railway carriage and wagon company of smithich and while the 1938 stock was superseded by the subsequent 1949 1956 1959 and 1962 stock these later generations of underground train were essentially just advancements on the original design the 1949 stock was identical to the 1938 stock and was comprised of 70 undms or uncoupling non-driving motors and 21 trailer cars that were built between 1949 and 1953 as part of a proposed extension to the bakerloo line to camberwell but once this extension was cancelled they saw work instead on the piccadilly and northern lines later generations of 1938 based tube stock were conceived in order to help supply the increasing demands of suburban traffic on the central and piccadilly lines as well as to replace the surviving 1923 stock units with three seven car trains being ordered from each of the main builders of the time metro camel the birmingham railway carriage and wagon company and the gloucester railway carriage and wagon company these new units comprised of three and four car sets as per the 1938 stock and were roughly identical with differences being varying electrical equipment the body shells having a more flat front and using aluminium alloys for the body skin the interior seeing the introduction of fluorescent strip lighting instead of light bulbs and rubber suspension being incorporated as a new standard for future underground train design the trials of the three 1956 sets gave rise to the production 1959 stock used on the piccadilly line these trains essentially being clones of the 1956 stock and were built by metro camel in three and four car units while the 1962 stock was built only in four car units by metro camel and the british railways works in derby being introduced on the central line in early 1962 and incorporating only minor differences the 1962 stock would be the last iteration of the 1938 stock design with the subsequent 1967 stock built to serve the brand new 13-mile victoria line between brixton and south london and wall street so central in the northeast incorporating many enhancements that had previously been tested on several 1960 stock units but were generally an all-new construct as for the 1938 stock these continued to provide dedicated service on the northern bakerloo piccadilly in central for over 30 years without major incident the only exception being the tragic moorgate disaster of february 28 1975 when a morning rush hour northern city line train arriving at moorgate in central london failed to stop and ran through the buffers before crashing into the end of the tunnel beyond the platform causing the coaching stock to pile up and be crushed by the following trailers in the disaster 43 people were killed and 74 injured and the causes to the crash remains disputed there having been no fault with the train itself while no theory as to why the driver 56 year old leslie newson has been established as to whether he accidentally or deliberately crashed his train the motivations of suicide fatigue inebriation or medical incapacitation such as a stroke or a heart attack being undetermined throughout the 1950s and 60s the northern line was worked exclusively by 1938 stock with later 1949 stock trailers but by the 1970s the sets were starting to look tired and thus were replaced by 1972 stock trains while the introduction of 1972 stock on the bakerloo line supplemented 1938 stock until the opening of the jubilee line in 1979 after which the bakerloo line would be exclusively served by 1938 stock the few sets operated by the piccadilly line worked alongside 1959 stock until they were replaced in the mid 1970s by 1973 stock and the east london line was worked by 1938 stock trains that replaced the q stock of 1923. these trains running the east london line until they were replaced by metropolitan line a60 and a62 subsurface rolling stock the last line to operate the 1938 stock was the bakerloo line which saw these trains undergo an extra heavy overhaul or eho to keep them in service long after their intended withdrawal date these trains eventually being replaced on november 20th 1985 by 1972 stock after these sets were replaced on the jubilee line by 1983 stock while most 1938 stock units were either scrapped or put to work on engineers trains for the london underground interest to units still in storage was made by the network southeast sector of british rail who are in desperate need to replace the aging x underground stock currently at work on the 8.5 mile island line between ryde and shanklin on the isle of wight the island line which had been electrified in 1967 with 630 volt dc third rail systems utilized former 1923 tube stock on its main service the need for low roof tube trains being due to the raising of the track work inside ride tunnel to mitigate a previous issue of flooding one which would cause short circuits with an electrified third rail system in place however by 1985 the 1923 stock had become extremely dated these units suffering both from corrosion due to salt water damage on the exposed section of the line along ride pier and from general unreliability network southeast expecting that operating the trains would become economically unviable by 1990. therefore in april 1988 london underground offered network southeast five 1938 stock sets which had been returned for brief service to increase capacity on the northern line between 1986 and may 1988 these units haven't been given a minor overhaul to get them back into work an offer increased to include a further three carriages in may 1989 and later four scrap vehicles and nine works vehicles from the central lines depot at rise lip these later vehicles being used as spares donors initial proposals were for these trains to be delivered as three-car sets but due to limited space at ride depot this was reduced to just the a and d driving trailers with a maximum of six coaches in any train formation the sets allocated for use on the isle of wight being extensively refurbished between 1989 and 1992 at eastleigh works while also undergoing brief testing on the mainline network between basingstoke and eastlee prior to delivery the units now designated class 483 painted in network southeast livery the class 483s were first delivered on july 5th 1989 with test runs being conducted on july 6th before a full public launch on july 13th with regular class 483 operations beginning in october the last of the eight units entering service in july 1990 while the last of the 1923 stock designated class 485 were withdrawn by 1992. under privatization the island line franchise was taken up by the stagecoach group in 1996 who also owned the southwest trains franchise with three of the nine units being removed from service in 1999 to act as spares donors while the remaining six were repainted into a blue and yellow livery with pictures of dinosaurs this choice being to reflect the jurassic history of the isle of wight in 2007 the class 483s were fully refurbished back into their original london transport maroon and the seating marquettes were replaced by ones inherited from london underground a60 and a62 surface stock received during their refurbishment between 1993 and 1998. with the expense for leasing the class 483s from the eversold rail group a rolling stock company that at the time was branded hsbc rail was costing the island line approximately a hundred and forty thousand pounds per year a fee which was considered highly disproportionate in consideration of the age and depreciation of the units eventually southwest trains purchased the units outright in march 2007 for a derisory sum of one pound during the same year that the island line franchise was amalgamated into the southwest trains company under the new south western franchise this franchise subsequently being replaced by southwestern railway when first group and mtr jointly won the bid in march 2017. sadly by this point only three of the six remaining sets were in serviceable condition and following an unspecified safety issue with the trains only one unit was allowed to operate at a time for five weeks from september 13 2019 reducing the frequency on the island line to hourly but even after full service had been restored continuing problems with reliability meant service patterns were inconsistent and often resulted in cancellations leaving either one or no trains operating in the face of the 2019 safety issue the department for transport declared that the class 483 units would be replaced by class 484 units which themselves are derived from d78 stock previously used on the district line the arrival of the new trains coinciding with a full refurbishment of the island line between january and april 2021 with this the first class 484 arrived on november 19 2020 and on january 3rd 2021 the last unit 483006 worked for the final time along the island line before being withdrawn the proposed fate of the remaining units being the scrappage of several spares donor sets and the preservation of 483006 on the epping and onga railway in essex and the preservation of 483007 at the isle of wight steam railway aside from those units that continue to see work on the isle of wight seven other vehicles have survived into preservation including a full four car set at the london transport museum depot in acton a single driving motor and a single cab end at the london transport museum in covent garden and a single cab end at the buckinghamshire railway centre west of aylesbury summarize the 1938 stock illustrated a significant advancement in the technology of the london underground during the pre-war era and as a testament to its sturdy and robust design it not only formed the basis of several generations of future rolling stock but would go on to lead an unexpectedly long working life on the humble island line well beyond what was likely envisaged by its creators nearly a century earlier you

Channel: Ruairidh MacVeigh

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Keywords: emu, diesel, express, multiple unit, rail, train, electric locomotive, passenger, shunter, trains, dmu, branch, diesel locomotive, class, engine, mainline, railways, steam locomotive, locomotive, freight, railway, track, London Underground, 1938 Stock, Class 483, 1956 Stock, 1949 Stock, 1959 Stock, 1962 Stock, 1972 Stock, 1973 Stock, London, London Transport, Underground, Tube Train, Northern Line, Central Line, Bakerloo Line, Piccadilly Line, Island Line, Isle of Wight, Ryde, Shanklin, UK, LUL

Id: mGQ4kFV2hr4

Length: 13min 20sec (800 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 06 2021