District Line shunters L19A and L20A (later LT L8 and L9)

[The Western Master]

Right modellers

Contemplating kit bashing one of these using a Japanese Test Car loco kit which is a similar outline. However, out of academic interest I would be interested to know if any photos of either vehicle exist as a quick trawl of the internet produces nothing except this model built by Mike Taylor using the Radley Models kit.

 

 

A history of the vehicles can by found in the LURS Journal ‘Underground News’, Issue 256, April 1983, Page 84, UNDERGROUND NETWORK No.2 by Piers Connor

 

Interestingly, the District used two other electric locomotives for many years. They were numbered L8 and L9 and they were used to transport wheels between Acton Works and Ealing Common depot. They had begun life as battery locomotives in 1909, being built by W.R. Renshaw & Co. They had a cab at each end and a long covered section between for batteries. In 1924 the District decided to dispense with them for engineer s trains and use steam locomotives instead. Acton Works had just opened its new wheel shop and the newly redundant locos were converted specially to transport the wheels to Ealing, where the fitting to cars was carried out. The conversion was carried out in February and March 1924. They were withdrawn in 1969 and were broken up at Ealing Common by T.W. Ward in January 1970.

L8 and L9 were not their original numbers. They were originally numbered 19A and 20A. They had replaced two earlier electric locos, 21A and 22A which were built in 1904 as 'breakdown and ballast’ locos. These were really actually flat cars on a pair of standard motor bogies with a cab at each end. They also had a pair of winches mounted behind each cab.

 

[L49]

I have had a quick dig around.

 

Here is a link to what I believe is the only known photo of one of the pair still running as a battery loco at Earls Court around 1905

 

http://www.ltmcollection.org/photos/photo/photo.html?_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXSR_=ZGvyWGIe3zr&IXsummary=results/results&IXsearch=Earls%20Court&_IXFIRST_=9&IXenlarge=i00008wp

 

I thought there were more images of these online, but the only other one I could find was a thumbnail link to an Ebay auction, which had already sold, so the image was no longer available.

 

There are published photos of them in J Graeme Bruce's "Workhorses of the London Underground" which is a really helpful book for all things LT Engineering fleet, but it is out of print, and a quick google search shows that it can command 'collectors' prices!

[Arun Sharma]

Several photos in various back numbers of the London Underground Railway Society journal [aka "Underground News"] including in glorious colour.

Bear in mind that Mike's model has been shortened to fit Phil's shunting layout. The actual kit [in 4mm and 7mm] produce a longer vehicle.

Edited April 26, 2017 by ted675

[GoingUnderground]

I have had a quick dig around.

 

Here is a link to what I believe is the only known photo of one of the pair still running as a battery loco at Earls Court around 1905

 

http://www.ltmcollection.org/photos/photo/photo.html?_IXMAXHITS_=1&_IXSR_=ZGvyWGIe3zr&IXsummary=results/results&IXsearch=Earls%20Court&_IXFIRST_=9&IXenlarge=i00008wp

 

I thought there were more images of these online, but the only other one I could find was a thumbnail link to an Ebay auction, which had already sold, so the image was no longer available.

 

There are published photos of them in J Graeme Bruce's "Workhorses of the London Underground" which is a really helpful book for all things LT Engineering fleet, but it is out of print, and a quick google search shows that it can command 'collectors' prices!

You did well to find that photo in LTM collection. The "Credit" describes them as "diesel" locos, not the first time that I've noticed mistakes in the credits on the LTM website.

 

The 3/4 view photo of L9 on page 20 in "Workhorses" may also be in the LTM collection as the photo is not individually credited, implying that it was an :LRT photo. So you might find that it is in the LTM collection as I believe that only a part of their collection of photos is available online. It might be worth contacting the Museum with a request for a copy of the photo, and to enquire if they have any other of the two locos either as battery locos or as mobile stores wagons.

[L49]

You did well to find that photo in LTM collection. The "Credit" describes them as "diesel" locos, not the first time that I've noticed mistakes in the credits on the LTM website.

 

The 3/4 view photo of L9 on page 20 in "Workhorses" may also be in the LTM collection as the photo is not individually credited, implying that it was an :LRT photo. So you might find that it is in the LTM collection as I believe that only a part of their collection of photos is available online. It might be worth contacting the Museum with a request for a copy of the photo, and to enquire if they have any other of the two locos either as battery locos or as mobile stores wagons.

 

I did  notice the mis-captioning as a diesel. I had a quick look around the website to see whether any more photos of the pair were similarly treated, but this seems to be the only one.

 

I had found it ages ago while looking for architectural details of Earls Court. It was a bit of a surprise to see it, and I made a mental note where it was in case it was of any future use.

 

The next question might be... I wonder what livery they carried before being converted from battery power? The photos does not give much of a clue. Do we think they were green as the steam fleet were, or red to match the electric stock?