metropolitan railway Metropolitan Railway early electric units

[Peter A Hall]

In 1905 Metropolitan Railway electric services started between Uxbridge and Baker Street.  My understanding from various sources is that 70 individual vehicles were built for these services.  These were formed as six-car trains but could be split into shorter three car formations  if required. The 70 vehicles consisted of various types, how many types existed, the number of  each, numerical identities and basic layout details such as seating and length is my starting point.

 

I have some notes compiled in the 1990's from sources then consulted but  these are incomplete.  Subsequently other texts have appeared about the Metropolitan Railway and it may be that one of those contains more comprehensive detailed information about these vehicles.  I have noted that in 2001 Silver Swan published the book Metropolitan Railway Rolling Stock authored by James Snowdon and did wonder if this included the information I was after.  I have seen this book mentioned in other topics  which suggests it may contain such detail and if so would aim to acquire a copy.

 

It seems the original intention was to run seven car trains but this proved impractical so ten cars were presumably surplus and subsequently formed in other trains.  Identifying which and subsequent histories of the others is also something I am trying to be clearer about.

 

One of the original vehicles does survive, currently at the London Transport Depot Museum at Acton having seen military service at Shoeburyness.  References differ though to its original configuration and it may be numbers attributed to it may  be assumptions,  

[Wickham Green]

Mr.Snowdon, of this parish, has the answers  : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metropolitan-Railway-Rolling-Stock-Snowdon/dp/1874103666 ( other second-hand retailers are available )

Edited April 4, 2019 by Wickham Green
addition

[roythebus]

You could ask Brian Hardy on the FB Metropolitan Railway group as well.

 

On a slight tangent, there was a debate on there last year about an early District Railway train, trying to work out the location. Everything seemed to be South Harrow, but it wasn't right. There was a catch point in front of the train, a siding in the wrong place. I worked out the print which was over 100 years old had initially been printed in reverse! Once the print was flipped over, everything fell into place. the catch point was behind the train, the siding in the right place, as was the scenery. Never assume anything is right until you'd looked around.

[bobthesod4479]

Roy

Happened to me as well recently with a pic of Edmonton Low Level, as you said correct way round and i would have got it in seconds.

 

Back to the original post. Has the OP tried looking at the back numbers of the LURS journal. IIRC there was a series on Met stock in the early years,well worth a read anyway

 

 

[Peter A Hall]

On ‎04‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 13:53, Wickham Green said:

Mr.Snowdon, of this parish, has the answers  : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Metropolitan-Railway-Rolling-Stock-Snowdon/dp/1874103666 ( other second-hand retailers are available )

 

He does indeed!  Thanks for the recommendation.

[Lord of Narnia]

Peter, another good book to try is Brian Hardy’s underground train file surface stock 1933-1959. There are quite a few details on the fleets used by the Metropolitan.

 

The saloon stock fleet was built in several phases. You are correct that the the surplus cars (due to short platform lengths) from the 1904 batch (ordered from Brown Marshall in 1902) where incorporated into the next 1905 batch. They had wider windows than the first batch and they set the tone for subsequent batches. 

 

Because these spare cars had gated ends several of the 1905 trains were also delivered with gated ends! There were no driving trailers in the 1904 batch, these were subsequently added by removing the controls from the rear of the 1904 motor cars. Initially uncoupling was not possible in service as bar couplers were employed but these were replaced with knuckle couplers as said.

 

The first two batches both had British Westinghouse equipment (BWE) but this was quickly found to be unreliable.

 

A later batch of 1905 cars for the  Hammersmith and City, Met and GWR railway used British Thompson Huston (BTH) and this was found to be more reliable. 
 

The Met then ordered several additional trains with BTH equipment in 1906. 
 

The earliest cars had clerestory roofs but from 1913 elliptical roofs were provided. This batch being copies of the earlier cars. I believe this included the seating layout. This batch had a mixture of BWE and BTH equipment, the latter including bogies coming from the MET electric locos 11-20. 
 

The final new batch of 1921 cars were totally different in layout and door provision with three sets of double doors (like the S stock) and no communication doors between cars removing the end vestibules. Ultimately end doors were added during 1933-34 for the Circle Line rehabilitation. Traction equipment and bogies for these cars came from the original MET electric locos then being phased out.

 

Hope that helps- sorry for the essay!