London Banter - View Single Post - UNDERGROUND TRAIN QUESTION / 1986 PROROTYPE STOCK

Brimstone · October 27th 04, 11:17 PM posted to uk.transport.london

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On 25 Oct 2004 22:15:20 GMT, (Soniakostas) wrote:

Hi i have a few qurstions to ask regarding to the underground trains that
always made me wonder.

1) Firstly when a train goes does the first car pull and the last one push
?
otherwise how just one car can pull so many other cards same size as
itself ?
In the rasilway trains one carriage is pulling and the last is pushing i
was
wondering if the same happens to the underground trains.

Within a "train" of underground carriages you will typically get two
units attached to each other. On some lines each unit has 4 cars - e.g.
the Victoria and Metropolitan Lines have 8 car trains while on others
you get a mix of 4 cars and 3 cars to give a 7 car train (Piccadilly
Line or Circle / Hammersmith and City)

Depending on the configuration of the train some carriages have motors
(what you term an engine) and others don't have any - called trailer
cars. A bit like an articulated lorry where the front bit has the
engine and the back bit - the trailer - carries whatever is being
transported from a to be.

Now I might get shot down in flames from one of our resident drivers or
engineers here but one way to tell which is which is to look at a train
on the opposite track and see which wheels have the "shoe" attached to
pick up the electric power. If a carriage has shoes then it is a motor
car, if there are no shoes then it is a trailer car. The best lines to
see this on are the sub surface lines like the Met or District lines
because there are two tracks side by side.

Your method of indentifying motor and non-motor cars is ok. However the
Piccadilly has 6 car trains, four motor cars and two trailers the first,
third, fourth and sixth cars being the motors. Most of the "middle" motor
cars have a limited driving position to allow movements in depot when
uncoupled. A few have full cabs to allow then to be attached at either end
of another unit to provide flexibility when a unit has to be withdrawn for
maintenance or repairs.

The Circle, the Hammersmith & City and the District Edgware Rd-Wimbledon
service use the same train. The are made up of three x two car units. The
outer cars are motors, the next cars are trailers whereas the middle two
cars can be either way round but one will be a motor and one a trailer.

District "main line" trains are of the same configuration as those on the
Piccadilly although they are obviously of a different design.

Metropolitan trains are of two four car units comprising a motor, two
trailers and a motor each.

Sorry not familar with the stocks on other lines.