On 12 Jan, 23:38, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article ,







(Recliner) wrote:
"MIG" wrote in message

On Jan 11, 6:26 pm, (Colin Rosenstiel) wrote:
In article

Shame! In fact the first unpainted train entered service in 1952.
The
original trial was of just one R49 car. I don't think that was as
early as 1949 either. The R stock is another case of the years in
the stock codes representing more aspiration than fact. The
programme to switch all R stock trains to silver (mostly painted)
wasn't completed until 1965.

I always assumed that the years in the stock codes were based on
orders rather than introduction. *Like the D78 stock first being
introduced in 1980.

Actually, I think the date numbers represent the earliest envisaged
date of introduction; the actual entry into service is usually a
year or two later. The orders would have been placed years earlier
(it takes much more than two years from order to introduction). Of
course, there are some anomalies, like the 1995 and 1996 stocks,
which actually entered service in the opposite order, or mark 2
batches.

Maybe the dates are now more realistic -- after all, the 2009 stock
started testing on the Victoria line in 2007. But I'm not sure when
it will enter pax service.

Tube stock used to be quite good at entering service in the right year,
e.g. 1959, 1960, 1962 and 1967.

A recent new idea is to pretend that the additional Jubilee stock is also
1996, including the otherwise rather different treadover plates from the
originals.


All the 1967 stock had 1967 in the plates, including the second batch
that must have entered service later, but there was no mark 2
convention.

C77 stock did have 1977 in the plates, but I don't think it entered
service till about 1979.

A60 stock has 1961 in the plates. Was this down to a different
manufacturer correcting the year to match the introduction/delivery
date?