"
The trains currently in use on the District were brought into service in
1980 and are last in line for refurbishment because they were the last
(apart from the current Central and Northern Line trains) to be
introduced.

and Jubilee line..

Andrew.

What about the A stock going to Amersham, Watford and Uxbrige. They
must be 44 years old at least by now.
This is the problem with inflating the price of something. Sooner or
later the customers actually demands the quality that they are paying
for.

Kevin

Barry Salter ) gurgled happily, sounding
much like they were saying :

What about the A stock going to Amersham, Watford and Uxbrige. They
must be 44 years old at least by now.

Those, like the rest of the Underground passenger fleet that wasn't
replaced, were refurbished in the early to mid 1990s, and are still
perfectly acceptable, if a little "lively" in ride due to not having air
suspension.

They're not that bad once there's a few people in - it's only when they're
empty that they get bouncy. As a place in which to while away an hour,
they're preferable to some of the more cramped stock on other lines.

On 16 Jan 2005 05:44:17 -0800, "Dan Watson"
wrote:

Now that the tube prices have skyrocketed, does anyone know of any
plans to upgrade the District Line trains. These carriages look like
they have been in service since time itself began.

Since 1978 which is not quite the start of time itself.

Even if there are no plans to upgrade the trains, why not just give
them a lick of paint? The old dirty grey carriages look horrific next
to the nice Picadilly line trains at early Hammersmith, earls court etc

The Picc trains are older but have been refurbished plus Tube Lines are
paying a lot of attention to keeping them clean and tidy.

Maybe its just a Sunday afternoon moan, but doesn't anyone else agree
that it's time to bring the District Line out of the stone age?

I rather like the District Line trains to be honest. I think the design
is pretty damn good and underneath they are reliable compared to many
other stocks.
--
Paul C


Admits to working for London Underground!

"Barry Salter" wrote in message

On 17 Jan 2005 05:32:22 -0800, wrote:

What about the A stock going to Amersham, Watford and Uxbrige. They
must be 44 years old at least by now.

Those, like the rest of the Underground passenger fleet that wasn't
replaced, were refurbished in the early to mid 1990s, and are still
perfectly acceptable, if a little "lively" in ride due to not having
air suspension.

They also seem to have fortissimo compressors compared to stock built
even a few years later. They also have very leisurely acceleration,
presumably beause they're geared for a higher top speed rather than fast
acceleration, plus trains designed in the 1950s were less powerful than
modern traction. This is fine on the outer, semi-rural sections, but
may be inefficient on the densely-packed, minimum-headway Circle Line
section which has frequent stops.

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...

I rather like the District Line trains to be honest. I think the design
is pretty damn good and underneath they are reliable compared to many
other stocks.

Apart from the single leaf doors that slow down boarding and disembarking.

In article ,
(Brimstone) wrote:

StaticFish wrote:
The Piccadilly trains were brought in 1975?! Blimey. They look lovely
compared to the "newer" District line trains.

The Piccadilly Line trains were refurbished in the mid 1990s. Prior to
that they too were unpainted aluminium as were all trains. The only
reason LU trains are painted at all is because of the increase in the
amount of graffitti over the last 15-20 years or so.

The irony is not lost on some of us.

When I were a lad in Putney, Underground trains were painted red (and
Southern trains were green). Then came unpainted aluminium on one R stock
District train in 1953, three prototypes on the Piccadilly in 1956 and
more R stock in 1959. Several tons were saved from the weight of the
paint, they said.

After that all underground stock gradually became unpainted aluminium as
new stock was introduced and red-painted stock withdrawn (or painted
silver in the case of the remaining R stock). With the introduction of the
D stock in 1980 the change to unpainted aluminium was complete.

Then LT discovered they had a graffiti problem and started painting trains
again until now the D stock is the last that is still unpainted.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
Several tons were saved from the weight of the paint, they said.

Makes you wonder what some of the trains on the National Rail system
must weight then, with these TOCs repainting trains more often than needed.

--
Darren

Sudbury Branch Line website: http://www.sudbury-branchline.co.uk
http://photos.darrenjohnson.co.uk