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Lack of Tube Train models.

Guest Chrissaf

By Chrissaf
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Guest Chrissaf

Chrissaf

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Moderator message: I did not post this original message, my tag appears against it [bug] as I moved the post here on the old forum as a moderator task.

A few days ago, a "London Underground S Stock 4 car train pack" sold on ebay for a pricey 760 quid.

SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY OF YOUR ENGLISH POUNDS!

There is definitely people who will buy Tube Trains.

Heck I thought it looked good when I first saw it but I wasn't going to drop the £400 it was going for at that time. I did think how nice it would look running around a half-pipe style set of tunnelling and eyed up that gorgeous cardboard model of Rayner's Lane you can get...

There's a market for Tube Trains.

But, no: I'm not going to buy Underground Ernie no matter what you pay me.

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LCDR Grand Master

LCDR

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London Underground gets an airing on this forum from time to time but Hornby still don;t seem keen on making one.

 A local cheap shop (you know the sort, narrow aisles piled high with discounted and bankrupt stock) was selling Underground Ernie rolling stock a few years ago, so I succumbed and bought one of each, more out of curiosity than anything else, all at a fraction of original prices.

 I tend to buy up Underground stuff whenever I see it, I already have a 7 car ERTL 1938 tube train, unmotorised, three Heljan Metropolitan Bo-Bos, two Bachmann 57xx in LT Maroon, a handful of wagons in LT livery and one of those Ever-Ready three rail tube train-sets, sadly with a seized motor. I also have a single coach of a die-cast tube train painted in red. white and blue livery which was sold as a souvenir in London.

 I certainly would buy and run London Underground stuff if it was available although my preference is for the stuff before 1968, but I fear there is little enthusiasm for it.

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  • 2 months later...
LCDR Grand Master

LCDR

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I have pre-ordered the EFE train from my local model shop. I already have a seven car, unmotorised one, but I really want one that runs.

 The S stock is too late for my period of interest, but what I would really love is a O / P / Q / R stock train, the flared side Art Deco design I find most interesting. These were the trains that took me around London on my train spotting trips in the 1960s. 

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LCDR Grand Master

LCDR

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The O / P / Q / R coach design lends itself quite nicely to a model, because you only really need one bodyshell. The driving cars need drivers windows and headlight panel at one end and a different drivers door but otherwise they are identical. The underframes and interiors will be different though. A good project for "Design Clever" methinks. 

 Livery wise there was the pre-war red with cream window surrounds, wartime red, post-war red with gold ownership markings, and the final red with white markings.Then there were the silver finishes applied to the R stock, with and without a red waist line and nose end 'go-faster' Vee.

 Classic design in my opinion instantly recognisable to all Londoners..

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  • 2 weeks later...
Buz Mentor

Buz

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Classic design in my opinion instantly recognisable to all Londoners.

Hi LC&DR

And I would thnk all the blow ins from the rest of the UK and quite a few non English natives as well.

I would be nice to have a set even if its only on a shuttle running between the terminus station and a redetailed to scale sizes sports stadium station 😆

regards John

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Rana Temporia Veteran

Rana Temporia

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If you want a sports stadium I'm sure that Subbuteo was to 00 scale and it said so on the boxes. Some of my friends had all the equipment, stands, pitch, floodlights etc. All i had were two teams in their boxes that I used to take round. I had Bolton Wanderers and England, both of which looked exactly the same. 

 I'm sure I have seen a picture of a layout with a Subbuteo stadium in the middle in one of the magazines. It was surface stock running round it though. 

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Buz Mentor

Buz

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Hi Rana Temporia

I have thanks to a well meaning present for the train set I have underground Ernie stadium station good enough for me have some extra platform from evil bay.

Just need to ditch all the little details and replace them with scale ones and it should look OK.

I have a big shed 15m X 7.6 M to play in but even that won't have enough room for a full stadium.

Just the station in a corner.

regards John

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  • 5 months later...
LCDR Grand Master

LCDR

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I have the EFE model on order as well but I really would love some surface stock too.

I can remember a journey from Baker Street to Amersham in 1958 in the Dreadnought carriages. The curved tops to the doors I found remarkable, something unique to these carriages, and not seen on our local SR electric stock. An electric locomotive pulled our train to Rickmansworth, where a steam locomotive was attached to take the train forward. The electric loco came off and ran in to a siding to take the next up train back to Baker Street.

There were also T stock, electric multiple unit version of Dreadnoughts formerly known as MW stock (Metropolitan Westinghouse) to distinguish them from the MV, vacuum braked version. These worked to Watford. These carried the same brown / varnished teak livery as the steam stock.

The nearest incursion of the Underground to where I lived was New Cross. Former District Line 'F' stock worked that service in those days. There was a car shed just north of the station, and one could look down on the stabled F stock trains from a passing Southern electric. The F stock were the widest trains operating in the UK at that time. The driver's windows were oval, which I also found unusual.

My favourites must be the O/P/Q/R cars with the strange flared bottom to the body side. These were the most Art Deco of LTE trains. When the 'F' stock wore out these took over the New Cross to Whitechapel services.

The Bakerloo and Northern lines had tube stock, mostly 1935 tube stock, but on the Central and Piccadilly lines they still used the 'Standard' stock which had an equipment compartment just behind the driver's cab. This compartment had louvres to admit cooling air to the electrics within.

One could buy a 'Twin Rover' from our local 'bus garage which gave unlimited travel on Saturday or Sunday on all Central (red buses) and Underground trains. It was a great way to go around London train (and bus) spotting. It was fun to see just how far one could get in a day, although you had to be careful to get back home before the services stopped!

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LCDR Grand Master

LCDR

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Yes PP, but not quite extinct yet!

Watched a David Attenborough documentary night before last about them unearthing a skeleton of a 70 ton Titanosaur in Patagonia. I have a way to go before I get that big!

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  • 4 months later...
ModelerXYZ Proficient

ModelerXYZ

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Can you run a tube model on your layout? In theory, you can't run a tube train on the main line, though a mainline engine would run on the tube due to different rail gauges...

The London underground uses a different track gauge to the rest of the UK network. Underground lines are built to a standard gauge of 4ft 8 3/4 inches whereas standard gauge is 4ft 8 1/2 inches. In practice however, this probably isn't a problem because most railways widen gauges on curves and if its not tight to gauge it still works.

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