http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2008/04/20/a-trip-pn-a-70-year-old-tube-train/ Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:47:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2008/04/20/a-trip-pn-a-70-year-old-tube-train/comment-page-1/#comment-883 Kelvin Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:49:59 +0000 http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2008_04_20/a-trip-pn-a-70-year-old-tube-train/#comment-883 Thanks for showing the picture of the 'streamlined' tube. My father put its failure down to a slightly different point. He reckoned that the rounded end failed to act as a piston to push the air along the tube and so ventilate it properly. Who knows now? Rob is absolutely right about streamlining being the craze at the time it is worth comparing this train with the GWR diesel railcars (the 'flying bananas') of the same decade Thanks for showing the picture of the ’streamlined’ tube. My father put its failure down to a slightly different point. He reckoned that the rounded end failed to act as a piston to push the air along the tube and so ventilate it properly. Who knows now? Rob is absolutely right about streamlining being the craze at the time it is worth comparing this train with the GWR diesel railcars (the ‘flying bananas’) of the same decade

]]> http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2008/04/20/a-trip-pn-a-70-year-old-tube-train/comment-page-1/#comment-143 Rob Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:17:36 +0000 http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2008_04_20/a-trip-pn-a-70-year-old-tube-train/#comment-143 Have to take issue with you on one point I'm afraid. The 1938 stock was by no means the first tube stock not to use a separate locomotive. That was years earlier. It was however the first to have the entire length of the train available for passenger accomodation. Earlier trains had part of the first carriage given over to electrical control equipment but the motors were still under the carriages (on some of the bogies) as they are today. The streamlined train you show was known as 1935 stock and was really a prototype of the widely produced 1938 stock and technologically much the same. I suspect the streamlined design owed more to contemporary fashion than science no matter what the "spin" given at the time. 1938 stock still runs albeit in Fluorescently lit modernised form on the Isle of Wight. These are the oldest trains on the National Network and won't be there much longer. Enjoy it while it is still there! Have to take issue with you on one point I’m afraid. The 1938 stock was by no means the first tube stock not to use a separate locomotive. That was years earlier. It was however the first to have the entire length of the train available for passenger accomodation. Earlier trains had part of the first carriage given over to electrical control equipment but the motors were still under the carriages (on some of the bogies) as they are today.
The streamlined train you show was known as 1935 stock and was really a prototype of the widely produced 1938 stock and technologically much the same. I suspect the streamlined design owed more to contemporary fashion than science no matter what the “spin” given at the time.
1938 stock still runs albeit in Fluorescently lit modernised form on the Isle of Wight. These are the oldest trains on the National Network and won’t be there much longer. Enjoy it while it is still there!

]]>