please empty your brain below

Morning all.

This is a C Stock, isn't it?

Glastonbury 2014: the campers who took a tube train to Worthy farm - Music - The Guardian
I used to alight at Aldersgate Station before they changed the name to Barbican.
Briantist - It's apparently modelled on a Northern line train according to the TfL shop: http://shop.tfl.gov.uk/design-collections/underground-collection/product/london-underground-tube-tent-by-monster-factory.html - though £1999 seems rather a lot for a tent!

Having spent the last year commuting along the District line, I shan't miss the C Stock. I imagine most of those who parted with £40 at the weekend haven't had the pleasure of being crammed in one south of Earl's Court at 8.30am in the morning.
@Briantist
Looks more like a 1995/96 stock car to me!

Standardisation of trains on the Underground has happened before: the three Yerkes Tube lines (Bakerloo, Picadilly and Charing Cross branch of what is now the Northern) all started with very similar designs of "Gate Stock", to be eventually replaced on all these lines by the "Standard" stock of the 1920s and 1930s, (which also later appeared on the Central). The standard stock was in turn replaced on all three lines by the 1938 stock, and later still by 1959 stock - and the 1962 stock on the Central was essentially the same as the 1959 stock.

The O, P Q38, and R stocks used on all the surface lines except the outer reaches of the Metropolitan (Watford, Aylesbury) and built between 1938 and 1959 also shared a common external design.
I shouldn't worry too much about the fifty year-old rolling stock, apart from comfort. Much older rolling stock have been running the Island Line, Isle of Wight, for years now. Occasionally they update the rolling stock when TfL updates theirs.

Of course, what would be Really Good would be to have the entire Island Line run by steam locomotives. But I gather there are difficulties with the St John's Road - Ryde tunnel. Not to mention the potential for sparks, and importing all that coal!
That tube tent looks more Woodstock than C-stock
@Bronchitikat
"Occasionally they update the rolling stock when TfL updates theirs"
To date, they've only done it once, in 1989, when the "standard" stock that had served the line since 1967 was replaced by the 1938 stock that still operates there today. There has been talk of 1973 stock, but so far there has been no sign of the Picadilly line having any to spare in the forseeable future.
Some doubts exist about 'standardising' tube stocks on those lines not already updated. Severe curves may restrict a standardised longer carriage design than present trains (eg Bakerloo at Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly Line east of South Kensington, maybe other places too).

'Standardising' is also automation, and the lines aren't necessarily suited for high intensity automatic operations. A problem is emerging with newer automated trains - their computers drive them flat out all the time while drivers on manual had their own techniques (good and bad), so the trains (motors, transmissions, wheels, vibration on carriage bodies) are wearing out (and attacking the track / tunnel infrastructures) faster than the expected wear-and-tear regimes. A lot needs rethinking.

No tears for C-stock, either as delivered or as departed. As one senior Underground manager said (before the sad case of the under-specified 1983 Jubilee Line trains), "C-stock were the only trains delivered clapped out".
"I shouldn't worry too much about the fifty year-old rolling stock, apart from comfort. Much older rolling stock have been running the Island Line, Isle of Wight, for years now. Occasionally they update the rolling stock when TfL updates theirs."

Apart from comfort? Isn't that a rather major factor to rule out?! The Bakerloo line is already awful for comfort - goodness knows what it will be like with the same trains in the 2020s.

I certainly wouldn't be using the island line as an example, the island line trains are absolutely horrendous - a disgrace to public transport. They'd be better off tarmacing the track and running buses.
Comfort is a subjective thing, but give me the soft comfy seats in a 1938 or 1959 stock train over the hard shelves that grace the S-stock and the Overground's 378s any day.
Have to agree with Timbo. S Stock and 378's may have access improvements but C and D Stocks give a more pleasureable journey sitting down. I'd also put money on the S Stock lasting a shorter time than the C's. And don't get me started on the look of the things. Why does the S Stock look like some alien bug thing? Nasty.
And if the 73 Stock made it to the Isle of Wight...
Island Line 1973 stock
I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but the usage figures for the Tube in 2013 are now available here: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/underground-services-performance










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