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London Underground S7/S8 Stock: First week on Circle/District Lines (warning, lots of items)


superdrive1

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Evening all (it's 10pm here!)

 

Those of you who follow my other railway topic may notice I went on about Tube trains and giving them their own topic, well here it is and this is why...

 

As of Monday 2nd September 2013, a new type of train has been sighted on both the Circle Line and District Line, known as S7 Stock (named such because of their use on the Sub-Surface lines of the Underground and also because they are formed of 7 cars per unit). These new trains are designed to replace C69/C77 Stock on the Circle, Hammersmith and City and District lines and D78 Stock also on the District Line.

 

A variant of the S Stock known as 'S8 Stock' (as it contains 8 cars per unit) has been in operation on the Metropolitan Line since July 2010 replacing the 'A Stock' which had operated the line for over 60 years! S7 Stock on the Hammersmith and City Line has been in passenger operation since the 6th July 2012.

 

As noted above the first S7 Stock trains are now in passenger service on the Circle Line (2 trains running the full line) and the District Line (1 train running between West Ham and Olympia only for the meantime) and on Friday I went out to find all 3 of the new ones, and below are the images and videos of what I managed to find, split into separate categories, enjoy!

 

District Line S7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9686095423_71bc9d0fdb_c.jpg

 

9689328152_66d3404937_c.jpg

 

Circle Line S7s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Last 2 items that didn't fancy going on first time around... Both S7s on the Circle Line items

 

 

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Amazing photos and videos!! The Tube is getting a hugee upgrade! I love it! my favorite cars are the 2009 stock trains on the Victoria Line

 

Indeed the whole Underground is slowly getting upgraded! This is only the start... Spend most of my time going to/from London on the Victoria Line, prefer the old 1967 Stock trains they had but the new ones are nice enough replacements!

 

Nice pics and video. 

 

Thanks!

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Indeed the whole Underground is slowly getting upgraded! This is only the start... Spend most of my time going to/from London on the Victoria Line, prefer the old 1967 Stock trains they had but the new ones are nice enough replacements!

 

 

Yep. During the 1960s the Underground still had cars dating from the early 1920s running including locomotive hauled trains on the Metropolitan line, compartment stock (T Stock), F and Q Stock, and many other 1930s vintage stock. Now the system looks more modern then it did back then. 

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Yep. During the 1960s the Underground still had cars dating from the early 1920s running including locomotive hauled trains on the Metropolitan line, compartment stock (T Stock), F and Q Stock, and many other 1930s vintage stock. Now the system looks more modern then it did back then. 

 

Yes that's right, it's been since the late 60s when the Victoria Line opened that the system has slowly been upgraded as since then the Jubilee Line has opened, the Piccadilly Line has been extended to Heathrow Airport and pretty much all lines have received new trains and those that haven't will be getting new ones eventually, the whole system really is starting to look reasonably modern, give it another 5/10 years then with any luck it really will look impressive!

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Yes that's right, it's been since the late 60s when the Victoria Line opened that the system has slowly been upgraded as since then the Jubilee Line has opened, the Piccadilly Line has been extended to Heathrow Airport and pretty much all lines have received new trains and those that haven't will be getting new ones eventually, the whole system really is starting to look reasonably modern, give it another 5/10 years then with any luck it really will look impressive!

 

Yeah it will look impressive. I heard there are plans to order new tube trains to replace the 1972 and 1973 stock. Haven't heard much about when it will happen. 

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Yeah it will look impressive. I heard there are plans to order new tube trains to replace the 1972 and 1973 stock. Haven't heard much about when it will happen. 

 

Those 2 lines are set to be the last ones to be upgraded, I believe any new stock would not be put on both lines before 2020. There's a brief news bit from a few years ago showing what any new trains on those lines could look like. 

 

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/siemens-unveils-london-underground-concept-train.html

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Those 2 lines are set to be the last ones to be upgraded, I believe any new stock would not be put on both lines before 2020. There's a brief news bit from a few years ago showing what any new trains on those lines could look like. 

 

http://www.railwaygazette.com/news/single-view/view/siemens-unveils-london-underground-concept-train.html

 

I can tell. I've seen the concept before and it looks pretty good. The cars will basically be a tubed version of the S Stock. With that said I will say, that I do like the previous stock that the Underground ran in the past. The H (formerly B-E Stock with hand operated doors), F, Q, and T Stock are some that I like.

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I can tell. I've seen the concept before and it looks pretty good. The cars will basically be a tubed version of the S Stock. With that said I will say, that I do like the previous stock that the Underground ran in the past. The H (formerly B-E Stock with hand operated doors), F, Q, and T Stock are some that I like.

 

To my understanding as well any new trains ordered for the Tube from now on-wards would be made to be run as driver-less, which in any case would follow the Victoria, Central and Jubilee lines in essentially becoming driver-less. (even though all 3 lines still have drivers in the cab) My interest in Underground stock tends to stick more with the 'deep level' sets but I have to say all the trains that have ever run on the system are interesting as it was so diverse in the early days with all the different companies setting up their own lines before they all got brought under the London Transport umbrella! 

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To my understanding as well any new trains ordered for the Tube from now on-wards would be made to be run as driver-less, which in any case would follow the Victoria, Central and Jubilee lines in essentially becoming driver-less. (even though all 3 lines still have drivers in the cab) My interest in Underground stock tends to stick more with the 'deep level' sets but I have to say all the trains that have ever run on the system are interesting as it was so diverse in the early days with all the different companies setting up their own lines before they all got brought under the London Transport umbrella! 

 

Driveless trains will be interesting to see implemented. They tried an experiment with that using CO/CP or R Stock. As for the past fleet it was very diverse. It took a while for the system to upgrade just like it took the subway in New York time to upgrade.

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Driveless trains will be interesting to see implemented. They tried an experiment with that using CO/CP or R Stock. As for the past fleet it was very diverse. It took a while for the system to upgrade just like it took the subway in New York time to upgrade.

 

They also equipped a 1960 Tube Stock train with Automatic Train Operation and wired up the track section between Woodford and Hainault on the Central Line to test ATO capabilities before the construction of the Victoria Line, this was kept in use until 1986 I think when they reverted it back to one-person operation. Also when the 1967TS trains were delivered to LT ready for the Victoria Line each new train underwent 3 weeks ATO testing on that section of Central Line before going for testing on the Victoria Line.

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They also equipped a 1960 Tube Stock train with Automatic Train Operation and wired up the track section between Woodford and Hainault on the Central Line to test ATO capabilities before the construction of the Victoria Line, this was kept in use until 1986 I think when they reverted it back to one-person operation. Also when the 1967TS trains were delivered to LT ready for the Victoria Line each new train underwent 3 weeks ATO testing on that section of Central Line before going for testing on the Victoria Line.

 

Yeah I've seen videos of the 1960 stock. The unit was preserved and still runs. 

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Yeah I've seen videos of the 1960 stock. The unit was preserved and still runs. 

 

They have 2 sets of the train type preserved yes, one works in engineering on the Tube as a Track Recording Unit based at Hainault Depot (3 car train, both driving vehicles 1960TS, the center car from a 1973TS), the other unit as you say is indeed preserved and is in the private hands of Cravens Heritage Trains, however to my knowledge the set has not run any service of any sort on the Tube since 2003, I'm not even certain where it is or what's happened to it to be honest!

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They have 2 sets of the train type preserved yes, one works in engineering on the Tube as a Track Recording Unit based at Hainault Depot (3 car train, both driving vehicles 1960TS, the center car from a 1973TS), the other unit as you say is indeed preserved and is in the private hands of Cravens Heritage Trains, however to my knowledge the set has not run any service of any sort on the Tube since 2003, I'm not even certain where it is or what's happened to it to be honest!

 

I'll look around to see what's the status on that unit. I also heard the Q Stock is being restored as a second heritage train. I don't know where the project stands now, since no new information has been posted since March of 2012. 

 

http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/friends/projects/heritage-underground-trains

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I'll look around to see what's the status on that unit. I also heard the Q Stock is being restored as a second heritage train. I don't know where the project stands now, since no new information has been posted since March of 2012. 

 

http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/friends/projects/heritage-underground-trains

 

To my knowledge the Q Stock is still being worked on, albeit very slowly, they've got an Open Weekend at Acton Works Depot coming up for the start of November so will take that chance to get a closer look at it, seem to recall it was looking pretty good on the outside at the last one in March!

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To my knowledge the Q Stock is still being worked on, albeit very slowly, they've got an Open Weekend at Acton Works Depot coming up for the start of November so will take that chance to get a closer look at it, seem to recall it was looking pretty good on the outside at the last one in March!

 

Thanks for the update on that.

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When is the metropolitan line getting new cars?

 

 

It already has them. The new S stock run there too.

 

This is correct, S8 Stock has been in operation on the Metropolitan line since July 2010, S7 Stock has run on the Hammersmith & City line since July 2012 and limited S7 Stock operations began on the Circle line and part of the District line on the 2nd September 2013, all 4 lines are expected to have full S Stock operations around 2016.

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It already has them. The new S stock run there too.

 

 

This is correct, S8 Stock has been in operation on the Metropolitan line since July 2010, S7 Stock has run on the Hammersmith & City line since July 2012 and limited S7 Stock operations began on the Circle line and part of the District line on the 2nd September 2013, all 4 lines are expected to have full S Stock operations around 2016.

Ah, I was thinking about the Hammersmith and City line. I was there in 2011 and that line had the oldest cars (of the lines I used there)

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Ah, I was thinking about the Hammersmith and City line. I was there in 2011 and that line had the oldest cars (of the lines I used there)

 

Yes the old C Stocks are on the way out, getting scrapped at the rate of 2/3 trains a week currently as I understand it, by sometime next year they will all be gone from passenger service

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Yes the old C Stocks are on the way out, getting scrapped at the rate of 2/3 trains a week currently as I understand it, by sometime next year they will all be gone from passenger service

 

Hard to believe the very cars that replaced both the Q Stock and the CO/CP Stock are now retiring. Time flies when you're having fun as they say. 

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Hard to believe the very cars that replaced both the Q Stock and the CO/CP Stock are now retiring. Time flies when you're having fun as they say. 

 

Think times just flies regardless of fun or not! But yes the landscape of trains is changing once again, convinced that the further we go through time the less time trains seem to be designed to last for, I can't see the S Stocks lasting as long as the A, C and D Stocks have, likewise with the 09 Stock on the Victoria Line I can't see them getting anywhere near as long running as the 67TS did. Now I've said that I'm bound to be proved wrong...

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