Q Stock at Willesden High Level

Re - "Q stock at Willesden High Level circa 1950 working a service to South Kensington".

That's news to me, and I can't really work out why there would be such a service. Could it have been further down on the Richmond line, where District trains occasionally terminated at South Kensington. This happened on a regular basis on Sundays, certainly in 1920.

As far as I know, the only District stock to work through Willesden Junction High Level would have been in 1914, when the electrification (3rd/4th rail) to Earl's Court was ready but the rolling stock wasn't. Therefore, the LNWR borrowed some trains of District B Stock and used them on the service for a short while until the LNWR "Siemens" trains were ready. The DR B Stock was based at the then Piccadilly Line depot at Lillie Bridge for the duration of this service, presumably being changed over periodically (to/from Ealing Common) for maintenance.

But none of this helps with your friend's 1950s suggestion .....

Edit - brain kicking in (maybe!) -

Would it have been empty Q38 Stock going to/from Gloucester for R Stock conversion, although I am not sure which route these trains took .......

I suggested that he might be getting confused with the Richmond to Gunnesbury section however he was resolute that he saw Q Stock at Willesden High Level. He was very familiar with Oerlikon Stock so we can discount this too

Maybe the Gunnesbury Richmond section temporally closed and this was a replacement service as an interim measure.

Are there any details of closures and temporary services @ the early 1950's? Could this have been a stores train running from Croxley Green Depot back to Lillie Bridge or Neasden?

Anyway Q stock in model form will be making its way via Willesden to my Croxley WRD layout sometime in the future.

Xerces Fobe

Could it have been something as simple as a points failure? Reverse at first place available

Q38 trailers were sent to Gloucester for conversion to R38 Driving motors, but I' not sure if they would have been taken down this route? They would also have been hauled by steam and had a barrier/match wagon at each end.

The route to Gloucester one would have thought would have gone via Ealing Bdy?

The other option is, where were the District H stock scrapped? Could this also have been a scrap move of the clerestory roofed former C/D/E stock or even a diversion of the Olympia service?

Possibly, but where had it come from? There were, as far as I am aware, only four places at which LT's trains could get onto the ex-LNWR's 4-rail network - Gunnersbury, Queens Park, Earls Court and possibly South Acton - was there a connection there? We can rule out Queens Park for gauging reasons.

As for the others, the Earls Court-Willesden Junction service had been suspended for ten years by the date in question. Were the current rails still energised all the way from Earls Court to Willesden in 1950 - indeed, were they still there? If not, the train cannot have run in service as an extension of the Olympia service (incidentally, before the bay was built, how was the shuttle operated at Olympia?). In any case, the shuttle was operated by H (for Hand-worked doors) stock until 1959, not Q stock.


If the juice was still on, is it possible the train was a gauging trial for a possible re-instatement of the EC-WJ service?

That leaves the Richmond line - could it have been a way of getting a train that was stuck at Richmond back to a depot following a problem in the Gunnersbury/TG area?

One other possibility is that it was going to an exhibition in the Wembley area, but surely it would have gone to Wembley Park via Rayners or Baker Street, rather than Wembley Central?

Was it Q38 or older stock (e.g Q23 (ex G) stock)?

There WAS once a connection at South Acton. I do not know when exactly it was severed, but I suspect it was before 1950

Was the connection at S Acton ever electrified? AIUI it was virtually never used.

My notes say -

14/2/32 - South Acton branch becomes single line and South Acton DR cabin closed.

In "London's Local Railways" by Alan A. Jackson, the following may be of interest:

* The junction was controlled by an N&SWJR box with working by pilotman.
* All non-passenger working (on the South Acton branch) ceased in 1914.
* The Junction box was closed in 1915.
* Points removed in c.1930.
* Junction box demolished in 1934.

What was the route of the Croxley Green Depot Stores train, which ran along the NLL ; did it reverse at Gunnesbury?

Xerces Fobe

Thanks will do will do.

Regards,

Nigel.

The Croxley stores train became a 1938 TS set working between peaks from Croxley to Neasden and return. It ran via the Colne curve until Colne Junction closed and it was a WTT RR path.

Off thread a tad but, after about 1958, the District Line stores train was a four-car set of 'H' stock (ex C, D and E stock). Does anyone have a record of the numbers of the cars used for this as it is crying out to be modelled! Thanks.

Thank you for your efforts reganorak; the models will be tagged on ther long list a projects/potential projects which shows no sign of getting any shorter ;D

XF

Maybe a future project as it could be scaled down in a similar way to my Croxley layout ...... This is at the end of a very long list though!