West Ruislip LUL Depot

If you have a Travelcard and plenty of time try using Chiltern trains to and from West Ruislip as well.
They run at a higher level and give a bit better view over to the far side of the depot.

It's a brisk ten minuteish + walk to Ickenham (Ruislip in the other direction is marginally further) from West where you can pick up the Met/Picc for a look at the backdoor.
You will have a quick view of engineering wagons and the stored off track battery locos.

As it's a Thursday and if you are there after midday you *may* be lucky and see the Class 20s and barriers parked up at West ready to go out in the evening (depending on what the schedules are for that week).

Good luck.

Andy

Many transplant battery locos, 92 stocks, and you might get a look at the RAT or something if yer lucky.

When I was 9 years old, 5 years ago, every other blummin member of staff stopped me for a minute or 10. Definitely shows how times have changed..it got me a trip into Poplar Operations Centre or whatever it is though.

Class 20s (HNRC/Private Ones)+Barriers should be at the Depot on Thursday

Was that before or after the Piccadilly ceased running beyond Rayners Lane on Saturdays?

One early memory of Ruislip depot that stands out to me was seeing COP and R stock there in the 1973-75 time frame, before the siding off the Met/Picc was electrified.

I believe all Saturday Piccadilly line services west of Rayners Lane were withdrawn in 1974. I think it was only Saturday mornings by then anyway.

The service beyond Rayners Lane died a slow death. It was 1959 when the midday off peak service went, and gradually the weekday evening, Sunday, Saturday afternoon and finally Saturday morning service succumbed until restored in 1998.

The Gate House is at the end of the depot road just as you have determined from google maps but the depot road is LU property, not a public road so I wouldn't recommend it.

It was not until the 1973-74 timeframe that I knew Ruislip Depot existed. When my family lived in Ruislip, we used the Met/Picc station of the same name or Ruislip Gardens to start our "adventures." In the autumn of '73 when we moved to Ickenham/North Hillingdon, Hillingdon was our closest Met/Picc station. Riding the rails back and forth to/from school in Ruislip Manor, I caught my first glimpse of the depot. The first time I used West Ruislip to begin a Central Line journey was November 1974(easily accessible M-F via bus 273 from Hillingdon); I got to see more of the depot on those trips. Not to drift too far off-topic, but when we moved to Ickenham my dad continued to start his daily commute to Marble Arch or Bond Street at Ruislip Gardens, even though West Ruislip was much closer(apparently, he had more room to park his "Yank Tank" @ RUG compared to WER).