Met electric loco on the H&C

I have had this book for many years and always wondered about the same photo. The stock being hauled is certainly suburban stock, and the Met loco is carrying a destination board too. With the Ranelagh Road bridge in the distance there can be no doubt about the location either. In 1932, could this have been a Middle/Outer Circle type working from Olympia?

Well, the H&C was a joint venture, so possibly as early as 1864!
I beleive some pannier tanks weree fited with tripcocks to run beyond Paddington suburban too.

There was an electrified siding west of Paddington and one of the evening peak workings at one time started from there. The loco was probably being used to bring the coaching stock into the station to pick up passengers for the working to Aldgate (or Liverpool Street).

This topic was covered in Underground News a few years ago where the mystery was 'solved' but can't lay my hands on it at the moment.

I don't have the book with me (alas), but the destination board does appear to be blank - was that done on the Met too - using a blank board for a not in passenger service train?

It's hard to tell from a still shot obviously, but there is no sign of it doing anything other than running along - how far west of Paddington was the electrified siding?

Always learning something new!

A quick look at the July 1938 Bradshaw shows five trains off the GW, all to Liverpool Street. These were (1) Hayes 0752 Padd 0819 LS 0840; (2) Burnham 0728 Padd 0825 LS 0846; (3) Slough 0816 Padd 0839 LS 0859; (4) West Drayton 0827 Padd 0902 LS 0922; (5) W Drayton 0850 Padd 0925 LS 0946. Four trains returned from LS in the morning. There were no afternoon inbound workings and only one afternoon outbound (lunchtime on Saturdays). As there were only four return workings in the morning, presumably one set stabled at LS between the peaks.

The 1922 Bradshaw shows an almost identical pattern.

One mystery is that the arrival and departure times at Paddington are identical, and there is no difference shown in point to point times either side of Paddington in either direction, so quite how the loco change was effected and how long it took is unclear - no doubt the WTT would clear that up. Given the closeness of the timings, the operation must have required 4 locos.

As to stock, the 1922 Bradshaw describes the service as a GW one so probably GW (compartment) stock .

Graham Hewett

Further to my post Friday 11/5 at 08.54, the issue of Underground News was No.571, July 2009.

It reads:
"The Met. loco with coaches photographed west of the [Paddington] station was empty coaching stock in the siding (or just leaving it) and the (electric) loco was ready to begin a journey to the City in the evening peak. One GWR train started up from Paddington siding east to Liverpool Street (Paddington depart 17.50) in the evening peak.

The siding west of Paddington finished in a dead end with access only at the Paddington (east) end, so the empty stock must have been propelled into the siding, unless a locomotive was to remain trapped at the buffers. Short workings of GWR passenger trains between Paddington and Liverpool Street carried passengers in the counterflow direction of the peak".

A photograph on page 498 of the August 2009 issue shows the former loco spur at the east end of Paddington H&C platform (16) as seen in June 2009.

I realise it wasn't propelled in passenger service. The coaching stock was either propelled from Paddington platform to the siding by the electric loco (and then 'pulled' out later), or was pulled in by steam loco, which stayed at the buffers until later. If the latter, the electric loco would have gone to the siding, coupled up and then pulled ther coaching stock out.

The former Assistant Divisional Superintendent of the Metropolitan Line (who was an enthusiast, and especially Metropolian Railway) told me that the loco spur was used for both electric and steam locomotives. Sadly, he is no longer with us to re-state that.

To confirm, does anyone have any diagrams of the layout of platfoms 13-16 of that time, all of which were then electridied, which shows an electrified loco spur?

I've got a copy of a 1930 Met. diagram that shows the division of signal maintenance - unfortunately it doesn't directly show that the siding was electrified, although there was a change in maintenance of the track circuits, the GW maintained the TCs up to the trap and including the main line, the Met maintained the TC in the siding: to my mind that shows that the siding was most likely to be electrified.