C Stock liveries

Different colours for top and bottom halves along the sides is a bit old fashioned now (rather like the BR blue/grey of the 70s-80s) - the LU scheme of contrasting colour doors is now seen on lots of modern trains.

I think LU were quite lucky that the livery chosen fits well with the Disability Discrimination Act. And I think they would live to regret all that white low down on the body, it would have shown the dirt a lot.

Something else I've only just noticed about those pics is where the 'boundary' for the roof/body is. You'll notice that the beading between the roof and body on the prototype is painted in the body colour, but on the final product it is painted in the roof colour

The livery was based on the original 72Mk II livery when they had red doors and unpainted bodies. The doors were painted red to make them more visible to the punters. This pre-dated the DDA by a long way.

When I used to travel to Uni (early 90's) there was an A stock unit (4 cars) operating on the ELL with the same test livery - there used to be a couple of experimental liveries tested there (one pre-refurbed A stock unit had painted red doors if I remember correctly)

Sadly I never took any photos of them wish I had now

as promised - sorry they're a bit dark !

C 5585 looks very like the original layout but with new moquette, end car windows and yellow grab rails.


C 6585 looks very like the final layout ..does that car retain the non-standard No Smoking signs ?

Ah yes the 3 seat layout rather than the current 4. I remember talking to the then SCM for the H&C about the seating. They pinched an inch here and there and turned the transport industry standard width of a seating position into one that was a couple of inches slimmer. That way they squeezed an extra "seating position" into each side of the cubicle.

Not bad at a time when the gutter press were beginning to become full of stuff about people becoming obese and unhealthy. We were industry leaders in making people feel even fatter ;D

They are brilliant for what they do. I am always amazed at how quicky they can swallow a platform full of people. I was on one today and it seemed very sluggish

Actually the livery would have been good if the doors were red and the rest the same

Best stock i've ever driven!

davesgcr - I have to say that I agree with you.

It would appear that from previous posts LU staff consider C stock to be both mechanically sound and are particularly driving favourites for TO's.

I have to say however as a member of the cattle fraternity (from a customer/passenger's viewpoint) 14 years on from their refurbishment the stock certainly needs refreshing again both internally and externally.

This is principally due to ongoing vandalism (graffiti & etching) and would take the form of cosmetic attention - time for an internal colour change maybe??

I don't know what they are like now but I drove C Stock for 5 years in the early 70s from when they were brand new and they were PIGS to work on. No two were the same. When starting, motors kept dropping out so everyone had to use For 1 acceleration. This didn't help over gaps because you would go over a gap and then it wouldn't go beyond series.

The braking was diabolical. Rheo often failed to come in and the e.p. was weaker so you had to drop the button to stop. If it did work, it snatched and upset the retarders. Each unit was different, so they would push and pull each other like loose coupled wagons. Rheo wouldn't work under 20 mph anyway. Some drivers isolated it as soon as they got in the cab. Even the Whse was dodgy until they fixed the feed up rates to recharge the auxiliaries so you didn't run out of air. The handbrake had a hydraulic pump which you had to hold on with a little knuckle scratching lever until it showed a red indication.

Then the cabs were draughty. The holes around the control desk seem to have been designed in. The heater was in the cab ceiling so the top of you head was warm enough but your feet were freezing. I used to line my boots with newspaper to keep warm. The PA handset was behind you so you had to be a contortionist to use it unless you got up from the seat. We used to leave it hanging on its cord so you could reach it under the seat. The cab light switch was on the offside desk so you had to stretch across M door to use it. The seats use to collapse under the driver. Many of them sloped forward. The side door had no proper handrails so they had to fit old ones off scrap 38s.

Apart from that they were OK......

[Thinks, "Should this be in the Rant section?"]

*Now waits for return rant from prjb*

As much as I hate to admit it, most of the faults that tubeprune quite rightly picked up were not addressed in the early 90's refurb.
Motors and brakes have always been a bit hit and miss and differed from end to end, never mind unit to unit! The cabs were never designed very well with things like light switches and whistle buttons poorly placed (although the latter was rectified). Heaters and draughts ahve always been an issue too, and the refurb programme made things worse because the offside heater was replaced with a poorer performing version! We did scrap the awful handbrake (the 'dust buster') in favour of SAPB's (Spring Applied Parking Brakes) which was an improvement.
All these faults are what makes me like them so much!

Er yes, that entire list contains all the best features of C stock and those design, er, features continue to this day. ;D,
They have made some improvements though. The inflatible seals on the cab doors were removed on refirb and the drivers seats are now much better and I personally find them better than the D stock seats.

Despite all that I love driving them. If you can drive one smoothly, you feel you have done a good job. I like a challenge and C stocks certainly provide that. Never a dull moment with them, and because of that you've gotta love 'em.

this vid about the yellow pages train is really good