140 Years of the District Line (sort of)

I am sure a Cake will be made, once a satisfactory risk assessment is completed.

Met Service Control will no doubt use the excuse to hand District Service Control a very special cake. One spiked with some very special ingredients.

Just fortunate they will have the following day to recover ;D

^{Disclaimer: I, or my colleagues wouldn't really do that, honest}

Seriously (and sadly) I would expect any cake would need to be made by someone with food hygiene qualifications and no candles will be permitted unless a fully qualified fire warden is present.
A risk assessment will need to have taken place, including such things as special dietary requirements, fire risk, food poisoning risk, risk of cake getting into/on equipment and the associated risk of damage.

Cambridge PSB managed to get away with having a cake (but no candles that I could see) for their 25th anniversary. See here.

Eating cake - woo!

Cake?

Hmmmmm I like cake ;D ;D

Happy birthday District!

140 years young... eh!!

Happy b'day green line

So how many types of rolling stock have you had so far....

1868-1928: 4-4-0T steam locos & coaching stock (last District steam loco withdrawn 1928)
1905-1939 (maybe 1945): B-stock (electrification)
1910 onwards-1953: C, D & E stocks (minor differences)
1920-1951 : F-stock (transferred to Metropolitan 1950 onwards)
1924-1971: Q-stock (also referred to as G, K, L, M, N & Q38 stocks)
1937-1981: O & P stocks (later converted to become CO-OP) - although Met based, units operated on the Circle & District intermittently
1947-1983: R-stock (some converted from Q38 trailers with new builds R47, R49 & R59)
1980-date: D78

Are there any more

Yes:
1903-1925 A stock (prototype electric trains used on South Harrow - Mill Hill Park (now Acton Town) and South Acton - Hounslow services)
More information:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_A_Stock

Also the 1905 Bo Bo electric locos. Normally working as pairs they ran on the middle circle, then top and tailed B stock trailers. Finally they were used on the Ealing-Southend (swapped at Barking) service until 1939 (when they were scrapped).

This is how I see the District line's motor/equipment set up. Bit of an essay, sorry.....

The main issue with the Distirct stock was the type of motors and equipment used. The A and B stock used BTH equipment with GE69 motors. The C/D/E cars also had GE69 motors (some from the Electric locos). The F stock which was not compatable had GE260 motors which were very powerful. When new the G stock cars also were fitted with GE69 motors. Therefore, there was a group of cars that could work together. B/C/D/E/G stock group all had GE69 motors and regularly worked together. At this stage the A stock was scrapped and 42 B stock motors were converted to H stock trailers with K2 bogies.

It was all change with the K stock in 1927. These has WT54B motors and could not be worked with the GE69 motors. All trailers from the C/D/E stock were converted to motor cars and these along with the rest of the C/D/E, G and new K stock all had WT54B motors. Most B stock motors were now H stock trailers with K2 bogies. There remained B stock 37 motor cars and 18 control trailers which were now fitted with GE212 motors called local stock. They ran the shuttle trains to Sth Harrow, Sth Acton and Hownslow and some Putney trains.
The L and M stock trains added to the pool of WT54B motors and this was the state of play up until the Q stock programme!

The war saw the end of the B stock with most of the G212 motors going to Circle BWE 200 cars and their K2 bogies going to the Met's Circle and Dreadnought cars.

With the conversion to air doors there were two types of car with the same motors but incompatible use. The C/D/E motors and L/M/N trailers became H stock with WT54B motors and the G/K/L/M/Q38 motors and Q38 trailers with air doors, ep brakes and also having WT54B motors. There was still the F stock, now with air doors and ep brakes using the GE260 motors.

Finally, the R stock birth caused the H stock to be withdrawn (the L/M/N trailers converted to air doors and ep brakes) and the F stock to move to the Met line. The (all but 6) R stock motor cars were converted from Q38 trailers and fitted with PCM and LT111 motors. This left just the Q stock with its old fashioned electromagnetic BTH eqipment and WT54B motors with the R stock.

The Q stock ceased in 1971 when CO/CP stock also with PCM, fully replaced it. The current D stock replaced everything in 1983.

The C77 stock is excluded from these totals.

Not sure why I and J weren't used, but it is probably wht they are not used so much in number plates?

True, maybe 'J' was going to be used for the 'Jubilee' stock despite it all being withdrawn by 1915!

Yes, it was the 1903 A stock until 1925, then it was B stock (with GE69 motors) M-CT sets until the Piccadilly service was introduced. These shuttles connected with the Standard stock on the Piccadilly service at Sth Harrow. The Sth Acton shuttle was a double ended B stock car no 37, until replaced by the two G23 cars in 1941.

Wow, that's a great collectors item! My best bit is a signal id plate!