Latest acquisition: A Stock Destination Blind

[tubelightonline]

I recently acquired a destination blind (complete with its original housing) that had been removed from the cab of A60 car 5086, after the unit was decommissioned in September 2011. The housing required considerable cleaning, but was otherwise in good condition. Photographs of this restoration are now available here.

I am considering giving the housing a full repaint at some point, in order to remove surface scratches and the like. Does anyone know the RAL code for the shade of blue that these were painted upon refurbishment? I'm a bit of a stickler for accuracy, unfortunately!

[Alight]

Fantastic addition to your collection! I agree with you - it is in pretty good condition considering.

[t697]

Parts of A, C and D stock cab interiors are all in this colour after their refurbishments and D stock cabs were always this colour (yes, I know 7008 spent a while in ivory!).
OK, so the colour reference is: Cornflower Blue, BS4800 20 E 51.

[rincew1nd]

WOW!

I now have blind envy! Tempted to paint my housing blue:


Blind Play August 2012 004 by rincewindthefailedwizard, on Flickr


C Stock Destination Blind by rincewindthefailedwizard, on Flickr


C Stock Destination Blind by rincewindthefailedwizard, on Flickr

[metman]

I just have envy! I don't have any blinds, except in my office!!

[Jerome H]

How do you acquire such artifacts of history?

[rincew1nd]

Acton Depot open day shortly after the C Stock blinds had been tweaked for ShepherdsBush and the Spiral Line.

[Deleted]

I have one too! It looks awesome (it would look more awesome fitted on the A stock and still in service, but that's another story) and I have sellotaped a very cheap LED light string from Ikea over the fluorescent tube and at night it looks really good, with none of the original wiring etc disturbed.

[1018509]

Interesting; in my day at Rayners Lane call point we had a few unused originals without the politeness of "Sorry Not in Service"; it was "blank", "destination" or "Special" in those days. I wonder where those blinds went when the call point closed in 1998.

Any idea why some destinations are in yellow and some in white in your example?

[rincew1nd]

The white destinations on my blind are Wimbledon, Edgware Road mainly, then Hammersmith, Circle and Barking.

When you think that this was a C Stock, my conclusion is that it spent most of its life on the Wimblewares; the white destinations are the frequently used ones that have faded from the original yellow.

[tubelightonline]

Good to see that this has stirred up some interest in the A Stocks again! (Did it ever go away?)

Jan 14, 2014 19:08:49 GMT t697 said:

OK, so the colour reference is: Cornflower Blue, BS4800 20 E 51.

Thanks for that - there's a colour chart in the office at work, and I've just spotted that exact colour on there. Bit of a long shot, but I don't suppose you would also know the code for the colour applied to the new grab rails installed during refurbishment, would you? I might decide to have the wall-mounted support brackets for the blind box repainted into this colour at some point...possibly!

Jan 14, 2014 22:25:25 GMT Jerome H said:

How do you acquire such artifacts of history?

This particular example came from Haydn Brand, who runs the excellent London Transport Original Signs website, though examples have also been appearing on a well-known online auction site (how very BBC of me!) recently. Expect to pay a fair amount for them, though...and if you add postage too, you'll be taking out a second mortgage! Fortunately, in my case, Haydn happened to be travelling through the Midlands anyway, so I was able to meet him and pick it up from him directly.

For those of you with the "blind envy", is it a "blind ambition" that makes you want one for yourself..?

[t697]

[Bit of a long shot, but I don't suppose you would also know the code for the colour applied to the new grab rails installed during refurbishment, would you? I might decide to have the wall-mounted support brackets for the blind box repainted into this colour at some point...possibly![/quote]

I don't know whether A stock grab rails were actually this colour but the official Met line magenta colour is;
NCS ref; S 4050-R30B
PMS ref; Pantone 235
CMYK ref; C:6, M:100, K:43
RGB ref; 139R, 0G, 76B
Web ref; 99 00 33

[tubelightonline]

Thanks for those details - most interesting.

I've noticed something rather odd with the displays of both my A and D Stock blinds - namely, that changing the destination daily has resulted in some "coincidences" appearing on the two blinds - simply by advancing the A Stock blind by one station and the D Stock blind by two, I've managed to create some unintentional links. The two that I can think of right now are:

Neasden / Ealing Common = locations of depots on the Metropolitan and District lines
Chesham / Olympia = branches that both formerly served as shuttle services (for most of the time)

Some of the links for other stations were a bit tenuous (I couldn't think of any relationship between Farringdon and Parsons Green, for instance!), but it's interesting that these connections did appear. I haven't yet managed to roll Whitechapel for both (at least, not unintentionally), but give it time!

[jmm]

Maybe that both Farringdon and Parsons Green have sidings where the trains stable(d) overnight?

Edit: Thinking twice about that, A stock couldn't stable in Farringdon sidings...

[version3point1]

Sorry to bump – but now there is a thread for this, I can dump pictures of my one here.

Had a similar thing done to my blind box with regards to the light fitting. I don't have any pictures of it being done, but it's now wired to run from the mains. Just looking to run a longer cable now and perhaps stick a toggle switch on the box somewhere. Mine is from 5090 (the Chesham shuttle).





Blind itself is in excellent condition, apart from on the Chesham part, where there's expected wear/fading from use.



Also have a rarer spare blind from 5167, which is white on black, and displays the fast services thus:

[DWS]

Feb 13, 2014 16:23:50 GMT version3point1 said:

Sorry to bump – but now there is a thread for this, I can dump pictures of my one here.

Had a similar thing done to my blind box with regards to the light fitting. I don't have any pictures of it being done, but it's now wired to run from the mains. Just looking to run a longer cable now and perhaps stick a toggle switch on the box somewhere. Mine is from 5090 (the Chesham shuttle).





Blind itself is in excellent condition, apart from on the Chesham part, where there's expected wear/fading from use.



Also have a rarer spare blind from 5167, which is white on black, and displays the fast services thus:

Thats very effective, I hope you had it wired up by a good electrician and remember to switch off at the mains when changing bulbs.

[tubelightonline]

I have the cable for my blind box's light unit connected to a remote-controlled socket - simple, but effective (much like me in many ways); it also has the tendency to trick people into thinking that they have the ability to switch it on just by looking at it!

I can see why the 'Fast' destinations on the later blinds had the wording reversed - the "Aldgate Fast" certainly could be mistaken for "Aldgate East", even at close proximity. (As it happens, I managed to roll "Fast Aldgate" and "Aldgate East" on my two blinds the other day - excellent!)

What purpose did the two backward-facing catches attached to the sides of the blind box serve when these were in use? I'd have thought that they should point forwards, in order to be secured to the blind window.

[metman]

If anyone comes across the blind for 5056 or 5057 let me know!

Looking great guys.