C Stock Memories (video)

[spsmiler]

I think this will be of interest, apologies for its length but I've dug deep and even managed to add the proverbial kitchen sink!

Some of the still images date from my schoolboy days when I was using 110 negative film.





A film about the London Transport / London Underground C Stock trains which were built in the 1970s and made their final passenger journey in 2014.

This was the second fleet of C Stock trains on London's Underground railway - the first fleet were built by the District Railway in 1910 and largely withdrawn from passenger service after WW2, although a few examples lasted longer as service stock trains.

The 1970/71 C69 trains were built for the Metropolitan line's Hammersmith & City service plus the Circle line and the 1977 C77 trains were built for the District line's Edgware Road - Wimbledon service. Whilst there were some differences between them both batches of these trains were fully compatible with each other and frequently ran in mixed formation.

This also film includes many internal views - in their original format with largely 'semi-compartment' seating, the two experimental refurbished cars and in their final form with wholly longitudinal seating.

Not every location where footage was obtained is identified in the film, these include: Hammersmith (Met), Paddington (District Circle), Edgware Road (Sub Surface) Aldgate, Barking (window view whilst riding past in a C2C Electrostar) Fulham Broadway (before rebuilding), Gloucester Road (during rebuilding), Wimbledon Park, Putney Bridge, Upminster Depot Open Day, Hornchurch. Most lineside views were taken between Wimbledon and East Putney.

Sorry but not included are any of the special advertising liveries. I do not have any photos of them.

[class411]

A very enjoyable and informative watch.

Thanks.

[ted672]

Another classic, well done. I always thought the refurbishment was the best of the bunch, no loss of seating capacity and a much more open environment.

[t697]

A nicely done film/video. Reminded me that one of the best changes made to C stock was replacing the original drive gears with a finer pitch design. I seem to recall that was about the same time as the refurb but a separate project. Made the gear noise quieter and more refined. I think the new gears were more reliable too. Once you know the change was made, the gear sounds on the recording from different eras are more understandable.

Another C stock story was from shadow infraco days. 'New Broom' managers arrive and there is a fleet reliability drive. "Fix your top 6 fault issues and you'll transform reliability". Some of us knew it wasn't that simple. Calculations showed we'd need to tackle almost 40 separate service fault modes to gain the overall improvement they wanted. In the end about a dozen were actually modified away and that just about balanced the others getting worse! That said, some other process initiatives helped a lot and near the end of the fleet life the reliability was still not great but near the best it had ever been.

[superteacher]

Always remember the C stock from when I was growing up in the 80's. The pre-refurbished were certainly noisy at high speed! Have happy memories of them being thrashed between Barking / East Ham and Farringdon / Kings Cross!

[t697]

Dec 12, 2020 12:46:30 GMT superteacher said:

Always remember the C stock from when I was growing up in the 80's. The pre-refurbished were certainly noisy at high speed! Have happy memories of them being thrashed between Barking / East Ham and Farringdon / Kings Cross!

Screaming along at a heady 45mph or so eh!