BT-H Control Gear for railway service - London Transport 1935 'streamlined' tube trains - advert 1938
By 1938 London Transport was in the midst of an investment programme that was vast in scale and investment. The "New Works Programme 1935/40" saw massive extensions to tube lines (including the Bakerloo and Central) and to service the lines new tube rolling stock was required (alongside surface stock). This 1938 advert was issued by British Thomson-Houston of Rugby who provided vast numbers of control gear sets for the new tube trains. The ad illustrates one of the few design failures of LT and the NWP. The revolutionary new trains were, in the prototype batch, given a 'streamline' front end that was soon discredited as at low speed the 'nose' had no real aerodynamic effect, the extra car length created issues at tube station platform headwalls and - well, it was a touch to 'flash' for LT's rigorous design ethos! By 1938 the squadron batch of trains, that were to become amongst the most famous of all tube trains and that gave many decades of service, were delivered with the restrained and sober 'flat' fronts. The 1935-stock was eventually reconstructed to the same cab design.
BT-H Control Gear for railway service - London Transport 1935 'streamlined' tube trains - advert 1938
By 1938 London Transport was in the midst of an investment programme that was vast in scale and investment. The "New Works Programme 1935/40" saw massive extensions to tube lines (including the Bakerloo and Central) and to service the lines new tube rolling stock was required (alongside surface stock). This 1938 advert was issued by British Thomson-Houston of Rugby who provided vast numbers of control gear sets for the new tube trains. The ad illustrates one of the few design failures of LT and the NWP. The revolutionary new trains were, in the prototype batch, given a 'streamline' front end that was soon discredited as at low speed the 'nose' had no real aerodynamic effect, the extra car length created issues at tube station platform headwalls and - well, it was a touch to 'flash' for LT's rigorous design ethos! By 1938 the squadron batch of trains, that were to become amongst the most famous of all tube trains and that gave many decades of service, were delivered with the restrained and sober 'flat' fronts. The 1935-stock was eventually reconstructed to the same cab design.