Metropolitan Loco - Tube History

Tube History

Metropolitan Loco

Met loco Stock Operates:
1906 - 1962 Metropolitan railway

The Metropolitan Locomotive where the first electric trains to run on the Metropolitan Railway and operated between 1906 and 1962.

The Metropolitan electric locomotives where used on the Metropolitan Railway, comprising of conventional carriage stock these where on the Metropolitan Railway central London routes from Baker Street, with steam locomotives hauling the carriages for routes beyond Baker Street.

The first order of rolling stock entered service in 1906 and comprised of ten locomotives with a central cabin for the driver, these became known as camel-backs. These locomotives where constructed by Metropolitan Amalgamated after being ordered from British Westinghouse, the locomotives where constructed with Westinghouse electrical control equipment, with four motors with 215 horsepower traction motors, 10.9m (35ft 9in) in length and weighed 50 tons. There was initially only one driving position for the motors which caused difficulties and a second master controller was promptly added.

The second order of rolling stock entered service in 1907 and comprised of a further ten locomotives however, these had a boxed design and a driving position at either end of the locomotive. These where also constructed by Metropolitan Amalgamated, but these included British Thompson Houston control equipment, these locomotives where 10.m (33ft 6in) in length and weighed 47 tons. The control equipment was replaced in 1919 for the Westinghouse type.

During the early 1920s an order was placed with Metropolitan-Vickers to rebuild twenty electric locomotives, the work began on the first locomotive, however the rebuilding proved to be uneconomical and impracticable resulting in the order being changed for twenty newly constructed locomotives using some of the equipment from the original builds. The new locomotives where constructed between 1922 and 1923, weighing 61 ½tons, the new locomotives had four 300 horsepower motors which gave a rating of 1200 horsepower over an hour, and a maximum speed of 105km/h (65mph).

During the 1925 British Empire Exhibition the Metropolitan Railway displayed locomotive number 15 where the panelling was removed to allow spectators to see the equipment inside. The entire fleet was named, with the first nameplates being fitted on 18 March 1927, there where nineteen names that had been chosen and had a connection with the Metropolitan Railway served area, comprising of peoples names, real or fictitious. There was however one exception, locomotive number 15, that was used at the British Empire Exhibition, which became named Wembley in 1926. During the Second World War the nameplates where removed from the locomotives.

There where fifteen surviving locomotives in 1953, which where overhauled and the traction equipment was replaced with British Thompson Houston, the nameplates where also refitted to the locomotives.

The Metropolitan electric locomotives where withdrawn from passenger service in 1962, once electrification of the Metropolitan line had been completed up to Amersham in 1961 and the A60/62 stock had entered service.

There is one locomotive which has been preserved at the London Transport Museum as a static exhibit, made of locomotive number 5 John Hampden. Another unit, number 12 Sarah Saloons, had been preserved at the London Transport Museum Acton depot and is used for heritage events, this was last used in the 150 birthday of the Metropolitan Railway, when the carriage was used alongside the Metropolitan Railway Locomotive number 1 during January 2013.

Locomotive Number
Locomotive Name
Withdrawal
Notes and Citations
1
John Lyon
1962
 
2
Oliver Cromwell
1962
Named Thomas Lord in 1953
3
Sir Ralph Verney
1962
 
4
Lord Byron
1962
 
5
John Hampden
1962
Preserved at London Transport Museum
6
William Penn
1962
 
7
Edmund Burke
1962
 
8
Sherlock Homes
1962
 
9
John Milton
1962
 
10
William Ewart Gladstone
1962
 
11
George Romney
1962
 
12
Sarah Siddons
1962
Preserved in working order
13
Dick Whittington
1962
 
14
Benjamin Disraeli
1962
 
15
Wembley 1924
1951
Scrapped following an accident
16
Oliver Goldsmith
1962
Scrapped 1966
17
Florence Nightingale
1943
Scrapped following an accident
18
Michael Faraday
1962
Scrapped 1966
19
John Wycliffe
1948
 
20
Sir Christopher Wren
1954
Scrapped following an accident

Locomotive number 4 collided with a passenger train at Baker Street station, on 18 June 1925, this followed a signal that changed from green to red as the locomotive passed though, this accident injured six people.

Images


An interesting poster featuring a Met Electric Loco

George Romney and Michael Faraday sit in the sun in 1958 awaiting their trips to the smoke.