Metropolitan Railway

This article is about the history of what became the Metropolitan line and Hammersmith & City line. For the history of what became the District line, see Metropolitan District Railway.

Map of Metro-land in 1924

The Metropolitan Railway was the first underground railway to be built in London, in 1863 opening a line between Paddington and Farringdon Street. Opened with steam locomotives and gas-lit wooden carriages, the line was built to connect the capital's main line railway termini; today the tunnels and stations form part of London Underground's Metropolitan line and Hammersmith & City line.

After forming part of the 'inner circle' (today's Circle line), the railway began to build a railway out to the suburbs from Baker Street, reaching Harrow in 1880, and eventually out as far as Verney Junction, over 50 miles (80 kilometres) from Baker Street and the centre of London. The railway started to electrify its routes from 1905. It used electric multiple units on the electrified routes in London, but to serve stations on the unelectrified outer lines coaches would be hauled out of London by an electric locomotive which was changed for a steam locomotive en route. After World War I, the "Metro-land" name promoted the new estates being built near the railway. On 1 July 1933 the Metropolitan amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators to form the London Passenger Transport Board.

History

Paddington to the City, 1853–63

The railway as it opened in 1863

The first railways to be built in the United Kingdom were constructed in the early 19th century and by 1850 there were seven railway termini located in the London area at London Bridge, Euston, Paddington, King's Cross, Shoreditch, Waterloo and Fenchurch Street. Railways were banned by a Parliamentary commission from operating in London itself and only the station at Fenchurch Street was located within the City of London. London had also seen a large increase in road traffic congestion in this period, partly because people travelling to London by rail had to complete their journeys into the city centre by cab or omnibus. The concept of an underground railway linking the City of London with the mainline termini had first been proposed in the 1830s. Charles Pearson, Solicitor to the City of London, was a leading promoter of several schemes and helped set up the City Terminus Company in 1852 to build such a railway, but neither Parliament nor the City of London Corporation was willing to fund it. However, the Bayswater, Paddington and Holborn Bridge Railway Company was more successful and in January 1853 it held its first directors' meeting and appointed John Fowler as its engineer.

Construction of the Metropolitan Railway close to King's Cross station in 1861

Parliamentary approval for a "North Metropolitan Railway" from Paddington to King's Cross was secured in the summer of 1853. The City Terminus Company with plans for a railway from King's Cross to Farringdon Street was bought and an agreement reached with the Great Western Railway (GWR) whereby they would help fund the scheme provided that a junction was created at its Paddington terminus. In 1854 the construction of the "Metropolitan Railway" between Paddington and Farringdon via King's Cross was approved.

Despite concerns about vibrations causing subsidence of nearby buildings, the problems of compensating thousands of people whose homes were destroyed during the digging of the tunnel, and fears that the tunnelling might accidentally break through into Hell, construction began in 1860 by which time Pearson had persuaded the City of London Corporation to give money to the project. The new railway was built using the "cut-and-cover" method beneath the New Road from Paddington to King's Cross and then followed the culverted River Fleet beside Farringdon Road in tunnel and cuttings to the new meat market at Smithfield. After a trial trip on 24 May 1862, the Fleet burst into the diggings and flooded the partially built tunnels. Eventually, the 3.75 miles (6 km) railway opened to the public on 10 January 1863. However, Pearson did not live to see the completion of the project, dying in September 1862.

The original timetable allowed 18 minutes for the five intermediate stations. Off peak service frequency was one train every fifteen minutes, increased to every ten minutes during the morning peak, and reduced to every twenty minutes early mornings and after 8pm. In the first twelve months 9.5 million passengers were carried.

Initially the railway was worked using GWR broad-gauge rolling stock, using their Metropolitan Class steam locomotives. However, soon after opening disagreements over increasing the service frequency meant that GWR withdrew its stock in August 1863. The Metropolitan continued with temporary assistance from the Great Northern Railway using standard gauge rolling stock, before purchasing its own standard gauge rolling stock and locomotives.

Completing the Inner Circle, 1864–84

A junction with the Great Northern Railway (GNR) opened at King's Cross in October 1863. Extension east had already been planned and Moorgate Street opened on 23 December 1865. The City Widened Lines project, completed in 1868, built quadruple track from King's Cross to Moorgate. This allowed other railway companies to offer a through service across London or into the city; services from the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) via Blackfriars to the GNR ran from 1866 to 1908. Midland Railways ran a service through to Moorgate from 1868, before its St Pancras terminus opened and the LC&DR also ran from the south through to Moorgate from 1871 to 1916.

The Metropolitan Railway in 1870. In that year the railway also ran trains from Baker Street to Swiss Cottage over the single track Metropolitan and St John's Wood Railway, and ran trains over the District Railway from South Kensington to Blackfriars and Gloucester Road to West Brompton

In 1864 Hammersmith was reached when the Hammersmith and City Railway Company opened a line from Paddington (Bishop's Road). The GWR initially worked a through service to Farringdon, the Metropolitan taking over operations with joint stock the following year. On 1 July 1864 a curve from Latimer Road to Uxbridge Road on the West London Railway was opened.

In 1863 a select committee report recommended an 'inner circle' of railway lines connecting the London termini that had been built or under construction. In the next year the Metropolitan District Railway (commonly known as the District railway) was formed to build and operate a railway from South Kensington to Tower Hill. The Metropolitan western extension opened in 1868 from a new station at Paddington to South Kensington. By May 1870 the District railway had opened its line from West Brompton to Blackfriars via Gloucester Road and South Kensington, services being operated at first by the Metropolitan. There was a physical connection between the two systems at South Kensington, between South Kensington and Gloucester Road each company operated on its own pair of tracks. However, there were delays before the inner circle was completed. It was 12 July 1875 before Bishopsgate (now Liverpool Street) was reached and on 18 November 1876 a terminus at Aldgate opened. Due to conflict between the District and Metropolitan railways the inner circle was not completed until 1884.

An extension to Richmond was opened on 1 October 1877 over the lines of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) via a their station at Hammersmith (Grove Road). The District had opened its own service to Richmond using a connection to the L&SWR tracks from its own Hammersmith station in June 1877. The Metropolitan ended its service to Richmond on 31 December 1906.

A link to the East London Railway at Whitechapel opened in 1884 and the Metropolitan ran a through service from Hammersmith to South Eastern Railway's station at New Cross until 1906 when this service terminated at Whitechapel. After the East London Railway was electrified in 1913 with the agreement that the District would provide the power and the Met the train service, through services restarted, the Met also running a New Cross to Shoreditch shuttle.

Extension Line 1868–99

Metropolitan Railway Extension Line

Legend Railway transferred to LPTB in 1933 To Hammersmith & City Line Baker Street Regent's Canal St Johns Wood Marlborough Road Swiss Cottage to Marylebone Finchley Road West Hampstead Kilburn & Brondesbury Willesden Green Dollis Hill Neasden Wembley Park Stanmore branch Kingsbury Canons Park Stanmore Preston Road Northwick Park Harrow-on-the-Hill Uxbridge branch West Harrow to South Harrow(District Railway) Rayners Lane Eastcote Ruislip Manor Ruislip Ickenham Hillingdon Uxbridge depot Uxbridge North Harrow Pinner Northwood Hills Northwood Moor Park & Sandy Lodge Watford Curve Croxley Green Watford Rickmansworth Chorley Wood & Chenies Chalfont & Latimer Chesham Amersham & Chesham Bois Great Missenden Wendover Stoke Mandeville to Princes Risborough Aylesbury Waddesdon Quainton Road Great Central Main Line Brill branch Waddesdon Road Westcott Wotton Wood Siding Brill Granborough Road Winslow Road Verney Junction

The Metropolitan & St. John’s Wood Railway (M&SJWR) opened a single track railway in tunnels with new platforms at Baker Street (called Baker Street East) to Swiss Cottage in April 1868. There were two intermediate stations with passing loops, and the line was worked by the Metropolitan with a service every twenty minutes. A junction was built with the Circle line at Baker Street, but there were no through trains after 1869. As passenger numbers were low the M&SJWR was looking to extending the line to generate new traffic. At the same time the Metropolitan was considering building lines in the countryside outside of London where the cost of construction would be lower and fares higher, as well feeding traffic into the Circle line.

Meanwhile in 1868 in Buckinghamshire the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (A&BR), run by the Duke of Buckingham, had opened a 12¾-mile (20.5 km) line from Aylesbury to a new station at Verney Junction on the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) Bletchley-Oxford line. At the beginning the LNWR had given lukewarm support, but by the time the line at been built the relationship between the two companies had collapsed. However the Wycombe Railway built a single track railway from Princes Risborough to Aylesbury and when the Great Western Railway took over this company they ran services from Princes Risborough through Aylesbury to Quainton Road and Quainton Road to Verney Junction.

In 1872 Edward Watkin was appointed Chairman of the Metropolitan. He was an experienced railway man and already on the board of several railway companies. The Metropolitan looked at the M&SJWR plans to reach the green fields at Neasden, and as the nearest place was Harrow which was 3½ miles (5.5 km) further it was decided to build a line to there. The service between Harrow and Baker Street began in 1880, and two years later the Baker Street to Swiss Cottage tunnels were doubled and the M&SJWR absorbed by the Metropolitan. The Metropolitan moved their carriage works from Edgware Road out to green fields of Neasdon.

Watkin planned to go further, had joined the board of the A&BR and a bill for the building of the line from Harrow to Aylesbury was passed in 1881. Pinner was reached in 1885, Rickmansworth in 1887. By then raising money was becoming very difficult; however there was local support for a station at Chesham and it opened in 1889. Aylesbury was reached in 1892, with a temporary station south of the town, turning the Chesham route into a branch line. In 1894 the GW&Met joint station at Aylesbury opened.

From Quainton Road station the Duke of Buckingham had also built a 6½-mile (10 km) branch railway, the Brill Tramway. In 1899 there were four services a day (mixed passenger and goods) each way. There were suggestions of the Metropolitan buying the line, and they took over operations in November 1899.

Around 1900 there were six stopping trains an hour between Willesden Green and Baker Street. One of these came from Rickmansworth and another Harrow, the rest started at Willesden. There was also a train every two hours from Verney Junction, which stopped at all stations to Harrow, then Willesden and Baker Street. The timetable was arranged so that the fast train would leave Willesden Green just before a stopping service and arrived at Baker Steet just behind the previous service.

Watkin was also director of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and had plans for a 99-mile (159 km) London extension to join the Metropolitan just north of Aylesbury. The were suggestions that Baker Street could be used as the London terminus, but by 1891–2 the MS&LR had concluded they needed their own station in the Marylebone area. A bill for this railway was passed in 1893, however Watkin became ill and resigned his directorships in 1894. There was disagreement about how to run MS&LR's express trains with the Metropolitan's stopping service, and the Metropolitan eventually agreed to accommodate the extra traffic by quadrupling the tracks from Finchley Road to a junction south of Harrow station, the new pair of tracks being leased to the GCR and the Metropolitan section from Harrow to Verney Junction leased to a Joint Committee of the Metropolitan and GCR, to be worked for five years alternately by the joint lessees.

The MS&LR changed its name to the Great Central Railway in 1897 and the Great Central Main Line from London to Manchester opened for passenger traffic on 15 March 1899.

Electrification 1900–15

At the start of the 20th century District and Metropolitan were seeing increased competition in central London from the new Underground Electric Railways of London (UERL) tube lines and the use of buses. The use of steam underground lead to smoke filled stations and carriages which was unpopular with passengers and conversion to electric traction was seen as the way forward. Electrification had been considered by the Metropolitan as early as the 1880s, but such a method of traction was still in its infancy, and agreement would be needed with the District because of the shared ownership of the Inner Circle. Experiments were carried out on the Earl's Court to High Street Kensington section, and a jointly-owned train of six coaches began passenger service in 1900. As a result of those tests a Metropolitan/District committee in 1901 recommended overhead AC traction on the Ganz three-phase system. This was accepted by both parties until the American led UERL took control of the District. The group was led by Charles Yerkes, whose experience in the United States led him to favour DC, with third-rail pickup similar to that in use on the City & South London Railway and Central London Railway. After arbitration by the Board of Trade the DC system was taken up and the railways began electrifying the routes, using multiple-unit stock and electric locomotives hauling carriages. The Metropolitan opened a 10.5 MW coal-fired power station in 1904 at Neasden that supplied 11kV 33.3Hz to five substations, which converted this to approximately 600V d.c. using rotary convertors.

A new line was being built westwards from Harrow to Uxbridge and it was decided that this and the railway from Baker Street to Harrow would be electrified, together with the circle line and the joint GWR and Met Hammersmith and City service. The Uxbridge line opened in July 1904 and was worked by steam until 1 January 1905 when the first electric multiple units ran. The inner circle service was electrified in 1905, and the Hammersmith and City line on 5 November 1906. In 1906 the Metropolitan suspended running on the East London Railway until that line was electrified in 1913. The Hammersmith and City service stopped running to Richmond over the tracks over the LSWR on 31 December 1906.

The line beyond Harrow was not electrified so services were hauled by an electric locomotive at the Baker Street end and this was changed for a steam locomotive en route. From 1 January 1907 electric locomotives were changed for steam locomotives at Wembley Park on all trains, and from 19 July 1908 locomotives were changed at Harrow. Great Western Railway rush hour services to the city continued to operate, electric traction taking over from steam at Paddington.

In 1908 Robert Selbie was appointed General Manager, a position he was to hold until 1930. In 1909 limited through services from the extension line were re-started and Baker Street station was rebuilt with four tracks and two island platforms in 1912. To cope with the rise in traffic the Met was seeting the line south of Harrow was quadrupled, first in 1913 from Finchley Road to Kilburn, then in 1915 to Wembley Park. However, the track through the tunnels from Finchley Road to Baker Street remained single track in each direction, causing a bottleneck.

Great Northern & City Railway

The Great Northern & City Railway was planned to allow trains to run from the Great Northern Railway line at Finsbury Park directly into the City of London at Moorgate. The tunnels were built large enough to take a mainline train with an internal diameter of 16 feet (4.9 m), compared with those of the Central London Railway which had been built with a diameter less than 12 feet (3.7 m). However, the Great Northern eventually opposed the scheme, and the line opened in 1904 with the northern terminus in tunnels underneath the mainline Finsbury Park station.

On 1 July 1913 the Metropolitan Railway bought the Great Northern and City Railway with plans to link it to the Circle line or to the Waterloo & City line, but these never came to fruition.

"Metro-land", 1915–32

In 1915 the term Metro-land was coined by the Met's marketing department when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide, priced at 1d. This guide extolled the benefits of "The good air of the Chilterns", opined "Each lover of Metroland may well have his own favourite wood beech and coppice — all tremulous green loveliness in Spring and russet and gold in October" and contained advertisements for local property developers selling houses, with focus on houses built on the Met's own surplus land. Shortly after World War I estates were being laid out (at Neasden, Wembley Park, Pinner and Rickmansworth), and places such as Harrow Garden Village came into existence. John Betjeman was a follower of this form of suburbia and made a television documentary called Metro-land in 1973.

In 1920 the powerful H Class steam locomotives were introduced for outer passenger trains, capable of speeds of up to 75 miles per hour (121 km/h).

On 5 January 1925 electric services reached Rickmansworth, allowing the locomotive change over point to be moved. Later that year a branch from Moor Park to Watford built with the London & North Eastern Railway opened with electric services on 4 November 1925. Services were increasing so in 1924–5 the flat junction north of Harrow was replaced with a 1,200 feet (370 m) long flyunder to separate Uxbridge branch and main line trains, and the lines were quadrupled from Wembley Park to Harrow in 1932.

In the 1920s off-peak there was a train every 4–5 minutes from Wembley Park to Baker Street. There were generally two services per hour from both Watford and Uxbridge that ran non-stop from Wembley Park and stopping services started from Rayners Lane, Wembley Park and Neasden, although most did not stop at Marlborough Road and St John's Wood Road. Off peak stations north of Moor Park were generally served by Marylebone trains. During the peak trains approached Baker Street every 2½–3 minutes, half running through to Moorgate, Liverpool Street or Aldgate.

On 10 December 1932 the branch from Wembley Park to Stanmore opened with electric services.

London Passenger Transport Board, 1933

The Railways Act 1921, which became law on 19 August 1921, did not list any of London's Underground railways among the other companies which were to be grouped; although at the draft stage the Metropolitan had been included. The Metropolitan Railway amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators to form the London Passenger Transport Board on 1 July 1933, becoming the Metropolitan line of London Underground. The New Works Programme followed, with the extension of the Bakerloo line from Baker Street in a new tunnel and stations to Finchley Road then taking over the intermediate stations to Wembley Park and the Stanmore branch. However, some outlying lines closed; the Brill branch closed in 1935, followed by the line from Quainton Road to Verney Junction from 1936. The LNER took over steam workings and freight. The lines became the Metropolitan line, Hammersmith and City line and the East London line and the Great Northern and City Railway became an isolated section of the Northern line until being taken over by British Railways in 1961.

Freight

Freight traffic was an important part of Metropolitan Railway traffic on the extension line out of Baker Street. Goods and coal depots where opened at Finchley Road, Neasdon, Wembley Park and Willesden. Goods for London was initially handled at Willesden, with forward transfer by road, until 1909 when Vine Street goods depot, near Farringdon, opened with two sidings with a regular service from Finchley Road depot. Trains were restricted to fourteen wagons and were normally electrically hauled. There was a connection with the Midland Railway at Finchley Road, and the London and North Western Railway at Verney Junction. Initially private contractors were used for onward road transport, but from 1919 the Met employed their own hauliers. Coal for the steam locomotives and the company's electric power station at Neasden were brought in via Quainton Road. In 1932, before it became part of London Underground the company owned 544 good vehicles and carried 162,764 long tons (165,376 t) of coal, 2,478,212 long tons (2,517,980 t) of materials and 1,015,501 long tons (1,031,797 t) tons of goods.

Rolling Stock

Steam locomotives

See also: London Underground rolling stock#Metropolitan Railway

Metropolitan Railway steam locomotive number 23, one of only two surviving locomotives, is displayed at London Transport Museum

Concern about smoke and steam in the tunnels led to new designs of locomotive. Before the line opened in 1861 trials were made with the experimental "hot brick" locomotive nicknamed Fowler's Ghost. This was unsuccessful and the first public trains were hauled by broad gauge GWR Metropolitan Class condensing 2-4-0 tank engines designed by Daniel Gooch. They were followed by standard gauge Great Northern Railway locomotives and then by the Metropolitan Railway's own standard gauge locomotives. The locomotives were all tank engines and where classified by letters of the alphabet. Initially eighteen A Class (4-4-0) were ordered in 1864 and these given names. By 1870 a total of forty-four had been built and in 1885 an improved version was ordered and twenty-two B Class where built.

From 1891 more locomotives were needed for work on the Extension line from Baker Street into the country. Four C Class (0-4-4) were received in 1891, six D Class (2-4-0) in 1894, and from 1896 to 1901 seven E Class (0-4-4) locomotives. Also in 1901 the Met received four F Class (0-6-2), a freight variant of the E Class. Not all these new locomotives were fitted with the condensing equipment needed to work south of Finchley Road.

The need for more powerful engines meant in 1915 four G Class (0-6-4) arrived and named after people or places associated with the Metropolitan Railway. Eight 75 mph (121 km/h) capable H Class (4-4-4) were built in 1920 for express passenger services. Finally in 1925 six freight K Class (2-6-4) locomotives arrived. These were out of gauge south of Finchley Road.

Two locomotives survive, one A Class No. 23 (LT L45) at the London Transport Museum, and E Class No. 1 (LT L44) is preserved at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.

Railway carriages

The Metropolitan Railway opened with borrowed stock, first from the GWR and then Great Northern Railway. The GWR provided eight-wheeled compartment carriages constructed from teak. By 1864 the Metropolitan had taken delivery of its own stock, made by the Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company Ltd based on the GWR design but standard gauge. Lighting was provided by gas — two jets in first class compartments and one in second and third class compartments. Initially they were braked by a handbrake in the guard's compartment at the front and back of the train, to be replaced in 1869 by a chain which operated brakes on all carriages. This could be abrupt and some passengers were injured so automatic vacuum brake was adopted in 1875. In the 1890s a mechanical 'next station' indicator was trialled on circle line services in some carriages, triggered by a wood flap between the tracks. It was considered unreliable and not approved for full installation.

No 368 bogie stock built by Ashburys in 1898, as restored at the Bluebell Railway

In 1870 some rigid-wheelbase four-wheelers, close coupled in pairs, were made by Oldburys. After some derailments in 1887 a new design of 27 feet 6 inches (8.38 m) long rigid-wheelbase four-wheelers known as Jubilee Stock was built by Cravens for the extension line. Fitted with a pressurised gas lighting system and vacuum brakes from new, steam heating was added later. More trains followed in 1892, although all had been withdrawn by 1912.

Bogie stock was made by Ashbury's in 1898 and by Metropolitan's own Neasden Works and Cravens in 1900 giving a better ride quality, steam heating, vacuum brake,, electric lighting and upholstered seating in all classes. The Bluebell Railway has four of these 1898-1900 Ashbury and Cravens carriages, and a fifth, built at Neasden, is at the London Transport Museum.

Competition with the Great Central Railway on outer suburban services on the extension line saw the introduction of the more comfortable Dreadnought carriages from 1910. A total of 92 of these wooden compartment carriages were built. Built with steam heating, the pressurised gas lighting was replaced with electric lighting in 1918. The Vintage Carriages Trust has three preserved examples. Two Pullman cars provided a buffet service to first class passengers.

From 1906 some of the Ashbury bogie stock was converted into electric multiple units by fitting cabs and control equipment. Some Dreadnought carriages were used with electric motor cars, although two-thirds remained in use as locomotive hauled stock on the extension line.

Electric Locomotives

Electric locomotive and train on the Metropolitan Railway in the 1920s

See also: London Underground electric locomotives#Metropolitan Railway

After electrification the outer suburban routes were worked with conventional carriage stock hauled by an electric locomotive at the Baker Street end that was exchanged for a steam locomotive en route. The Metropolitan Railway ordered twenty electric locomotives from Metropolitan Amalgamated with different electrical equipment. The first were built with Westinghouse electrical equipment and entered service in 1906. These 'camelback' bogie locomotives featured a central cab, weighed 50 tons, and had four 215 hp (160 kW) traction motors The second type were built to a box car design with British Thompson Houston equipment, which was replaced with the Westinghouse type in 1919.

In the early 1920s, the Metropolitan placed an order with Metropolitan Vickers of Barrow-in-Furness for rebuilding the twenty electric locomotives. When work started on the first locomotive, it was found to be impractical and uneconomical and the order was changed to building completely new locomotives using some equipment recovered from the originals. The new locomotives were built in 1922-1923, and named after famous London residents. They had four 330 hp (250 kW) motors, totalling 1,200 hp (890 kW) which gave a top speed of 65 mph (105 km/h).

Electric Multiple Units

Metropolitan Amalgamated built the original electric multiple units with Westinghouse electric equipment. The first order was placed in 1902 for 50 trailers and 20 motor cars to be followed in 1904 with a contract for 36 motor cars and 62 trailers which had an option for a further 20 motor cars and 40 trailers. The motor cars had four 150 hp (110 kW) motors, and they entered service as 6-car units with two motor cars or ran off-peak as 3-car units with a motor car and a driving trailer. Problems with the Westinghouse equipment (BWE) meant when the option was taken up Thomson-Houston equipment (BTH) was specified, similar to a batch of 20 x 6-car units which had entered service on the Hammersmith & City line in 1906. Instead of the GE76 150 hp motors used on the Hammersmith & City joint stock, 200 hp (150 kW) GE69 motors were fitted. Up to 1918 these motor cars with the more powerful GE69 engines were used on the Circle line with three trailers. The vehicles were built as open saloons with access at the ends via open gates. The open ends were seen as a problem when working in the open and the cars modified with vestibules from 1906. Having only two end doors became a problem on the busy Circle line and centre sliding doors were fitted from 1911.

From 1906 some of the Ashbury bogie stock was converted into multiple units by fitting cabs and control equipment.

In 1910 two motor cars were modified with driving cabs at both ends. One had 150 BWE equipment and the other 150 BTH, and they started work on the Uxbridge shuttle service, before being transferred to the Addison Road shuttle in 1918. From 1925 to 1934 these vehicles worked between Watford and Rickmansworth.

In 1913 an order was placed for 23 motor cars and 20 trailers, saloons with sliding doors at the end and the middle. These started work on the Circle line, including the new electric service to New Cross via the East London Railway. Thirteen motor cars had BWE equipment and ten BTH with GE69 motors. Later in 1921, 20 motor cars, 33 trailers and 6 first class driving trailers were received with three pairs of double sliding doors down both sides, and introduced on the Circle line.

T stock multiple unit at Neasden

In 1927-33 multiple unit compartment stock was built in batches by Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon and Birmingham Carriage and Wagon to be used on electric services from Baker Street and the City to Watford and Rickmansworth. The first order was only for motor cars; half had Westinghouse brakes, Metro-Vickers control systems and four MV153 motors; they replaced the motor cars working with bogie stock trailers. The rest of the motor cars had the same motor equipment but used vacuum brakes instead, and worked with converted Dreadnoughts of the 1920/23 batches to form 'MV' units. In 1929 'MW' stock was ordered, 30 motor coaches and 25 trailers similar to the 'MV' units, but with Westinghouse brakes. A further batch of 'MW' stock was ordered in 1931, this time from Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company. This was to make 7 x 8-coach trains, and included additional trailers to increase the previous 'MW' batch to 8-coaches. These had GEC WT545 motors, and although designed to work in multiple with the MV153, this did not work well in practice. After the Metropolitan Railway became part of London Underground, the MV stock was fitted with Westinghouse brakes and the cars with GEC engines regeared to allow these to work in multiple with the MV153 engined cars. In 1938 9 x 8-coach and 10 x 6-coach MW units were redesignated London Underground T Stock. The Spa Valley Railway is home to two T-Stock carriages.

Bibliography

• Benest, K.R. (1984) [1963]. Metropolitan Electric Locomotives (2nd ed.). Hemel Hempstead: London Underground Railway Society. 
• Bruce, J Graeme (1983). Steam to Silver. Capital Transport. 
• Day, John R. (1979) [1963]. The Story of London's Underground (6th ed.). Westminster: London Transport. ISBN 0-85329-094-6. 1178/211RP/5M(A). 
• Edwards, Dennis; Pigram, Ron (1988). The Golden Years of the Metropolitan Railway. Bloomsbury Books. 
• Foxell, Clive (1996). Chesham Shuttle (2 ed.). Chesham: Clive Foxell. ISBN 0952918404. 
• Green, Oliver (1987). The London Underground — An illustrated history. Ian Allan. 
• Halliday, Stephen (2001). Underground to Everywhere. Stroud: Sutton Publishing. 
• Horne, Mike (2003). The Metropolitan Line. Capital Transport. 
• Rose, Douglas (December 2007) [1980]. The London Underground: A Diagrammatic History (8th ed.). Harrow Weald: Capital Transport. ISBN 978-1-85414-315-0. 
• Rowley, Trevor (2006). The English landscape in the twentieth century. Hambledon Continuum. 
• Walford, Edward (1878). New and Old London: Volume 5. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45233. 
• Wolmar, Christian (2004). The Subterranean Railway : how the London Underground was built and how it changed the city forever. Atlantic. 
• Railway Clerks' Association (1922). The Reorganisation of British Railways: The Railways Act, 1921 (3rd ed.). London: Gray's Inn Press. 

Further reading

• Foxell, Clive (2010). The Metropolitan Line. History Press. ISBN 978-0-7524-5396-5. 
• Simpson, Bill (2003). A History of the Metropolitan Railway. 1. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 189924607X. 
• Simpson, Bill (2004). A History of the Metropolitan Railway. 2. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 1899246088. 
• Simpson, Bill (2005). A History of the Metropolitan Railway. 3. Witney: Lamplight Publications. ISBN 1899246134. 

External links

• London Transport Museum - silent film A trip on the Metropolitan Railway, circa 1910
• Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides, Metropolitan Line