London Underground D78 Stock

D78 Stock
7032 & 7007 on the last day of D stock operation. The additions on the front were specially added for this event - the one on the left is an old route indicator from the days before the D Stock, and the one on the right is a special design for the last day of the D Stock.
The interior of a District line D78 Stock
In service	28 January 1980 – 21 April 2017
Manufacturer	Metro-Cammell
Built at	Birmingham, England
Replaced	O and P Stock R Stock
Constructed	1978 - 1981
Refurbishment	Bombardier Transportation, Derby Litchurch Lane Works 2004 - 2008
Number built	75 sets (450 cars)
Formation	6 cars per trainset
Capacity	821 per trainset
Line(s) served	District
Specifications
Car length	DM 18.37 m (60 ft 3 in) UNDM/T 18.12 m (59 ft 5 in)
Width	2.85 m (9 ft 4 in)
Height	3.62 m (11 ft 11 in)
Weight	DM 27.46 tonnes (27.03 long tons; 30.27 short tons) UNDM 26.11 tonnes (25.70 long tons; 28.78 short tons) T 18.40 tonnes (18.11 long tons; 20.28 short tons)
Traction system	Pneumatic driven camshaft (GEC Traction)
Traction motors	LT118 DC motor (Brush Traction)
Seating	280 per trainset
Stock type	Subsurface
Notes
London transport portal

The London Underground D78 Stock was a type of sub-surface rolling stock which operated on the District line of the London Underground, except on the Wimbledon to Edgware Road service. Following the withdrawal of the C Stock in June 2014, these were the oldest subsurface trains in service on the London Underground. The first units were withdrawn in January 2015 with the last withdrawn on 21 April 2017.

History

The D stock was ordered in 1976 to replace the pre-war CO/CP Stock and post-war R Stock on the District line.^[1] Seventy-five six-car trains were built by Metro-Cammell, Birmingham, the first entering service on 28 January 1980 with final delivered in 1983.^[2]

Details

D78 stock in pre-refurbishment condition

The D Stock consisted of six-car trains, as opposed to the seven-car trains of CO/CP and R Stock, whose cars were shorter: under normal operation, each train consisted of two 3-car units, and 20 of the units are double-ended to allow 3-car operations under exceptional circumstances.^[3]

The traction motors were the same LT118 type as on 1973 Tube Stock, but the bogies are different. With single-leaf doors and transverse and longitude seating, the style is very similar to 1983 stock on the Jubilee line. The D stock and 1983 stock trains were the only trains on the underground to have their headlights positioned under the train body; many trains on the underground had only their tail lights under the body.

The trains brought many innovations. The rubber coil suspension meant a smoother ride for passengers. The driver's cab is more ergonomic, the seat swiveling to move forwards, backwards, up or down. The dead man's handle is replaced by a joystick that needs to be twisted for the dead man feature, and moved fore and aft for motoring and braking. There is a Train Management System replacing the original Train Equipment Panel that highlights faults to the driver.

The most noticeable difference between the stock and earlier trains is that the doors are single leaf. Originally, passengers pressed door-control buttons to open them. Posters explaining how to operate the doors were put up around Tube stations in English, French and German when the stock was introduced. The stock had a "POGO" switch (Passenger open/Guard's open) that could switch control of the doors from passengers to the guard (when the stock was introduced, the guard controlled the doors from the rear cab).

While this function proved useful at above-ground stations and termini (especially in winter), station dwell time was significantly increased, and passengers had trouble getting used to the new system, not knowing how to open the door. By the late 1990s, the control of the doors went to the driver, but the buttons remained until they were removed on refurbishment between 2004 and 2008.

At over 18 metres (59 ft), the cars were the longest on the Underground. The windows had to be modified because of overheating when new, with pull-down opening windows installed in each car.

Usage

The stock was used on the District line, except the High Street Kensington to Edgware Road section, because the platforms are not long enough.

Between April 1985 and May 1987, the stock operated the East London line service in three-car formations, there being enough stock spare because of reduced services on the District line. This allowed A60/62 Stock to be sent for One Person Operation (OPO) conversion. The A60/62 stock took over the service again in 1987.

The stock started being replaced by S Stock in 2016.^[4] It was replaced about 15 years short of its intended lifespan, as a consistent new fleet will allow for frequencies to be increased and will reduce maintenance costs.

In July 2011, Harrogate Chamber of Commerce proposed to use the stock on the Harrogate line from York to Leeds via Harrogate to increase capacity.^[5] Stations in the Harrogate and Leeds urban areas are close together; the superior acceleration of the stock over the Class 150 diesel multiple units currently used is intended to cut journey times. It was proposed, the line would be electrified with third rail similar to the Docklands Light Railway, as opposed to the London Underground or the Southern region network.

On 24 July 2012, car 7007 was designated as the Olympic 2012 Train with London Underground Chief Operating Officer Howard Collins carrying the Olympic Torch from Wimbledon to Wimbledon Park.^[6] This is the only London Underground train to be an Olympic Torch train.

Roster

Formation	← Ealing Broadway/Richmond/Wimbledon (A) Upminster (D) →							Notes
	7xxx (DM)	17xxx (T)	8xxx (UNDM)		8xxx (UNDM)	17xxx (T)	7xxx (DM)
Facilities
Numbers	7000 ∥ 7128	17000 ∥ 17128	8000 ∥ 8128		8001 ∥ 8129	17001 ∥ 17129	7001 ∥ 7129	17035 and 17077 exchanged numbers in 1994.

Formation	← (A) (D) →
	75xx (DM)	175xx (T)	75xx (DM)
Facilities
Numbers	7500 ∥ 7538	17500 ∥ 17538	7501 ∥ 7539

• - Wheelchair space
• DM - Driving Motor car
• T - Trailer (non-powered) car
• UNDM - Uncoupling Non-Driving Motor car

De-icing equipment was fitted to trailers 17000 to 17048 (evens).

Refurbishment

Interior before refurbishment

Prototype interior refurbishment

Interior after refurbishment

The exterior of a newly refurbished train at Ealing Common Depot

The mid-life refurbishment was the first to be carried out under the PPP, by Metronet, and was delayed until contract negotiations were completed. A prototype unit of three cars (7008/17008/8008) was prepared by London Underground's Train Modification Unit at Acton Depot in 2001.^[7][8] This had some detail differences from the eventual refurbishment, and was later brought up to the standard of the rest of the stock. The refurbishment programme began in summer 2005 with the work undertaken by Bombardier Transportation's, Derby Litchurch Lane Works.^[9][10] The programme was completed in 2008.^[11]

The refurbishment consisted of:

• applying London Underground livery with anti-vandal paint and window film
• restyling the interiors in green and white
• replacing maple flooring with rubber
• adding end-of-car windows
• replacing hanging straps (bobbles on springs) with grab bars
• covering the door buttons
• adding dot matrix indicators showing the station and destination on the inside and exterior front and sides
• adding an audio passenger information system guided by GPS and odometer, voiced by Emma Clarke: announcements for each station name include connecting lines, and provide warnings to "mind the gap between the train and the platform"
• adding two tip-up seats/disabled multi purpose area
• fitting air conditioning to driver's cab
• fitting CCTV

The refurbished D Stock were the first Underground trains to have electronic dot-matrix information displays on the sides of the cars; some pre-war trains had slot-in or reversible destination or non-stopping plates.

Withdrawal

The D Stock and its replacement, the S7 Stock, at Ealing Broadway on the final day of D Stock operation.

D78 Stock at Ealing Common Depot on 7 May 2017.

Withdrawals commenced on 19 January 2015 when the first full 6-car train, formed of units 7510 and 7058, was withdrawn from service at Ealing Common Depot and loaded onto trucks for Long Marston for the driving motors to be converted into 230s and the other cars to be either scrapped or stored for future use. The last train, formed of units 7007 and 7032, ran on 21 April 2017.^[12]

A farewell heritage tour took place on 7 May 2017 operated by units 7007+7032.^[13]

In February 2016, four redundant D78 cars were used by the emergency services in a mock tube accident staged at Littlebrook Power Station.^[14]

Heavy-rail diesel-electric conversion

A Vivarail converted unit, designated under TOPS as British Rail Class 230

In 2014, Vivarail purchased 156 Driving Motor cars and 70 trailing vehicles for conversion to diesel-electric multiple units.^[15] It is proposed to run 75 units of two or three cars per unit.^[16][17] They will become known as class 230 under TOPS.^[18]

A prototype was produced for testing and accreditation in August 2015, with introduction to service in 2016.^[19] The first Class 230 service to carry passengers operate on 19 July 2017 when a unit is used to operate a shuttle service from Honeybourne to the Rail Live exhibition at the Quinton Rail Technology Centre.^[20]

The first customer for production Class 230 units was West Midlands Trains, which ordered three 2-car DMUs in October 2017. Subsequently, Transport for Wales ordered a total of five 3-car sets, to be built as BMMUs, in June 2018.^[21][22]

References

Sources

• Connor, Piers (March 2015). D Stock to D-Train. Underground News. London Underground Railway Society. pp. 142–144. ISSN 0306-8617.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to London Underground D78 Stock.

• D Stock Tubeprune
• Vivarail