London Underground R Stock
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| R Stock | |
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| Manufacturer | |
| In Service | 1938-1983 |
| Stock Type | Deep-level tube |
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The R38, R47, R49, and R59 Stock cars were built for the District Line in 1938, 1949, 1952 and 1959.
Having been designed with such conversion in mind, the R38 cars were rebuilt from Q38 stock trailers in 1950, whilst the R47, R49, and R59 cars were built new. The R49 cars were the first built for London Underground with what for many years became the traditional unpainted aluminium finish, with the first train entering service on 10th March 1952. The R59 cars were built similarly. The R38 and R47 cars were built to a traditional steel bodied design.
R Stock trains comprised of driving motors (DM) and non-driving motors (NDM). There were no unpowered trailers.
Although visually similar the R Stock trains included some notable differences from the O, P and London Underground Q38 Stock|Q38 Stock]] trains. These included external 'door open' indicator lights, roller destination blinds, fluorescent lighting and a modified way of displaying the internal advertisements and District Line route maps.
One of the most noticeable design differences between the R38 Stock and the rest of the R Stock fleet was that the R38 cars featured four small windows in the central saloon between the double doors, whereas the R47, R49, and R59 cars featured just two larger windows in the same location.
All R Stock cars seated 40 passengers, however whilst the R38 cars featured two sets of transverse seats in the centre bay, the rest of the fleet featured just one set of transverse seats, and more longitudinal seating.
Initially the R Stock trains were painted red, to match the O, P and Q38 Stock trains, and as during the day the trains were regularly reformed between 6 and 8 cars (for peak / off-peak services) so it became normal to see trains of mixed red and silver formation. In 1963 the decision was taken to paint all the red R Stock trains to match the unpainted aluminium cars, a process which was completed in 1968. Uncoupling was abandoned on the District Line in 1971, after which trains were reformed to become 7 cars in length at all times.
In 1962/3 one train of R stock featured in early trials of automatically driven trains, prior to the larger scale trials on the Hainault - Woodford section of the Central Line which preceded the full scale use on the Victoria Line. These trials involved the one eastbound District Line train travelling in automatic mode between Stamford Brook and Ravenscourt Park stations.
The final units were withdrawn in 1983, after they were replaced by the new D78 Stock.
Three vehicles have been preserved.
- R38 DM no. 22624 - Mangapps Railway Museum
- R49 DM no. 21147 - Walthamstow Pump House Museum
- R49 DM no. 22679 - London Transport Museum, Acton
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