20/12/2017

Picture Archive Post 66

London General ELS13 on Route 42, Aldgate, 08/07/2015
London General ELS13 on Route 42, Aldgate, 08/07/2015
(© Aubrey)

ELS13 is a Scania N94UB/East Lancs OmniTown ordered in early 2002 for the 42 by Durham Travel Services (London Easylink). For most of its life so far, it has been on the 42. This route was gained from Connex/Limebourne back in January 2002. Only a few months later, London Easylink went into liquidation, so Transport for London took over the work of London Easylink as East Thames Buses on 21st August 2002. Once the impounded buses were taken over by TfL as East Thames Buses, these buses stayed with ETB initially at Ash Grove Garage (AG). With the 2005 opening of Mandela Way (MA), the bus and route moved there. Go-Ahead purchased East Thames Buses in 2009, thus the bus and route moved to GAL. These buses gained skirts, just as most other buses were losing theirs. This bus ran on the 42 until 23rd December 2015. Afterwards, the bus was sold on to Trustybus (Galleon Travel) near Harlow. Now, as TB VFM (HXZ9926), this bus runs on Trustybus routes in and around Harlow.

Route 42 itself started out as a cross-London trunk route, running at maximum length from Turnpike Lane to Camberwell Green in the 1930s. Shortened to Aldgate-Camberwell Green from Old Kent Road and Camberwell garages in 1939 due to WWII, the route mainly stuck to the same routing until 1994. From 1951 until 1985, the 42 was with Camberwell Garage. Extensions to Herne Hill and Norwood Garage on Sundays and garage journeys happened in the 1950s, until 1966. RTLs ran on the route from 1951-1966, before being replaced with RTs. To convert the route to OPO, the bus route was converted to single decker with MBs (AEC Merlin), before re-conversion back to double decker with the DMS (Daimler Fleetline) in 1973. 1979 saw a re-conversion back to single decker with the SMS (AEC Swift), lasting less than a year before returning to DMSs. Leyland Titans (T) ran the route between 1980 and 1987, before the first part of privatisation of LT took place, with initial tenders of bus routes coming out in 1987.
London Country South East (formerly NBC London Country, ironically stemmed from the LT country division) won the 42 on tender with Leyland Nationals at a base initially at Catford. The base then moved to Victoria (Battersea Coach Park) in 1987 and Bricklayers Arms in 1989. LCSE was re-branded as Kentish Bus in 1987, and thus the route was operated by Kentish Bus. 1990 saw the route gradually move to Leyton, and gain Leyland Olympian operation on weekends. A full move to Leyton in December 1990 saw the route convert to MCW Metroriders. The route was extended in 1994 to Liverpool Street Station, and new Dennis Dart/Northern Counties Paladin buses were introduced in 1994. April 1997 saw the route move to Limebourne, from Battersea (QB). New Dennis Dart SLF/Plaxton Pointer I were put onto the route, and the route was extended to Denmark Hill. On October 1998, Limebourne went into receivership, and for a time suspended operations. Eventually, the management re-established Limebourne, and the route ran with different Dennis Dart SLF/UVG buses ordered new to replace leased buses in early 1999. 2001 saw the purchase of Limebourne by Connex, and thus the route was run by Connex for a year, before it was moved to Durham Travel Services (London Easylink). London Easylink ran the 42 at Old Kent Road for 8 months, before they went bust. East Thames Buses used new ELSs from London Easylink to run the 42 at Ash Grove (AG) initially, before moving to Mandela Way (MA) in 2005. 2009 saw East Thames Buses be sold off from TfL to Go-Ahead London (London General). The route moved to Camberwell (Q) in 2010, before moving to Mandela Way (MW) in 2012, and returning to Camberwell in 2014, where it is today.
On 1st October 2016, the 42 was extended from Denmark Hill to East Dulwich Sainsbury's, and is now run with Volvo B5LH/MCV EvoSetis from Camberwell Garage.

Post by Aubrey Morandarte
All rights reserved © WLTMTB 2017

19/12/2017

A RAT for one final time

The autumnal rail adhesion season on the Metropolitan line was supposed to be the last year that London Underground would use the A60 Stock for sandite duties. With the withdrawal of the entire fleet of D78 Stock, two four car units (five car with the sandite car added) have been retained, with two converted sandite cars. The aim being to replace the ageing 50+ year old stock on the Met.

This process was covered in a blog post at the end of last year [2016], however electric, mechanical and paperwork issues with the newly converted D stock sandite trains has meant that the A stock was reprieved for the 2017 season. The set, 5110-5111, was to be kept as a strategic spare for the 2017 leaf fall season but it was never intended to be used.

This year, like last, IS expected to be the last year for the A. This year should in fact, baring a substantial change in events, the very last for the A as it cannot be operation beyond Spring 2018 due to needing a massive and costly overhaul. For London Underground to keep the set active beyond this time they would have to heavily invest in the unit, at a time when they are already investing loads into its replacement.

I wrote a similar blog post around this time last year which covered the switch from A stock to D stock, which at time of writing had not taken place (From A to D but not via C: http://wltmauc.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/from-to-d-but-not-via-c.html), so this post will purely act as a pictorial summary of really does appear [and in fact did turn out] to be the Metropolitan line's A Stock farewell!


DM 5111 brings the RAT into Rayners Lane early on in October.
© Tommy Cooling

Later the same day, 5111 is seen heading the train through Pinner.
© Tommy Cooling

5111 passes through Harrow, the unofficial home of the Met heading for Neasden in mid-October.
© Tommy Cooling


5111 on the approach to Hillingdon at dusk in late October.
© Tommy Cooling

In early November, 5110 is seen leading into Harrow.
© Tommy Cooling
5110 heads into a seasonal looking Pinner following the December snow fall, on what turned out to be its last day in service.
© Tommy Cooling
5110 pausing at Uxbridge, on what turned out to be its last visit.
© Tommy Cooling

5110 shunting from the siding at Harrow sporting an appropriate destination, kindly staged for the photo.
© Tommy Cooling

STOP PRESS
On Monday 11th December the unit developed a fault, and upon subsequent inspection at Neasden, turned out to be a significant and costly motor issue. The decision was made from high up within London Underground that the unit would not be repaired and so on Wednesday 13th, A Stock 5110+5111 was officially withdrawn from service after 55 years, and the 2017 RAT season on the Met was terminated.

Two five-car D Stock units will run on the Met for leaf-fall from 2018, one operational unit and a spare back-up.


Post by Tommy Cooling
Some of these images and more can be found on my Flickr page:
Please do not reproduce any of my images without permission

17/12/2017

40 years of the Piccadilly to Heathrow

On [Friday] 16th December 1977, the Piccadilly line extension to Heathrow Central, was opened by HM The Queen.  The £71m link saw Piccadilly services extended from Hounslow West to Heathrow Central.  This new link between Heathrow and the City was the first of its kind in the world, at the time.  Subsequently, a loop service was added in April 1986 for the newly opened Terminal 4 station, and this was followed by an extension from T123 to Terminal 5 in March 2008.

Saturday 16th December 2017 marked the 40th anniversary of the opening of this link, but as is most current things TfL there was no celebration, nor were there any posters in the station to mark the occasion.  To the untrained passenger, the anniversary of such an important link went completely unnoticed.  Maybe in 2027 when the link would be 50 something special might happen.

Piccadilly line 1973 Stock 128+173 arrive at Heathrow Central (T1,2,3) with a late running T5 service that has been curtailed here.
© Tommy Cooling

The current iteration of the Heathrow Central station name, even though Terminal 1 has long since closed, and has also been removed from the Tube Map, which itself now only makes reference to Terminals 2 & 3.
© Tommy Cooling
  
Over the years there have been proposed ideas for extending Piccadilly services westwards beyond to airport to places such as Slough, however these ideas seem long dead and buried at the current time bearing in mind TfL's severe lack of funds.
 
 
The Piccadilly's 1973 tube stock marked the opening in 1977, and has served airport for the following 40 years, however with the line the first of the deep level tubes to receive new stock and modernised signalling, this also maybe the last significant milestone at Heathrow that the 73s see.
 

The eastbound platform at Heathrow Central is now a through road for services from T4 and T5.
Upon opening in 1977 until 1986, this platform and the adjacent, would have been used by terminating trains.
© Tommy Cooling


The Concord tribute panelling at platform level.
© Tommy Cooling

Post by Tommy Cooling
Some of these images and more can be found on my Flickr page:
Please do not reproduce any of my images without permission

09/12/2017

SEe 360 electrics

Go-Ahead's Route 360, that runs from Elephant and Castle to the Royal Albert Hall, was the latest route to be converted to fully electric vehicles. The conversion followed on from the conversion of the Go-Ahead Red Arrow routes 507 and 521. Five more routes are due to be converted to fully electric in 2018, including the RATPs 72 & C1, Go-Aheads 153 & 214, and Metrolines 46.
The 360 is using a brand new fleet of E200 BYDs, classed SEe, the same as those on the 507 and 521, but in the 10.8m version as opposed to the 12m Red Arrow version.
 
SEe59 at St. George's Circus.
© Tommy Cooling


Post by Tommy Cooling
Some of these images and more can be found on my Flickr page:
Please do not reproduce any of my images without permission