RUISLIP DEPOT 2007
July 23rd, 2007, saw me visiting the ex LUL depot at Ruislip for the first time in nearly 14 years. This I now run for Metronet by a consortium of service providers. The depot services and maintains the Central fleet of 1992 tube stock.
As I was going into the sheds and roads I chanced upon one of the icons of the former Metropolitan Railways electric locomotive “Sarah Siddons”, No 12, coupled to a rake of of ex BR Mk 1 coaches.
Introduced in 1922/1923 these Metropolitan Vickers Ltd. Built Bo-Bo locos were introduced to replace the steam locos that had up to then hauled Metropolitan main line carriages from Baker Street to as far as Rickmansworth. They in turn were displaced by the “A” stock in the early 1960s. They have now also been replaced by the “S8” stock from July 2010.
The Bo-Bo locos weighed 61.5 tons, were 39ft 6ins long, and could accelerate from rest to 25mph in 25 seconds. Top speed was 65mph. They could also start a 265ton freight train up a 1 in 45 gradient on a straight track and could shunt at speeds of 2mph. “Sara Siddons” is maintained in working order and makes occasional trips on the London Underground lines, clearance gauge permitting.
Also on view was the 1938 stock tunnel cleaning train, with what looked its modern replacement a couple of roads away. Unfortunately, I could not get any photos.
Out in the yard were some engineering trains from the Transplant fleet, including the battery locos shown below
These interesting locos have duel power supply, able to run from the 630v traction system although their primary use is during engineering works when the traction supply is switched off. The batteries then allow movement independent of the traction supply.
