IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Willow Parade, Moor Lane, UPMINSTER, RM14 1DZ

A second RLH came to join the fray of buses at the depot, this one retaining its original destination blinds from when it was on Route 248.

At the very front of the depot was a labelled real-life diagram of the four-rail track configuration used on the London Underground network. The leftmost rail and penultimate rail on the right are the running rails whilst the penultimate rail from the left and rightmost rail are the positive and negative supply rails, where the electrical current from the underside of the train feeds into and powers the train along. View taken looking east-southeast, with the bus stand and car park in the background.

Looking north.

Notice that the upper-deck emergency exit window of this RLH double-decker is divided unlike that of the Routemaster to the right of it. There is also no facility for a rear destination blind; this was because the RLH-class was not originally intended for London Transport. But the RLHs did carry rear number stencils in the rear lower-deck window. View taken looking south.

Upminster depot, which serves the District line, was built between 1956 and 1958 and opened in 1959. It was the first depot to be built after the Second World War. It is situated beyond Upminster station which is the eastern limit of the District line and is to the north of the line to Basildon and Southend. This view is from Front Lane.

The D Stock is due to be replaced in 2015 by this. This is a mock-up of the new stock. Strangely, the "box-shaped" concept of sub-surface stock hasn't been retained and looks more like deep-level tube stock. I thought at first this was the 2009 stock that has just been introduced on the Victoria line, but it isn't (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_2009_Stock ). I'm unsure of the exact geographical location of this image - it was in a smaller shed on the other side of the depot and I remember the c2c railway running along behind it, but I don't think it's shown as a building on the OS map.

This is a 1938 Northern line train, which ran on that line between 1938 and 1988, so had a career of exactly 50 years! The last day in regular passenger service was 19 May 1988 - a small sign in one of the windows of the train confirms this! I don't think the train 'lives' here however - I think it belongs at Acton Town depot where the London Transport Museum stores some of its stock. It's only here for a special non-stop run on Friday night from Upminster to Ealing Broadway. Just a shame the journey takes place at night - meaning that all you'd see out of the train windows, whether underground or not, is pitch blackness. For this reason, I don't think it's really worth the money and effort in going, but I suppose if you really want to experience being on a 1938 train, then go for it! On the right is a C stock train, now used mostly on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines, but also still used on the Wimbledon branch of the District line. View taken looking west.

This is a side view of the 1938 Northern line train, with carriage 10012 in view. Note the "No Smoking" sign on the window, which would've been installed in 1987 (only a year before the train retired from regular passenger service) after the King's Cross fire. View taking looking south.

This is a view inside the 1938 train, showing some major differences between this and modern tube stock. The lights above the seats are installed pointing outwards instead of being flat against the carriage wall, the seating is both longitudinal and transverse (these days it's either one or the other, but mostly longitudinal) and much more comfortable (these seats are squashy and roomy, but the ones on modern tube stock are very hard and cramped). Note the grab handles are a much older design and are, I feel, of a more classy design than the ones on modern stock (they are just simple door handle shapes). The floor is also wooden, whereas on modern stock the floor is tiled. View taken looking south.

This is the card that made me know the exact career of the 1938 train on regular passenger service on the Northern line. I think it's pretty self-explanatory!