UNDERGROUND FAREWELL… NO MORE STEAM IN ZONE ONE
‘Met 1’ brings down the curtain as London Underground continues to roll out in-cab signalling.
Metropolitan No. 1 has steamed into central London for the last time.
The 0-4-4T was the focus of two days of shuttles over the western half of the District Line in June, but the continual spread of a new in-cab signalling system means that it will be unable to return to Zone One.
Six return trips, organised by the London Transport Museum (LTM), between Ealing Broadway and High Street Kensington on June 22/23 marked 150 years of the District Line.
‘Met 1’ was paired with the Bluebell Railway’s contemporary Chesham carriages. Meanwhile, hooked on to the eastern end of the rake were LTM’s First class ‘Jubilee’ carriage No. 353 and, for the first time in the modern era, the Kent & East Sussex Railway’s District Railway four-wheeler No. 100, running over the tracks for which it was built. At 135 years old, it is possibly the oldest passengercarrying vehicle to run on a public railway system in Britain.
1923 ‘Met’ electric No. 12 Sarah Siddons provided power on the outward legs, while ‘Met 1’ shouldered the return journeys.
Their successful operation was put in jeopardy before the first passengers had even been carried, after one of Sarah Siddons’ shoe-beams struck trackside infrastructure.
A temporary repair was made to enable the train to leave Ruislip depot, but the locomotive was now only powered from three of its four third-rail electric contacts, and the first run was delayed by 90 minutes.
However, all the advertised trains ran, and lead organiser Andy Barr paid tribute to LU’s “superb team”, who helped cut turnaround times in order to reduce the arrears, meaning that by the time ‘Met 1’ coasted into Ealing Broadway with the third and final train of the Saturday, most of the lost time had been clawed back.
The following day’s steam services ran without incident.
It heralded the end of steam on the Underground’s central zones, meaning that future trains will be restricted to the well-trodden path of ‘Steam on the Met’ events of old between Harrow-on-the-Hill and Amersham.
However, the longevity of such events is dependent upon whether and when the Metropolitan Line signalling is upgraded between Ruislip and Harrow-on-the-Hill, scheduled for completion by 2023. Without major modifications, steam locomotives will only be able to access the Amersham route during an overnight possession, and even then there would be no accessible pit for essential daily fitness-to-run exams and servicing.
Mr Barr says that installing a pit somewhere like Amersham would be prohibitively expensive.
● Steam could have run over the southern section of the Circle Line to Tower Hill in 2019, but plentiful water supplies could not be guaranteed and Andy Barr said that the idea was deemed too risky to run over the 12 miles or so from Ealing Broadway.
● ‘Met 1’ was crewed on June 22/23 by volunteer drivers and a firemen from the Mid-Norfolk Railway: Ricky Plummer, James Francis and Phil Howard.
● The ‘Met’ steam story: page 42.