In 1960 London Transport needed to procure new tube size trains for the Central Line to replace the rapidly ageing 1920s era 'Standard' tube stock then in use. Deciding there was not enough time to develop and fully test the modern 1960s stock offered by Cravens LT elected to place follow-on orders for the 1959 tube stock then being constructed for the Northern and Piccadilly lines. These were the first tube trains to feature unpainted aluminium bodies, looking very modern for the era, though showing a family resemblance to the pre-war 1938 tube stock.
Designated 1962 Tube Stock the new Central Line trains were almost identical to the 1959 design with the same unpainted aluminium bodies, traction equipment and braking systems. The new trains did however benefit from some new innovations, including the use of modular components and controls, offering simplified and therefore quicker maintenance procedures and improving train availability.
To cope with the busy central London passenger loadings Central Line trains operated in 8-car formations, made up of two 4-car units, each formed with 2 driving motor cars (with driving cabs), a trailer car and a non-driving motor car (no cab) providing the extra motors needed for rapid acceleration. 1962 stock trains also operated on the Northern and Piccadilly lines, supplementing the 1959 stock on those lines, operating in a 7-car train formed as 4+3 car units with one of the non-driving motor cars being kept as a spare.
By the mid-1980s it was becoming obvious the 1959 and 1962 stock trains were coming to the end of their economic working lives and work began on the development of replacement tube train designs and control equipment. The experimental 1986 tube stock units tested a number of ideas and systems under service conditions, leading to the design of new trains. The signalling systems on the Central Line were also in need of replacement in the late-1980s, so the 1962 stock was the first to be replaced by the newest trains, designated 1992 stock, which was designed from the outset to work under automatic control with the new signalling system. The last 1959 and 1962 stock trains ran on the Northern Line in 1999.
EFE 1962 Tube Stock 4-car Train
A end Driving Motor Car 1648
Trailer Car 2648
Non-Driving Motor Car 9649
D end Driving Motor Car 1649
Model Features:
- OO Scale from EFE Rail – the first ready-to-run 1962 stock tube train
- Era 8
- Underground ‘unpainted aluminium’ livery with roundels on A & D driving cars
- Detailed & decorated Interiors
- Interior lighting
- Powerful Coreless Motor in each driving car (A & D)
- All-wheel pick up on the motorised vehicles
- Speaker Ready
- NEM coupling pockets
- Accessory pack
- Equipped with two PluX22 DCC Decoder sockets – recommended decoders item No. 36-570B
- Length 850mm