London Underground 1960 Stock

The London Underground 1960 Stock was a small, prototype class of electric multiple unit designed for the London Underground Central Line.

Driving Motor cars


The aluminium-bodied motor cars were built by Cravens of Sheffield and entered service in late 1960. The driving motor cars were numbered 3900-3911 although the first two cars were delivered by Cravens numbered 3000 and 3001 but were renumbered 3900 and 3901 before entering service. To make the sets up to four cars, each incorporated two trailer cars which were rebuilt from old Pre-1938 Standard Stock. Two units were intended to be coupled together, forming an eight-car train. The 1960 Stock initially ran on the main Central Line, before being cascaded to the Hainault Loop. Rather than build a production version of the 1960 Stock, a new Central Line fleet of 1962 Stock was opted for (based on the tried and tested 1959 Stock). One of the main factors in this decision was the cost of refurbishing the Standard Stock cars to run with the new stock driving motor cars. Much of the experience gained from the 1960 Stock was subsequently used on the 1967 Stock built for the Victoria Line.







Trailer cars
Initially the 1960 stock cars were coupled to two modernised "Standard Stock" trailers dating from the 1920s, numbered 4900-4911. Originally the cars were to have numbered starting at 4000. The 1920s built trailer cars were withdrawn between 1975 and 1983 and replaced by single 1938 Stock cars marshalled between the two motor cars, reducing the units from four to three cars. Four 1938 Stock trailers were rebuilt, three were for use in revenue service, numbered 4921, 4927, and 4929. The fourth was for use with the track recording train and was renumbered TRC912 but was never used as such. Instead it remained stored until 2006, when it was scrapped by Booths at their Rotherham plant.

Automatic Train Operation
The 1960 Stock trains ran mainly on the Hainault loop; most were modified experimentally for Automatic Train Operation (ATO) in the mid 1960s. The lightly used Woodford-Hainault section of the Central Line was used as a testing ground for full ATO on the Victoria Line. With ATO, the driver only needed to press two buttons simultaneously to start the train - all other operation was automatic.

Towards the end of its life a 3-car 1960 stock train (not in ATO mode) operated the peak-only Epping-Ongar shuttle. The 1960 stock was withdrawn when that line closed in September 1994.

One of the 1960 Stock trains is still owned by LUL and remains in use as track recording unit, running with a 1973 Stock centre trailer.