Friday 27 March 2009

Train of the day



A look back to the era when London tube trains weren't painted red, but just trundled around in bare aluminium. I suppose it saved money on paint. This is, I think, 1962 stock, so it was pretty new when I took this picture at White City, on the Central Line, in August 1963.

These trains were fairly spartan inside, but they served us well for some 40 years.

2 comments:

Jamie said...

I always thought the "naked" aluminium made the trains look worn and old, even in pictures of them brand new.

According to LUL, they switched back to enammeled paint because of spray-paint grafitti, which could never be fully removed from naked trains but comes off (with elbow grease) on paint.

The current trend for vinyl liveries on mainline trains will probably go the same way as the aluminium look for much the same reasons.

peezedtee said...

Yes, I prefer them red. I think most of them are again now. PZT