Strange though it may seem, looking through the latest Newsletter stirred a few memories from the 1950's.
The page covering the Dave Lowe Award (an award sponsored by this forum in memory of "454") I was amused to see the photo of last years winning model described as "District F stock".
It certainly isn't..... F-stock was all-steel and easily distinguishable by the (unusual for Underground stock) oval windows in the carriage ends.
What has this to do with stirring memories?
I once travelled on "F-stock" through the Thames Tunnel (East London Line) as part of what turned out to be an interesting day in more ways than one.
My father was a Customs & Excise officer with his office at the Custom House in Lower Thames Street, City of London, and, very occasionally, he would go to the City on a Saturday or Sunday if a ship required "special clearance" and would take me with him.
In the 1950's (unlike today) there was almost no traffic in the City at weekends...... you could hear the footsteps of a Police Constable several streets away and the tranquility was only broken by the very occasional bus, taxi or "City Corporation" water-cart, spraying the road and gutters with disinfectant.
On one particular occasion, the ship requiring clearance was a collier named "William Cash", owned by Stephenson Clarke & Co., it was discharging coal at a riverside power station near Wapping. The "skipper" (captain) had papers which were "not in order" and we had to go to the ship to sort it out.
My first ever trip in a taxi (at the expense of SC & Co. and not the taxpayer, I hasten to add) was in a pre-war old-fashioned taxi with a leather hood (I believe my father said it was a "Beardmore")!
Arriving at the wharfside, we "walked the plank" onto the deck (the ship was resting in the mud since tide was out) and I stood staring down into the ship's holds while the cranes on the wharf swung over my head and plunged their grab buckets into the coal....no Health & Safety in "them days", thankfully. We then went down into the captain's cabin and were offered refreshment while the paperwork was sorted out.
Where does the "F stock" come into this? Well, we then went to Wapping Station and I was taken for a trip through the Thames Tunnel. I remember the platforms were extremely narrow, the station name was on a "diamond" shaped device (green I think), rather than the more familiar LPTB roundel, and the station was very "gloomy" and grubby (in those days steam-hauled goods trains also used the tunnel).
The trains running on the East London Line during that period were District F stock. I seem to remember they were rather noisy (being all steel) and swayed alarmingly. Whether or not they were swaying any more than other Underground stock or whether the fact that there were oval windows in both ends of the carriages made it appear so, I am not sure. Certainly they pitched about more than the smaller 1938 Tube Stock of the Northern Line from Morden, which I was more used to travelling in.
All a very long time ago and an area once smothered in riverside warehouse, exuding exotic smells of spices, has now been sanitised and is home to "yuppie" apartments.
Merry Christmas,
John.
P.S. Out of curiosity, have Googled William Cash (ship) and found it at
http://www.tynebuiltships.co.uk/W-Ships/williamcash1929.html seems it was scrapped in 1958, so my outing must have been before then.
Have also found a photo of the Stepney power station (Limehouse) which is where we were taken
http://lowres-picturecabinet.com.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/29/main/9/322003.jpg