page_title: London Underground rolling stock
section_title: Early trains
hierarchical_section_title: London Underground rolling stock / History / Tube electric multiple units / Early trains
caption_attribution_description: English: A postcard for the Central London Railway (now the London Underground's Central line) showing a train at Bank station the electric driver's motor car.
context_page_description: London Underground rolling stock includes the electric multiple units that run on the London Underground. The trains come in two sizes, smaller deep-tube trains and larger sub-surface trains that are of a similar size to those on British main lines. New trains are designed for the maximum number of standing passengers and for speed of access to the cars.
  Services started in 1863 when the Metropolitan Railway opened using steam locomotives hauling gas-lit wooden carriages, braked from guards' compartment. In 1890, the first tube railway opened, using electric locomotives hauling carriages with small windows, nicknamed "padded cells". Other tube railways opened in the early 20th century using electric multiple units known as gate stock, as access to them was via lattice gates at each end of the car. The earlier railways had electrified the underground sections of their lines by 1907. Pneumatic sliding doors were introduced on tube trains in 1919 and sub-surface trains in the late 1930s. Until the early 1960s an electric locomotive was exchanged for a steam locomotive on Metropolitan line services beyond Rickmansworth.
context_section_description: The first tube railway, the City & South London opened in 1890 with electric locomotives hauling carriages. In 1898 the Waterloo & City Railway opened to the public using electric multiple units. Each four-car train had two trailers and two motor-cars with two 60 hp (45 kW) motors that could be directly controlled from either car. A four car train seated 204, and access was by sliding doors at the car ends leading to a platform protected by a gate.
  When the Central London Railway opened in 1900, carriages were hauled by heavy electric locomotives that caused vibrations that could be felt on the surface. In 1903 sixty-four motor-cars  were delivered and the carriages were reformed into multiple units using a control system developed by Frank Sprague in Chicago. Initially there were 168 carriages, each 45 feet 6 inches (13.87 m) long, with access via sliding doors to a gated platform as on the Waterloo & City. Seating was mostly longitudinal for 48 passengers and straps were provided for those standing. The Great Northern & City Railway was a built to take main line trains from the Great Northern Railway (GNR) at Finsbury Park to the City at a terminus at Moorgate. However the GNR refused permission for trains to use its Finsbury Park station, so platforms were built beneath the station instead. Public service on the line began in 1904, using larger electric multiple units with control equipment supplied by British Thomson-Houston.
  The Underground Electric Railways Company of London had been established in April 1902 by the American Charles Yerkes to build and run three cross-London tube lines: the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (now part of the Northern line), Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (Bakerloo line) and the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (Piccadilly line). A power station capable of providing power for these tube lines was built at Lots Road, by Chelsea Creek. Similar electric multiple units were purchased for the three lines, controversially from America, France and Hungary, and known as "Gate Stock", as access to the cars was via lattice gates at each end. Motor cars, trailers and control trailers were coupled to make a train of two to six cars, with the motor cars positioned at the outer ends. These had full width control compartments behind the driver and seated about 40, whereas the trailers seated about 50. A gateman operated the lattice gates using a crank handle and announced each station as the train approached. A bell rung by the rear guard when all gates were closed was echoed down the train by each gateman until the front guard signalled the driver to proceed.
  More trains were bought in 1914 for the Bakerloo line extension to Paddington. To speed up boarding these cars had inward swinging centre doors that were under the control of the gatemen. From 1915 the Bakerloo was extended to a junction with the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) at Queen's Park and because of the difficulties of World War I, cars were transferred from the Piccadilly line. From 1917 tube trains ran through to Watford Junction using Central London Railway motor cars that had been built for an uncompleted extension to Ealing. These returned in 1920 when the extension opened and the Watford Joint Stock, two thirds owned by the LNWR, arrived. Four and six car trains were formed, a motor car permitted in the middle of a tube train as there was an emergency passage through the control compartment. Access was by three single inwardly swinging doors on either side of the cars. Cars with sliding pneumatic doors were ordered in 1919 for the Piccadilly line. No gatesmen were needed and these trains were staffed by a driver and two guards. An open door was first indicated by a semaphore arm, but these were easily damaged, and by 1923 interlock switches proving the doors were closed were introduced.
caption: Central London Railway motor car in 1903
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