London Transport Museum has provided an update on its project to restore three 1930s Q stock London Underground carriages (or ‘cars’).

Volunteers, the Museum’s Curatorial staff and a small research team are working together on the project at the Museum Depot in Acton, west London. Their aim is to get the cars in operational condition.

So far, the team has been working on overhauling door mechanisms and updating electrical and lighting systems, to bring them up to modern safety standards. Visitors have been able to observe the progress of the work at Museum events.

The next step is to carry out work on the underside and on the wheels and bogies.

For this, the carriages have to travel to Chesterfield in Derbyshire, where Rampart Engineering will carry out the work. Rampart specialises in refurbishing and enhancing heritage railway rolling stock vehicles.

Rampart Engineering’s workers will install electrical conduit and cables. They will also fit a motor alternator, install traction motors, and overhaul the braking and air systems. They will then carry out tests to establish that the cars are safe.

The three cars being restored are:

• 08063 (Q35), formerly N stock, built in 1936 by Metro Cammell in Birmingham
• 4416 and 4417 (Q38), both built in 1939 by Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company.

Car 4417 travelled to Rampart Engineering in November last year. Subject to confirmation, Car 4416 will follow early this year, and Car 08063 in early summer.

Once Rampart has completed its work, the cars will travel by road to a TfL train depot for further testing.

Each car will have its interior restored to represent a different time in Q stock’s long history in passenger service:

• One will reflect life in London during the Second World War.
• One will represent London during the post-war period of austerity.
• One will have a n interior that represents what the Museum calls “the growing optimism and prosperity of the 1950s”, and will tell a story of London Transport’s direct recruitment of workers from the Caribbean.

The restoration project has received funding through former transport workers leaving a legacy donation to the Museum in their wills.

Donors include the late Bob Greenaway, a former Underground mechanical engineer, President of the London Underground Railway Society (LURS) and Editor of Underground News. The project also receives support from London Transport Museum Friends and volunteers.

Q Stock trains date back to the experimental era of pre-war modernisation of London’s Underground. They were formed of a combination of different cars, and passengers did not know what formation of carriages would arrive at their platform.

Q stock trains began running on the District line in November 1938. Their introduction was part of London Transport’s New Works Programme, an important part of the Underground’s history during which it received significant investment, enhanced and extended services, and used new, modern designs.

During the war, Q stock trains were used in the evacuation of children from the city to the countryside.

London Underground withdrew Q stock trains from service in 1971.