The London Underground Electric Train

There are many books on the development of the rolling stock of London Underground, quite a few of them are really good too and this is another one to add to that list. Maybe even the best, certainly one of the most technical.

This excellent book by Piers Connor approaches the subject from a novel direction: instead of a standard history of the London Underground network and its rolling stock, this book instead describes the development of the many technologies that went into the London Underground train as we know it and how the technologies all fitted together. So, starting with the earliest electric traction in the first Underground trains we see how electric motors and control systems, bogies, bodywork, brakes et cetera developed over the decades.

The book is well illustrated throughout, with a number of diagrams that explain how the various systems work. The London Underground was the first deep-level underground system in the world but it owes so much to early developments in the United States as well as decades of evolution and different paths (not all of which worked). Much development work is ongoing and the book is very up-to-date with the latest details of the future tube trains which will finally replace my beloved 1972 Stock in the late 2020s (perhaps).