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Q stock

Q stock restoration

We’re restoring a unique piece of transport history - the last three 1930s Q stock Underground carriages

Volunteers working in a train car, blending into a black and white image of the train

Introduction

We are restoring the last three 1930s Q stock Underground carriages, known as ‘cars’.

Q stock trains ran on the District line from the dark days of the Second World War through to the swinging sixties before being retired from service.

A team of volunteers are working with our restoration experts to get the last three 1930s Q stock cars back up and running.

Volunteers working in a train car, blending into a black and white image of the train
Two volunteers looking at the engine of a train

Keep us on track

Will you help us raise the £200,000 needed to keep our restoration on track and get the last 1930s Q stock cars running again?
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Campaign totaliser

Total raised so far £53,146.50 Total plus Gift Aid: £53,885.63
Target £200,000.00 Raised offline: £50,100.00
0
27% of target
100%

Your donations could help us by...

£5 lightbulb

Light up a 1930s fluted glass lampshade. The train needs 250 lightbulbs.

£15 Poster

Decorate each car with reproduction posters appropriate to the period, which help tell the unique story of each car.

£50 panel of Lacewood

Fit one panel of original London plane wood, also known as Lacewood. It’s rare now but was plentiful years ago and covered the walls of the Q stock cars.

£100 tin of paint

Paint the train in its original colours of red, cerulean blue and gold.

£330 moquette seat

Cover a seat with a period moquette textile design. We need to upholster 120 seats.

£50,000 two brake vans

Refurbish the worn parts of the vans, including the timber work.

Thanks to a bequest from the late Bob Greenaway and individual donations made by London Transport Museum Friends, work has already begun on the car interiors. This work is being delivered by a mix of retired London Underground drivers, guards and engineers and people passionate about preserving London’s history.

We need your help to raise a further £200,000 to get the three cars back on track and operational again.

Two volunteers looking at the engine of a train

The project

We are restoring a unique piece of the District line’s heritage, the last three remaining 1930s Q stock cars:

  • 08063 (Q35), formerly N stock, built in 1935 by Metro Cammell in Birmingham
  • 4416 and 4417 (Q38), both built in 1938 by Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company

The 1930s Q stock trains were formed from sleek new cars with flared sides, purpose-built to run with a mix of older cars with American-style clerestory roofs dating from 1923.

Unlike modern-day Underground trains with identical carriages, Q stock trains were made from a mix of cars with different styles dating back to 1923 – passengers never knew which formation would pull into their platform.

We urgently need your help to complete the restoration to mark 50 years since the Q stock was withdrawn from service.

We aim to restore the cars, held in the Museum’s collection, to operational condition and include them in our award-winning heritage vehicle events programme.

With your help we can complete the restoration of three Q stock cars and tell the transport story of:

  • Life in wartime London, sharing the story of evacuation in 1939
  • The rebuilding of London in the 1940s
  • The growing optimism and prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s.
Black and white photo of a woman getting off a tube in the 1930s
A Q stock train in the Acton Depot
Q35 stock at Ealing Common Depot

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