Design
The London Underground A60 and A62 Stocks were mainly designed as a compromise between the needs of longer distance “outer suburban” passengers on the outer reaches of the line and short distance “urban” passengers over part of the heavily used Circle and Hammersmith & City lines. For this reason the trailer cars feature three sets of doors per car.
A distinctive feature of this stock was the use of transverse seating only, which was uncommon on London Underground rolling stock. This is because it was designed for journeys which may last over an hour. Most of the seating was of the high capacity 3 + 2 arrangement, oriented across the car's width as opposed to a longitudinal layout, where seats were arranged along the sides of the carriage. In addition, four tip-up seats were provided at the rear of the driving motor. Nevertheless, despite each 8-car train seating 448 passengers, these trains provided fewer seats than the locomotive-hauled and T stock trains that they replaced: however, the A Stock provided more seats than their replacement, the S Stock, which started to replace them from 31 July 2010. For the convenience of long-distance passengers, the A stock was also equipped with luggage racks and umbrella hooks. It was the only stock on the system to have these features, despite their presence on most contemporary National Rail trains.
The A60 and A62 stocks were nearly identical by appearance. The most significant differences were the border around the destination window on the A62 motor cars and make of the compressor fitted under the trailer cars: the A60 cars use the Westinghouse DHC 5A type, while the A62 cars use the Reavell TBC 38Z type.
At 116 in (2,900 mm) these were London Underground's widest trains. The trains were refurbished between 1993 and 1998 by Adtranz (now Bombardier) Derby. Car end windows were installed, the seating was reupholstered, and the livery was updated. At the time of refurbishment the Metropolitan line had a low priority for receiving new trains.
Read more about this topic: London Underground A60 And A62 Stock
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