Chasing The Red Train

24th February 2019

London Transport Museum have a restored 1938 stock tube train. Today it got an outing on the underground running two excursion trips, first from Ealing Broadway via High Street Kensington and a complete circuit of the Circle Line to terminate at Moorgate. The second from Moorgate out to Amersham and then back to Ealing Common via Rayner's lane.

Had I been a bit more organised when tickets went on sale I'd have been able to ride the red train but instead I decided to see if I could intercept it along its route and capture it on film.

So I was at Acton Town rather too early on a Sunday morning to see it come in from Northfields Depot before reversing to pick up the lucky passengers at Ealing.

Failed to catch it at Turnham Green as it somehow managed to slip by me while I was travelling there but caught up with it again at Gloucester Road on its way around the Circle Line.

After an essential Pret stop I met the red train out in the wild west at Amersham and was able to get back to Harrow-on-the-Hill in time to film it there before it went on its way back to Ealing Common.

It really was an unseasonably warm day for February, clear skies and brilliant sunshine which made for excellent photography and filming conditions.

There will be few opportunities for the 1938 Stock (or as LT Museum have taken to calling it The Art Deco Train) to run over this route in future. Once the new signalling system is implemented on the sub-surface lines it won't be possible to take this 80 year-old train on the Circle Line. So when the next opportunity to ride the red train comes along I'm going to try a bit harder to grab a ticket!