In 1938 London Transport placed orders for 573 cars of surface stock to a radically new design with flared sides and no clerestory, destined for the Hammersmith & City Line (‘O’ stock), the Metropolitan Line (‘P’ stock) and the District Line (‘Q’ stock).
Whereas the O and P stock cars would be formed into complete trains, all but 25 of the District Line’s 208 Q stock cars were initially delivered as trailers, intended to operate in mixed formations with the District Line’s older fleets of driving motor cars.  The intention was that the Q stock cars would later be converted to driving motors so they were built with driving cab doors in place but sealed out of use and the motorman’s cab area incorporated into the passenger saloon.
The war intervened, after which some of the Q38 cars were converted to O or P stock driving motors as replacements for war losses and most of the rest were progressively added to the expanding R stock fleet in the 1950s.  These transfers both shrank the ‘Q’ stock fleet and increased the proportion of older cars to be found in a typical ‘Q’ stock formation, with conversions from driving motor to non-driving trailer to maintain the broadly 50/50 mix needed for operating purposes.  However some Q38s, both driving motors and trailers, remained in the fleet until the end of Q stock operation on the District and East London lines.

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What's in the box -

This Eastleigh Model Rail kit gives you all the 4mm scale 3D printed parts you need to build a complete coach - sides, ends, roofs, interiors, underframes and bogies.

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What else you'll need -​

• A pair of Symoba close coupling units

• Wheels and bearings - the bogies are dimensioned to accommodate '00', 'EM' or 'P4' gauge 12mm spoked wheelsets with standard 26mm 'pinpoint' axles and the sideframes have holes to fit brass 'top hat' wheel-bearings.

• 8BA/M2 nuts and bolts.

• Glazing

• Paints and transfers

 

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