1967 Stock Tread Plate
Brand new and unused (yes, you read that correctly!), the tread plate entered the Collection on Monday, 18th July 2011. Somewhat ironically, I had arranged for it to be brought up to Derby with one of the haulage trucks that would pick up a 2009 Stock car from the Bombardier works on Litchurch Lane, for delivery to the Victoria line’s depot at Northumberland Park. A big "thank-you" goes to everyone who played a part in getting the plate to me - you know who you are, and I am very grateful for your efforts.
There aren’t many places in a domestic setting that can accommodate a 5 ft (1500 mm) long × 3.5 in (90 mm) wide piece of cast aluminium; fortunately, the space above my wardrobe proved ideal for such a purpose!
I was astounded at how clean and shiny the plate was - of course, this example hadn’t had over forty years’ worth of passengers’ feet traipsing all over it!
The Metro-Cammell logo is located in the centre of the plate, and would therefore also be located in the centre (the most prominent position) of each double doorway.
‘England’ is also proudly displayed on the plate. In a rather strange coincidence, at the time of writing, the future of the last British train builder (Bombardier) was hanging in the balance.
The year of train manufacture is also cast into the plate. Notice that the surrounding aluminium has quite a rough finish - again, this would be much smoother on ‘used’ plates.
A curved section exists at either end of the plate - this would be where the door pillars would be located. Although the plate is shown here to be secured with Pozidrive-type screws, the plates that saw service were secured using larger, slotted screws (not that I am pointing this out in any sort of ‘pedantic’ way, of course!).
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