D Stock Farewell Railtour - Cab Photographs

Taking advantage of the short break at High Street Kensington, prior to the train heading to Wimbledon, I headed into the cab of Driving Motor 7007, with a view to driving the train home - buffer stops and a solid wall in front being only a minor concern. Unfortunately for me, I was spotted just as I was about to set off - bah! (Seriously - thank you to the kindly driver who allowed tour participants to have a nosey inside the cab.)

Despite having seen pictures of the driving console previously, I was surprised at how narrow it was in reality. The (locked) direction selector switch is located top-right, with the joystick-style (well, the D Stock was designed in the fledgling days of video gaming!) Traction/Brake controller, incorporating the Deadman's handle. To the left of this is the speedometer, and to the left of that is the air pressure gauge. The nearside and offside door control buttons are located either side of the console (red for open and blue/black for close). Prior to refurbishment, the offside (right-hand side) doors had no close button here; instead, drivers had to close the doors using the panel adjacent that cab door. The red button to the left on the flat section of the console is the whistle, whilst the level below that controls the windscreen wipers. A small heater is provided in front of the driver's footwell. Notice the post-refurbishment 1967 Tube Stock moquette applied to the driver's seat.

The pillar behind the driver's seat contained the controls for the cab ventilation and heating, as well as housing the Selective Re-Open, Emergency Open, End Doors Cut In/Out and Selective Close buttons for the passenger doors on this side of the train, and the controls for the adjacent cab door too. Some of these buttons are duplicated on the panel to the immediate left of the driving console.

A single, bare, incandescent lamp located in the centre of the cab provided illumination - an indicator of the age of the stock. The cab ventilation ducts also terminate in the ceiling nearby. The lever visible to the right is a surviving pre-refurbishment feature - before the six air-cooling vents were installed, there were two globe vents; these collected air from outside. By moving the lever, this directed air from the grille above the destination box either into the saloon or down into the cab vents and roof-mounted heater to prevent this from overheating.

On the other side of the J door, a bank of MCBs (Miniature Circuit Breakers) protecting various circuits could be observed, and to the right of this, the Control Switch, with a key inserted. The left-hand Position Switch slot became redundant when the trains were converted to One-Person-Operation only a few years after introduction; the slot being blanked-off at this time, in order to prevent keys from being inserted, though the guard's key is physically larger than the control key anyway. When operating with a two-person crew, the guard would open and close the doors from whichever cab was at the end of the train. The conversion to O-P-O saw the door operation circuits activated by the control key instead. Further door controls exist below the MCB panel; again, these are a legacy from the days of guards although they still can be used to open and close the doors.

The Train Management System (the device for undertaking tests on various train functions prior to entering service) is located opposite the driving console, and behind that, on the far wall, more controls are present. From top-to-bottom, these are the channel selector test switch for the Passenger Alarm, the Motor Alternator indicator lights, the Traction Test switch and Position On/Other Cab On indicator, Sleet Brushes up/down switch and indicator, Intruder Alarm indicator, De-icing fluid switch and indicator, Saloon heating switch and indicator, offside talkback facility, Calling-on light switch, Doors Enable override plunger, Doors Enable Zone indicator, and at the bottom of the panel, the Runback Protection System. Below that, on the right-hand console, is the Emergency Stop button. Another whistle button exists in front of this, should the need to sound it from this side of the train arise.

Despite the D Stock destination blinds being replaced with LED displays as part of the fleet's refurbishment between 2005-8, the housing was retained. The bottom-right window would have contained a miniature version of the destination that was being displayed to passengers, allowing this to be set without needing to open the front cab door (the M door). See my own D Stock Destination blind for pictures of how this operation would have worked. Understandably, the cabs are not furnished to the same standard as the saloons are, with numerous bolts and rivets being visible on the inside of the cab front...then again, the drivers did have the luxury of air conditioning (though only after the trains were refurbished)!

The same cab was photographed (albeit, only from outside) during the lunch break at Northfields. Notice that the secondary seat (used for instructors or other staff) has the same moquette applied that was also fitted to the saloon seats in refurbished D Stock trains.

A close-up of the MCB panel; the table below the picture lists the circuit that each MCB is protecting.

Compressor Control	Destination Light [MCB Removed]	Stabling Light	Tail Lights	Tail Lights	Head Lights	Spare	Spare	Spare	Spare
Cab Light	Spare	Spare	Cab Heater Fan	Other Cab On C S	Heating & Ventilation Control	Lighting Control	De-Icing Fluid	Call-On Light	Gassing Switch Relay
End Door Cut-Out	Door Contactors	Cab Door	Doors Lock-Out	Passenger Close No. 2	Passenger Open No. 2	Other Cab on P S	Door Interlock	Passenger Open No. 1	Passenger Close No. 1
Intruder Alarm	M G Trip	Brake Decoder Relays	Braking (Motor)	Braking (Trailer)	Slow Speed Safety Brake	Full Speed Safety Brake	Traction "A"	Traction "D"	Sequence Test Circuit

EXTERIOR | INTERIOR | OTHERS