London Transport Museum is raising money to restore old tube trains — specifically, Q stock carriages which ran on the District line and date back to the 1930s.
The Q stock is notable for its sleek style (for the time), with flared sides. It was purpose built to run with a mix of older cars. It wasn't like today when identical tube carriages pull into a platform. Back then passengers never knew what order the cars would show up in.
The museum wants to restore these old cars and run them as part of its heritage routes, as it has done with the Battle Bus and Metropolitan Railway Jubilee carriage. It will then use the trains to tell three transport stories: evacuation in 1939, rebuilding in the post-war 1940s and the growing optimism and prosperity of the 1950s and 60s.
The museum needs to raise £200,000 to restore the three cars — at time of writing, it's raised just over 1% of that target. The campaign tells donors what exactly their money will achieve; £5 lights up a 1930s lampshade, and, at the other end of the spectrum, £25,000 refurbishes a brake van.
You can find out more about the campaign on its Just Giving page.
