London Underground engineering stock
Over the years, London Underground has acquired various types of engineering stock to help with the construction of new lines and maintenance of existing lines. Some of these wagons were inherited from its predecessors, many were built new and some were acquired second-hand from the main-line railways. Several types of specialist wagons have been used, which are described below.
Overview
London Underground uses a numbering system comprising the wagon number prefixed with a letter which designates the wagon's type. These are summarised below.| Prefix | Type | Description |
| B | Brake van | Manned wagon used for guard's accommodation and for braking purposes. No longer used. |
| BW | Ballast wagon | Open wagon, for transport of ballast |
| C | Crane | Powerful crane for track laying/lifting and/or recovering de-railed rolling stock |
| DEC | Diesel-electric crane | Powerful crane for track laying/lifting and/or recovering de-railed rolling stock |
| DHC | Diesel-hydraulic crane | Powerful crane for track laying/lifting and/or recovering de-railed rolling stock |
| CM | Cement mixer wagon | Specialist flat wagon, with a cement mixer. These wagons have been modified and now form part of Tubelines's DISAB ballast sucking machines. |
| CW | Cable drum wagon | A short wagon for transporting cable drums through deep level tunnels. For signal wiring |
| F | Flat wagon | Flat wagon, for transport of rails or sleepers Now only used in train formation with tampers 771,772 and 773. |
| FB | Flat brake | Flat wagon, with brake van compartment. No longer used. |
| GP | General purpose wagon | General purpose wagon |
| HD | High deck wagon | to carry a stack of track panels no more than 4 panels high. |
| HW | Hopper wagon | Hopper, for transport of fresh ballast |
| J | Jib carrier | Specialist flat wagon, for carrying the jib of a crane; |
| JC | Jib carrier | Specialist flat wagon, for carrying the jib of a crane; |
| JLE | Jubilee Line Extension | The same as General Purpose wagons, used in the construction of the Jubilee Line Extension. Only difference is that the JLE's wagons have larger handbrake wheels. |
| MW | Match wagon | Wagons paired with the cement mixer wagons. Now used as GP wagons semi-permanently coupled together. |
| RW | Rail wagon | Specialist flat wagon, for transport of rails |
| SB | "Turbot" ballast wagon | Specialist ballast wagon, that will deliver ballast to the trackbed. Can also be used to transfer plant, used ballast or scrap. |
| TMM | Tamping machine | Ballast tamper for packing ballast to make lines more durable. Numbered 771, 772, 773 and 774. 771, 772 and 773 can only be transported through deep-level tunnels in train formation. 774 is for sub-surface lines only. |
| WPW | Well wagon | Specialist flat wagon, with lowered central section to enable larger loads to be carried. All have prefix JLE. Commonly known as a 'Low Loader'. |
Brake vans
London Underground has used various designs of brake van. They were used for the guard's accommodation and for braking purposes.Two brake vans of interest were numbers FB578 and FB579. These were 'flat' brake vans, converted from flat wagons. The conversion consisted of building a small guard's compartment on one end of the flat wagon. Therefore, these wagons could be used for carrying small items, such as sleepers, in addition to their role as a brake van.
Six brake vans numbered B580–5 were built for London Transport by British Railways at the latter's Ashford Works in the early 1960s. They were built to a design which had been produced for BR since 1950, totalling units, and were the final examples of that design to be constructed.