The London Transport Museum Depot is located several miles away from the glamour and tourist trail around the main museum in Covent Garden. Located in the less salubrious area of Action, the Depot holds items that were once on display, items that may one day go on display, and a variety of odds-and-ends that will probably never be shown.
One rare occasions the depot opens its doors to a limited number of enthusiasts, interested parties, and the local community.
The Museum Depot in Acton (west London) is a working area where historians piece together London’s past. The museum stores over 370,000 objects. The Museum Depot was opened in October 1999. Some of the items date back to the Victorian transport system.
Items on display include rare road and rail vehicles spanning over 100 years. These are housed within 6000 square meters of storage space. There are also bus and rail sheds, signs, maps, ceramic tiles, ephemera and ticket machines.
The underground trains included some recently decommissioned A Stock. The train below was built for the Victoria line and began service in 1967.
And some older trains. With some of the tube trains, there was the opportunity to look inside.
Underground services started in 1863 when the Metropolitan Railway opened using steam locomotives hauling gas-lit wooden carriages. Part of one of the original carriages remains.
Other trains made from wood, from several years later, are in better condition.
Many of the significant numbers of buses, trams, trolleybuses, rail rolling stock and other vehicles are too large to fit into the main museum.
The oldest buses on display were pulled by horses. The driver sat on a separate, front-facing bench, typically in an elevated position outside the passengers’ enclosed cabin.
Following the horse-drawn era, the early motorized buses appeared. The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC).
The range of buses runs through each decade. The ones depicted below are from the 1970s and 1980s.
Some of the vehicles on display represented London’s iconic black taxi cab trade. The official name for the vehicle is a hackney carriage. The picture below shows a TX4 hackney carriage.
There are many original works of art used for the Museum’s collections of posters, signs, models, photographs, engineering drawings, and uniforms.
Also on display are a variety of signalling equipment, such as this array from Manor House tube station, which opened in 1932.
As well as classic roadside signals and traffic lights.
Volunteer staff was available to discuss the various items, explain their history, and demonstrate how they function. Here a guide shows how trains would have responded to signals.
Some exhibits are very large, such as the basis of a 1940s underground tunnel (the classic ‘tube’ shape.)
The trip around the museum allowed for a demonstration of Big Steam Print in action This involved a large steamroller being used to print signs, as would have happened in the early twentieth century.
The vintage steamroller was called ‘Murphy.’
The printing demonstration was designed to coincide with the centenary of the Johnston font, the iconic London Transport lettering devised by Edward Johnston in 1916. Johnston’s work originated the genre of the so-called humanist sans-serif typeface. These are typefaces that are sans-serif but take inspiration from traditional serif fonts and Roman inscriptions.
The day at the depot was supported by enthusiasts, some who explained the history of the vehicles to visitors and others who demonstrated models or sold collectible items.
The Depot Museum is located at 118-120 Gunnersbury Lane, Acton Town, London. Openings are rare, but they open up a treasure trove of transport memorabilia.
