Does anyone know when the LUL RAT's , engineering locos and 1960ts measurement train are out. From what I've heard they are especially hard to see and I was wondering if anyone knew their schedule or where any good spots to see then might be.
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LUL RAT , Loco and Measurement train diagrams.
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LU specials gen has always been a bit of a closed shop where even things like membership of LURS* won’t help.
It was always said that the official line was that LU doesn’t want lots of photographers in restricted spaces. But that usually came from the people who had their own photos of LU specials published in the society magazine.
* London Underground Railway Society. Like the Branch Line Society but much much more into detail.
It was always said that the official line was that LU doesn’t want lots of photographers in restricted spaces. But that usually came from the people who had their own photos of LU specials published in the society magazine.
* London Underground Railway Society. Like the Branch Line Society but much much more into detail.
Dstock7080
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RAT Rail Adhesion Train schedules run from September-January, on Central, MET, Piccadilly Lines.
bluegoblin7
Established Member
It’s nothing to with being a closed shop: it’s because most of these moves simply do not run to a timetable or schedule in an ‘open data’ sense, are often decided at relatively short notice and only the staff who need to know about them are told about them. I work in Service Control on the Met and a lot of the time these things are running around I only know about them when I’m actually at work - and there’s nothing wrong with that.LU specials gen has always been a bit of a closed shop where even things like membership of LURS* won’t help.
It was always said that the official line was that LU doesn’t want lots of photographers in restricted spaces. But that usually came from the people who had their own photos of LU specials published in the society magazine.
* London Underground Railway Society. Like the Branch Line Society but much much more into detail.
RAT schedules for the Met and Piccadilly lines are contained within the annual Timetable Notices for the lines, which are generally published towards the end of August/early September. These paths are pretty much guaranteed to run during the notice period. The Central RATs are published under different arrangements and generally don’t go into the public domain, but also run far more flexibly and variably.
There is no longer any fixed schedule for the Track Recording Train, and with the increase in automatic train operation it mainly now runs overnight during ‘Cancelled Engineering Hours’ anyway.
Engineering locomotives, tamping machines and more generally come out of Ruislip Depot around midnight most nights, and unless working on the Central line will absolutely run from Ruislip to Rayners Lane before diverting. They’ll return along the same stretch shortly after 0500 - these are the best options if you’re desperate to see one.
So again: it absolutely isn’t a closed shop, there simply isn’t the same level of detail/information available in the public domain as with NR. And given most documents containing this info - even when it is known in advance - are labelled ‘Private: Staff Use Only’ most staff understandably care more about their job than breaching that confidentiality - doing so has, can and does result in staff on disciplinary charges. And for the ‘unpublished’ moves the staff operating them are generally more concerned with doing that that… sharing the info.
Any idea where I could find the annual timetable notices. I can't seem to find any mention of them on the TFL website.
bluegoblin7
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Once relevant they will appear here.
Thanks for the help , will definitely try and see the met and Piccadilly line RAT's when the relevant timetable is released
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I got very lucky today, the 1960ts measurement train , both of the 1962ts RAT's and quite a few of the engineering locos were very easily visible at West Ruislip depot.
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London Underground Rail Adhesion Train Timetables 2026
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I've found a Google Doc of diagrams for the Central Line , Met and Piccadilly RAT's for this year so if you want to have a go at trying to see them , help yourself.
jumble
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Anyone who wants to save this replace htlmview in the link with edit and then you will get a menu for downloadLondon Underground Rail Adhesion Train Timetables 2026
docs.google.com
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
I've found a Google Doc of diagrams for the Central Line , Met and Piccadilly RAT's for this year so if you want to have a go at trying to see them , help yourself.
I Used it to Chase the Met line RAT around yesterday and the times seem accurate for it at least. No ideas for the other lines but Will definitely give the central line RAT's a go soon.London Underground Rail Adhesion Train Timetables 2026
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
I've found a Google Doc of diagrams for the Central Line , Met and Piccadilly RAT's for this year so if you want to have a go at trying to see them , help yourself.
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