Life Underground - Stories from the Tube
London Underground has a life of its own.
Here are some facts, rumours, true stories, legends and anecdotes, with some information
and archive material from the uk.transport.london newsgroup.
Contents
Announcements - Pigeon Fanciers? - Hanger On? - Stonebridge Park Depot - Lost
Property? - Next Train to Tel Aviv? - Pub View - Nasty Habits - Cab Comfort - Dead Man - Suicide Pits - Handbrake Fuse - Metropolitan to Barking - Iris
Plantation - Tea for Two? - Making
Tea - Ghosts - Blind Man's Bluff
- Bicycle Clips - Wrong Stick - Vandalism Isn't New - Long Service
- Flashing Lights on Track - Table Top Livery - Red Repeater -
Test Massage - Division of
Labour - Depot Furniture - Golf
Balls - '73 Tube Stock Batteries - The First 1967 Tube Stock - So
Sorry
Announcements
Anyone from London or the rest of the UK
reading this will know that we've just had two derailments on London underground in less
than 48 hours - one on the Piccadilly Line and one on the Northern Line. Fortunately only
seven people were hurt and none of these serious. It looks as though there may be some
industrial action by tube staff to try to increase safety on the tubes which they believe
is at risk since the tube was part privatised earlier this year. So if the closure
of parts of the Northern Line affects you, spare a thought for the drivers and station
assistants and have a look at this Northern Line special of overheard drivers
announcements reported to http://www.goingunderground.net#heroes
"I was at Mill Hill East the other day, a
quiet tube station, and the driver of the train said something like: "Hello this is
xxx speaking, I am the captain of your train, and we will be departing shortly, we will be
cruising at an altitude of approximately zero feet, and our scheduled arrival time in
Morden is 3:15pm. The temperature in Morden is approximately 15 degrees celsius, and
Morden is in the same time zone as Mill Hill east, so there's no need to adjust your
watches."
"I was on the Northern line again, and we
all got chucked out of the tube because it was broken. Obviously when the next tube came
along, we all tried to get on and there was lots of "Please stand clear of the
DOORS" before we could get going. When we finally started moving again, the driver
says over the tannoy, "This is a customer announcement, please note that the big
slidy things are the doors, the big slidy things are the doors".
"I heard this on the Northern line
recently: "Ladies and gentlemen this train has 22 doors on each side, please feel
free to use all of them, not just the two in the middle".
"On my way down the Northern Line, the
train stopped in a tunnel. After a few minutes, the driver's voice came: "Sorry for
the delay, but there has been an incident at King's Cross. Someone has attacked the driver
(*big sigh*). 9.15am on a Monday morning and there's been an incident already.
The police have been called. (*Pause*) It's a good thing I'm not a policeman,
because I'd lock them all up for life. (*pause* *lower voice*) either that or shoot
them."
"A friend of a friend (etc..) worked as a
station assistant at Warren Street station and one day whilst making a public announcement
re busking/begging on London Underground, got the two slightly confused and came up with
the following gem: "London Underground would like to remind everyone that buggering
is not allowed at any Underground station!"
"On a Northern Line train last week the
driver made this announcement..."Due to an overpowering smell of sewage, this train
will NOT be stopping at Highgate. I repeat, this train will NOT stop at Highgate".
then, a minute later, "Ladies and gentlemen...this train IS stopping at Highgate and
of course I'm the last to know"
"On the Northern Line, when a teenager
had pretended to jump in front of the train, the driver announced: 'you should have done
it mate, it might have knocked some sense into you'.
"My friend was waiting the other night
for the Northern Line when the tannoy burst into life with the following, which I think
sums up British understatement: "When the gentleman urinating on Platform 3 has
finished, would he ask the attendant for a mop and bucket. Thank you"
Supplied by The Mole 21 October 2003
Beating the
Vandals -
The east end of the District Line has always
been bad for vandalism, particularly during the summer holidays. Many is the time
Tubeprune has had to duck as a brick or a milk crate came flying towards the cab
window. It was so bad, they used to call the bit between Plaistow and East ham,
"Bomb Alley". Now the Underground has managed to reduce the problem along
the line by almost 50% with a special campaign of surveillance and patrolling.
They've even used helicopters. You see - good police work can succeed. LU's
press release about it is here.
Posted 22 August 2002.
Some lines have new timetables. Curiously, in spite of the
continuing high levels of traffic all over the system, they all show a reduction in
services. The Piccadilly Line now operates only 24 trains per hour (tph), instead of
the 30 that the line can run. The reason for the reduction is that the line becomes
unmanageable when something goes wrong. It is a long line - some 70 kms from end to
end - and it has two crew depots at the critical stations, Acton Town and Arnos
Grove. The result is that, after a disruption like a signal failure, the need to get
the service back to normal is frustrated by the delays at Acton and Arnos when crews are
being sorted out. They have to have breaks to ensure they don't become too fatigued
by excessive hours. There aren't enough spare crews to cover all the reliefs needed
during a service disruption and many trains get shoved into depots or sidings to get them
out of the way. The result is a reduction in the service and long queues of trains
up to Acton and Arnos while the crewing is sorted out.
In the meantime, the trains get more crowded.
Posted 6 November 2002.
Two stories from "Piccadilly
Pilot", 10 December 2002.
1. Before the tunnel telephone handset was built into the train
the Motorman used to carry it with him in a small wooden box. A curious passenger
asked a Motorman what the box was for and was told, "It's a pigeon coffin!
You've seen all the pigeons around? Well, occasionally we hit one and kill it
and we have to pick it up so that it can be disposed of properly."
2. A DR train got tripped and caused a bit of delay (take the
comments such as "how would anyone notice" etc as read). When the Motorman
explained the cause to the Regulator he was disbelieved. A few hours later the door
of Earl's Court Regulating Room flew open, the Motorman standing there asked who the
Regulator was he'd spoken to earlier. He then went over to the Regulator's desk,
slapped down the dead pigeon he'd been tripped on and said, "Don't call me a
liar" .
From "Piccadilly
Pilot", 24 November 2002.
In the early 1980s an incident took place that would
have had fatal consequences but for the guard doing something unusual.
It was late on a Friday evening, the West End revellers
were heading for home as were the crew of a certain westbound Piccadilly Line train (1973
Tube Stock). Although very lightly loaded until then the train had rapidly filled
with passengers at both Covent Garden and Leicester Square stations. On arrival at
Piccadilly Circus the platform was extremely crowded.
Somehow the people on the platform managed to get on the
train and the guard closed the doors. Unfortunately, although all the doors
were closed and all the indicators that showed them to be open were off, the
indicators to show that the doors were closed were also off. This sometimes happens
if a car is overloaded and both circuits are broken. There was no way of
finding out which is the affected car so the only solution is to de-train all the
passengers.
This we did with the help of the station inspector. By the
time we had everyone off, the guard, station inspector and the driver were inside the
train near the middle. The driver went forward, the other two went to the rear and the
guard told the driver that it was OK to start.
As the train went through Green Park station the guard
called the driver on the cab to cab phone to tell him that "There is someone on
the train." The driver stopped the train, went back to investigate and discovered a
young man hanging on between two of the cars.
Prompt action was called for because of the delay to the
service and because the person in question appeard drunk and was in danger of going to
sleep. Luckily he was between the two cars that could be easily uncoupled, i.e. at the
inner ends of the units.
The guard therefore returned to the back of the train and
applied the parking brake. When he had done that he and the driver operated the controls
to uncouple the units but the front unit would not move away under the spring pressure of
the coupler as it should. The driver then had to return to the front and move it a
few feet under power and return to the middle of the train.
The person was brought inside the train and the two units
recoupled. Upon arrival at Hyde Park Corner the miscreant was handed over to the station
foreman and eventually to the police. When asked what he thought he was doing he said that
his friends had told him to try and get back in. He was eventually prosecuted for
obstructing the railway, causing delay etc.
The liklihood of anyone in this position surviving the
experience is remote. Firstly because as the train negotiates the extremely tight bends
approaching South Kensington the ends of the cars get very close together, probably less
than six inches, so anyone standing on the coupler is almost certainly going to be
crushed. The other reason in this particular case is that because he was drunk and falling
asleep he would have lost his grip and fallen under the train. Either way he would have
been killed before reaching the end of the tunnel.
What was it that the guard did that was unusual? Before
switching off the car lights he looked up the train and saw something flapping. Normally
he just turned off the lights when the train started to move off after de-training.
When the Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo Line was converted
into the Jubilee Line in 1979, the Bakerloo lost its main depot at Neasden. To
replace it, it was planned to build a new depot at Stonebridge Park on the site of the old
London and North Western Railway power station originally built for their Euston to
Watford electrification scheme of 1914.
Work on a site investigation contract for the new depot
started on 14th November 1972 and demolition of the power station was completed early in
1973. At this point, Brent Council, the local government authority for the area,
announced that the new depot needed planning permission and that it would not get
it. There was then a two-year delay while the bureaucratic nonsense was sorted out
and planning permission was only finally obtained after LU went to appeal. The new
depot was finally completed and formally opened on 9th April 1979.
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From "District Dave", 11 June
2002.
On Sunday evening I was 'doing' Wimbledon -
Edgware Roads. Nice and quiet, so having fun using the Westinghouse brake. I
arrived at Edgware Road and, having shut down, I was leaving the cab. A concerned
couple came up to me - "Sorry to trouble you, but there's a man in there (indicating
the car behind the cab) who's collapsed. We
think he's breathing but we're not sure". I thanked them and went to
investigate.
I entered the car and, sure enough, there was a guy of about 30ish sprawled across two
seats. (Loud voice) "Wake up' mate - this is as far as we go!" No
response. Tried again - same result. I rapped on partition glass with my
Control Key (this usually works) - nothing. Last resort - blew guards whistle I
carry for the purpose close to right ear - eyes opened (very drunkenly).
"Where are you going?" I
enquired. Mumbled indecipherable response. Repeated question - same
result. On the fourth attempt I made out "Tel Aviv". I (trying to
keep a straight face) responded "Sorry - this train only goes to Wimbledon and you're
at Edgware Road right now". Blank expression from passenger. "You
could try Heathrow - that'll start you off in the right direction" Blank
expression and more indecipherable comments. Eventually I made out "but David
Ben Gurion needs my help" to which I replied (remembering vaguely that he'd died in
about 1954), "Well, I don't think you'll find him at Edgware Road!".
With that, he hauled himself to a sitting
position, but made no effort to leave the train. He seemed OK, so I left him.
He must have got off somewhere, as he'd gone by the time I changed ends at Wimbledon.
It's things like that that make your day!
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The surface structure of Kilburn Park (Bakerloo
Line) station is a Grade II listed building because it represents a particular style of
pre World War I station architecture and it is in particularly good condition. It
also has some clear windows around the building which let in light and, in the days before
automatic fare collection and secure booking offices, the ticket office (which was of the
passimeter type) could be seen from outside. Opposite the station, is a pub.
If you stood at a certain position at the bar you could see through the pub window to the
ticket office and to the "Way Out" sign hanging on the ticket office wall.
A former station master responsible for the station, used to frequent this pub. His
personal place was always at the bar, facing the station. In the days before mobile
phones and radios, he could be alerted that he was needed when the booking clerk, who had
been suitably advised of the SM's whereabouts, switched off the "Way Out" sign
as a signal that he should return to the station. Where are you now Vic?
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No, this isn't the usual sort of deadman (the
driver's vigilance device), this is the real thing. On one celebrated occasion (many
years ago) a train arrived at East Finchley at the end of the morning peak and was
scheduled to run empty to Highgate Woods to stable. The crew, inspecting the train
to see it was clear of passengers and doubtless looking for a newspaper to read during
"grub time", found a man slumped in a seat and they tried to wake him.
They discovered he was dead. When the station staff were called to help remove him,
they found he had been dead for so long that rigor mortis had set in. He was now
rigid in a seated position and had to be removed from the train thus. He had to be
laid sideways on the stretcher to prevent him rolling off.
On another occasion, equally long ago, a guard
on the eastbound Piccadilly Line at Northfields was called to attend to a man on his
packed peak-hour train who "seems a bit poorly", according to the passenger
raising the alarm. This man was also dead. The guard, not wishing to delay
the train any longer than necessary, persuaded a couple of the passengers to help him drag
the corpse off his train and left it sitting, upright, on a bench on the platform.
As he ran back to his position, the guard called to a platform attendant (they were called
"stationmen" in those days) and told him to find someone who could "shift
the stiff". It later transpired that the local police weren't to happy about
the treatment of the corpse but the guard, on being admonished for his casual approach to
disposal of human remains told them, "What else could I do, I couldn't delay the
train, could I?" Sadly, you won't see such devotion to duty today.
Tubeprune imagines that nowadays the train would have been declared a "scene of
crime" by the police and it would have taken a week to get it removed to depot.
Such is progress.
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Tube stations in tunnel sections are provided
with "suicide pits" (photo).
These were put in during the 1930s because of the high rate of suicides during the
"depression". As the floor of a tube train is low, the underneath is very
cramped and is packed full of equipment. If someone decides to jump in front of a
train, they usually make an awful mess underneath and some poor soul has to "pick up
the pieces". The driver gets a bit of a shock too. In Tubeprune's
experience, a couple of stiff drinks afterwards usually helps. LU gets around 100
suicides a year. A reasonable delay would be about 60 minutes unless the police or
fire brigade get involved, when it can last for hours.
Tubeprune recalls an incident at Victoria
(District) many years ago when a lady decided to end it all and chose to do it under an EB
Circle train at 4:15 in the afternoon, just as the evening peak was building up.
When the local staff investigated, the body was found to be stuck under a bogie, trapped
by the negative shoegear. The LU breakdown gang was informed but they had to come
from Neasden, no quick run at that time of day. In the meantime, the local fire
brigade turned up. The fire brigade (God bless 'em) don't know much about trains,
although they get regular training on the main things, like how to get the current off
etc. But they do love to "play trains" and they love it even more if they
can practice cutting them up.
They decided to chop up the bogie with cutting
gear and spent an hour struggling to get the body out but without success.
Eventually, the LU breakdown gang arrived, got under the train, undid the four bolts
securing the negative shoegear, released the body and sent the fire brigade packing.
Of course, they then had to spend another two hours welding the train back together
again so they could move it and resume the service. A lot of people were
inconvenienced that evening.
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In the days when all trains had manually
operated parking brakes, universally known as handbrakes, some new recruits could be
fooled into thinking they were more complicated than they really were. A new Area
Manager, fresh from his graduate training course, immaculately dressed in his neatly
pressed new uniform but with very little experience of practical railway operations, was
sent to investigate why a particular train had been several minutes late leaving Elephant
(Elephant & Castle, Bakerloo). He met the train on its return trip and, when he
asked the guard the cause of the delay he was duly told that the "handbrake fuse had
blown". The AM wrote up his report and submitted it to the Traffic
Manager. The next day, he was summoned to the Divisional Office and was told in no
uncertain terms how he had been fooled. He later went back to the guard in an
attempt to remonstrate with him and was told, "I thought a man in your position would
have known I was only joking".
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Don't you hate those inconsiderate louts who
take up too much space, poke you with their umbrella or bore you with their idiotic phone
chatter. Now the passengers strike back. These two photos, showing ads posted
inside a Northern Line 1995 Tube Stock car in 2001, say it all. Does anyone know if
they were official or was it really the passengers striking back?
 This is a wonderful rant against space louts and
umbrella idiots.,
Click on the image for the full size view.
 This one is another great rant against mobile
phone bores. Mobile phones don't yet work in London Underground tunnels but the new
privatised communications system will eventually get round to it.
Click on the image for the full size view.
The photos were sent in to Tubeprune by
Donald McGarr.
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In 1939, London Underground started a through
Metropolitan Line service between Uxbridge and Barking. They had already been
running trains from Hammersmith to Barking from 1936 and it was decided to try out the new
service as a precursor to combining all the Metropolitan and District services. This
was a result of the formation of London Transport in 1933 when the Metropolitan Railway
was absorbed into the Underground organisation. It was suggested that trains could
be run, say, from Uxbridge to Upminster and then from Upminster to Wimbledon via either
the northern or southern parts of the Circle Line. There were some doubts about how
to keep trains in maintenance and crews familiar with all the different destinations.
In those days there was a lot of different types of stock and the Metropolitan cars
were quite different from those of the District. The Metropolitan service to Barking
was a first attempt to combine the two lines.
The Uxbridge to Barking service only lasted a
few months. It was found that the additional journey time and the passage through an
additional set of flat junctions at Aldgate East made the service prone to late running
and it was difficult to recover lost time. Recently, it has been suggested that the
Metropolitan should be extended out to Barking again. If this happened, A Stock
would be used. C Stock would not run out to Barking and the Hammersmith service
would terminate at Aldgate.
As there are some gauge infringements along the
route, some work will be necessary to allow the A Stock to run out there and the platforms
will have to be extended at Barking bay platform at least. The locations of OPO CCTV
screens and mirrors will also require alteration at most stations between Aldgate East and
Barking. Some signalling improvements will also be necessary. Oh yes, they
will have to buy some more trains. Tubeprune thinks it should be at least eight
extra. If they were to do this, the C Stock trains released from the Hammersmith to
Barking service will allow a more frequent Hammersmith to Aldgate service.
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There used to be a beautiful display of irises
every summer on the embankment adjacent to the EB track approaching Northfields
(Piccadilly Line). This so took the fancy of one young driver that he stopped his
train short of the station one evening and collected several of the flowers to take home
to his new wife.
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At the north end of the eastbound platform at
Arsenal station, Piccadilly Line, a small staff room, which was formerly the signal cabin,
had a kettle on a gas ring for brewing tea. The staff at the station kept the kettle
full of hot water for the convenience of train drivers, who would run in and fill their
tea cans with hot water from time to time. Unfortunately, the room was closed to
trainmen many years ago after a celebrated incident in which a driver dashed into the room
to fill his can with hot water, only to discover the station foreman and one of the lady
ticket collectors "in flagrante" across the mess room table. The driver
kept his cool sufficiently to fill his can but the couple were somewhat upset at the
interruption and the room was henceforth closed and remained closed forever after.
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The business of making tea used to be an
important ritual for train crews working on the Underground. Hot water was available
at certain locations along each line and crews were allowed to use it for brewing tea as
long as the train was not delayed. Mansion House eastbound was one such
location. The hot water was provided in a room at the east end of the platform where
the driver stopped the front of the train. Prior to starting the trip, the crew
would decide who would make tea during the trip and who would make it at the meal break
time. In the case of Mansion House, the Circle Line driver would take his can and
the guard's and make tea in one of the cans. He would get the hot water at Mansion
House, brew the tea between Mansion House and Monument and, after he left Monument, add
milk. By the time he reached Aldgate, where there was usually some waiting time
allowed, the tea would be ready and he would meet the guard in the middle of the train to
give him his can with half the tea in it.
On the Central Line, it used to be common
practice to nip into the signal cabin at Marble Arch to get a fill up of hot water.
The signalman kept a full boiling kettle as a courtesy to passing trainmen. There
was also a facility provided in a small cubicle at East Acton (WB), not much use if you
had just been through White City where there are crew changes. Thanks to Rick Thomas
for the Central Line information.
When making tea, it was sometimes necessary to
be quick. To avoid delay, some drivers on the District, after collecting hot water
at Mansion House (EB), would make and divide the tea whilst running towards Tower Hill as
usual. At Tower Hill, the driver would stop the train short so he could leave the
guard's tea can at the rear of the platform and then draw the train fully into the
platform to perform station duties. If the driver did it correctly, the guard would
open the door at his position to see a nice hot can of tea standing on the platform in
front of him.
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Driver's cabs have always been a source of much
trouble on London Underground. Generally they are either too hot or too cold.
Droplights were provided in the old stocks' hinged side doors but these didn't give much
of a draught in a hot cab, even in tunnels. In the days when hinged doors were
provided, hot days would see many trains running around with the offside door open.
It was difficult to drive with the nearside door open at it obstructed the controls.
They were designed this way to discourage drivers from running with the nearside door
open.
 Here is a photo of a D Stock cab at Tower Hill
with the offside door left open to provide better ventilation during warm weather.
Click on the image for the full size view.
Powered doors for driver's cabs were first
introduced on the C Stock when it entered service in 1970. The problem was that
there were no longer any droplights in the doors and the cabs got very hot in the
summer. Drivers resorted to either driving with one or both of the cab doors fully
open (unsafe and illegal) or closing the door on a wedge - usually the telephone handset
box (when these were still around) or an empty drinks can. The wedge allowed an
opening of a few inches to let in a little fresh air without the risks associated with a
fully open door. Of course, the doors have interlocks which had to be by-passed to
allow the train to be moved with them open. The passenger door interlocks were
unaffected.
Cab seats are also a source of trouble.
They need to be adjustable, safe and reasonably comfortable but not too comfortable in
case the driver falls asleep, as has happened from time to time.
 This photo shows a C Stock cab with the new cab seat
installed after refurbishment in the early 1990s.
Click on the image for the full size view.
The worst problem was always draughts. Any
"room", travelling at up to 80 km/h, having four doors in an area of less then 2
mē is bound to be draughty unless there is a serious and continuous campaign to eliminate
the draughts.
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Covent Garden station (Piccadilly Line) is said
to be haunted. There have been reports of a man seen wandering the station dressed
in evening wear. When approached, he disappeared. Some staff even refused to
work there because of him.
Jon Bird writes:
London Road Depot (Bakerloo Line) also has
something of a reputation for ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night.
On the eastern side of the depot is a Roman Catholic School, which is presided over by
Nuns (the order of which the ghost is believed to come from)and which stands on the site
of a previous religious institution of some sort. As with anything old and
mysterious rumours run riot. I personally have never seen this ghost (yet) but hope
to, one day.
To the southern end of the depot, there are two
tunnels. One exits onto the running line between Lambeth North and Elephant &
Castle stations, the other is a dead end to prevent runaways etc. However, behind
the wall at the end of this tunnel is one of London's many Plague Pits (That's why there
is a big fuss about the collapsed A2 at Blackheath, another Plague Pit!). To date no
one has ever reported any supernatural going's on from that tunnel, however not many
people like going down there, especially at night.
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This news item appeared on 11 July 2000:
"A Tube train with more than 100 terrified
passengers on board rolled backwards in a tunnel for over half a mile after the driver
apparently fell asleep at the controls. The Northern line train went backwards
through Chalk Farm station, gathering speed all the time. By chance it then went through a
signal at red and an automatic device on the track turned on the train's brakes. (This was
actually a trainstop very close to the block joint of a home signal at Chalk Farm.
It was pure luck that the train was tripped there) There was another train on the same
track further down the line. London Underground today launched an immediate investigation.
"The driver, who has 20 years' experience,
was immediately relieved from duty and questioned. A breath test proved negative and LU is
awaiting the result of a drug test. An LU spokesman said: "He will be subject
to a series of medical examinations. We do not know if he fell asleep. We are taking this
very, very seriously." He was driving one of the new Northern line trains
travelling from central London towards Belsize Park station where, not long after midnight
on Friday, he stopped at a red light. He released the brakes but the train was
"in neutral" and rolled backwards. The "dead man's handle", a
spring-loaded lever which is a safeguard if the driver is taken ill at the controls, would
have stopped the train automatically if released, but the handle was kept in the
"on" position
"The train started to roll backwards
downhill - it is one of the deepest parts of the Underground - alarming passengers, many
of whom were returning from West End clubs and pubs. It continued right the way through
Chalk Farm station, surprising more passengers waiting on the platform, and into the
tunnel the other side. It would have continued but for good fortune and the next
signal being red, despite the train approaching it from the wrong direction. The LU
spokesman confirmed that the train had been stopped by the track device and not by the
actions of the driver.
"'A very full investigation has been
launched into what happened. We have never had anything like this before.' He added:
'After the train came to a stop the driver must have realised what had happened and drove
the train back into Chalk Farm station. At that point he was relieved of duty but we also
ordered the passengers off because we did not know if there was a fault with the train.
They were collected by the next train along.'
"It is known that the driver, who lives in
London, reported for duty at 8pm. He then worked for an hour and took a meal break
between 9pm and 10pm. He had had a rest day two days previously. He was rostered on
a normal scheduled duty and was not working overtime. He was not being named today."
Tubeprune comments (from experience) that it is
very easy to fall asleep in the cab of a train. It is sometimes very difficult not
to if you got up early or you have been working all day. What is really needed is a
run back detector, as on the Victoria Line 1967 Tube Stock.
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A driver based at Northfields (Piccadilly Line),
when there was a trainman's depot there, was in a mischievous mood one day and stood, at
the start of his duty, waiting to pick up his train at Northfields station carrying a
white stick and wearing dark glasses. When the train arrived, he tap-tapped his way
up to the front of the train, rattling his stick against the platform and the sides of the
cars, relieved the driver, stepped into the cab and drove away. Some complaints were
later received at 55 Broadway from aggrieved passengers about employing blind drivers and
the associated safety risks. Needless to say, the driver, whose name was Fred and
who was one of the most skilled and reliable drivers at Northfields, got sent "up the
road" (disciplined) for this little escapade. Fred has long since retired
but Tubeprune has heard stories that this little prank has been repeated from time to time
elsewhere.
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A shunter who worked at Northfields during the
early 1960s always wore bicycle clips, although he didn't have a bicycle and came to work
by train. One day, one of the old-timers there was asked why this man, whose
nickname was "Popeye" on account of his lack of teeth, his wearing of a flat cap
and smoking an old curved pipe, wore bicycle clips. "Oh," the enquirer
was told, "he was walking up the depot road past the rubbish incinerators one night
when a rat ran out and ran right up his trouser leg."
The incident frightened the poor man so much he
fainted with shock and had to be taken to hospital to recover. Although he suffered
no injuries, he was henceforth never seen without the bottoms of his trouser legs firmly
secured by a pair of bicycle clips - and who could blame him?.
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The word "stick" is Underground slang
for signal, so "wrong stick" refers to a signalman offering the wrong route for
a train. When a driver sees the signal showing the wrong route, he is supposed to
stop at the signal and advise the signalman he has been given "the wrong stick".
A favourite for these kind of incidents is at
Hangar Lane Junction, between Ealing Common and Ealing Broadway/North Ealing. It is
at this point that the District and Piccadilly lines, which share the same tracks up to
the junction, diverge. The District goes round to Ealing Broadway while the
Piccadilly goes to North Ealing and stations beyond to Rayners Lane and Uxbridge.
"Wrong Sticks" at this junction are
relatively common. Drivers often fail to notice and take their trains along the
wrong route. After all, the driver is trained to look out for red and yellow
signals, not green ones. On one celebrated occasion, a Piccadilly line driver
accepted a wrong route and took his train round to Ealing Broadway. Once there, he
went through the usual procedure of phoning the signalman to get the route back, quickly
changed ends and took the train back to Ealing Common, where his unlucky passengers were
advised to cross back to the westbound side and wait for the next Piccadilly train to
Rayners Lane. And so they did, but this train also got "the wrong stick"
and the driver also accepted it and took the same lot of passengers round to Ealing
Broadway again. They were not a happy band of passengers.
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You do see the strangest things in the strangest
places. Two pictures sent in by Tube Troll show that the Underground has everything
- even the kitchen sink! A signal gantry on the Piccadilly Line at Ascott
Avenue, South Ealing with, on close inspection, a strange object resting on it. 
Click on the image for the full size views
of both photos.
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In the mid 1920s, London Underground began the
conversion of its sliding door trains to single guard operation. Up to this time,
there had always been two guards on the train as well as the driver. The door
control was divided between the two guards, one operating from the front car, the other
operating from the rear car. The logic behind this system was that it was
considered necessary to have a second man on the leading car in case the driver got into
difficulties, needed help, was taken ill etc. The rear guard was needed for train
protection rules. When a reliable train telephone system became available, the
opportunity was taken to reduce the train staff to two - driver and rear guard.
Naturally, the staff themselves were against this and, in trying to prove the train
telephone system was unreliable so the front guard was essential, some incidents occurred
where the telephone mouthpieces were punctured by someone inserting a pencil into the
microphone to render them useless.
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In August 1966, a guard based at Northfields
(Piccadilly Line) retired after 50 years service. During the whole of his 50 years
on the railway, he worked trains on the Piccadilly Line, having started as a gateman in
August 1916. He was originally based at Lillie Bridge (now the engineers' train
depot near Earls Court), which was the line's only depot when it ran between Finsbury Park
and Hammersmith. He moved to the new depot at Northfields when it opened in 1932
with the extensions to Hounslow and South Harrow and retired there 34 years later.
Now, the trainmen's depot at Northfields is
closed. Trains are stabled and maintained there but the crews "book on"
(sign on) at Acton Town and travel to Northfields if their duty requires them to take a
train from the depot.
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In uk.transport.london, Ben Clifford wrote
in message - 16 November 2000 ...
At the west end of the inner eastbound platform at Whitechapel, just east of the points,
between the rails are two little flashing yellow lights, mounted in the same box, facing
eastbound so that a train driving west would see them. What are these for?
Response by 3518+3227 - 16 November 2000 ...
This is the warning of a TSR; you will see a few feet beyond the yellow lights an inclined
sign in the four-foot, displaying the permitted speed, or a "T" indication
denoting the termination of the restriction. There are currently four TSRs in force
at Whitechapel:-
> Whitechapel no. 21 road (plat 1) 15mph Condition
of track
> Whitechapel no. 23 road (plat 3) 15mph Condition
of track
> Whitechapel (blanket of TSRs)
Various Condition of p/c
> Whitechapel no. 24 road (plat 4) 10mph Condition of
track.
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In 1990, London Underground was looking for a new train
livery to cover the graffiti stained unpainted aluminium exteriors which most of the fleet
had at that time. A number of design houses were asked to look at the whole
corporate livery question and a large amount of money was spent trying to find an
attractive but durable colour scheme. Some trains were tried in experimental
finishes but none really looked the part. After this, some models of trains were
made and painted in various colours.
While all this was going on, a young engineer, Mark Orsman,
took home a general arrangement drawing of one of the cars and tried out a colour scheme,
using his kitchen table as a drawing board. He took the idea back to his office the
next week and it was much admired by all who saw it. The idea was eventually offered
to the London Underground board, who quickly realised they had a winner. The rest is
history. The Underground fleet is now painted in the "Orsman Livery".
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London Underground repeater signals usually show only green
and yellow aspects. It is a standing joke amongst operating instructors at the
Underground railway training school that there is a location on the Underground where
repeaters are red. They ask the question "When does a repeater show red?"
The answer is, at High Street Kensington. This is because the because the
Interlocking Machine Room identification for the area is ED. The stop signals all
begin with the letters ED. The repeater identification plates therefore show the
letters RED, so the identification plate is RED 123 or whatever . The fog
repeaters aren't actually called FRED but on the signalling diagrams, such as in the
Station Supervisor's office on the northbound (outer rail) platform at High St. Ken., they
are shown as FRED.
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Train describers advertising something soothing for
frustrated passengers?
Photo by Tube Troll
In the days when the Neasden train crews' mess room was on
the down fast platform of the station there was a strict division between the Metropolitan
crews and the Bakerloo crews. The main room had a long notice board down the middle
with the Bakerloo duty sheets on one side and the Metropolitan's on the other. The
seating arrangements were similarly arranged, with the Bakerloo men on one side and the
Metropolitan on the other. A similar situation existed at Acton Town where the
facilities were shared by District and Piccadilly crews. Anyone sitting in the wrong
half was always made to feel uncomfortable. If someone transferred from one line to
the other, he had to sit in the new area for his line as he would be politely ignored by
his former colleagues if he continued to sit in the old location.
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At Acton Town, a special crew was always kept for shunting
trains in and out of Acton Works. These men were separate from the usual District
running crews and from the shunters employed in the works itself. Their sole purpose
was to pilot trains to and from the shunt neck used for stock transfers. They were
so rarely used that they spent most of their time in the mess room reading newspapers and
playing cards with anyone on a meal break. They became known as the depot furniture,
since they were only seen to move when the cleaner came round to sweep the floor and had
to move the chairs.
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In the 1950s and 60s, golf was not the popular game it is
today and golf balls were expensive. Many golf clubs used to pay locals who returned
golf balls found in areas around golf courses. Between Boston Manor and
Osterley, the Piccadilly Line runs through a golf course and many balls used to end up on
the track. Drivers sometimes used to stop and pick up balls, particularly on the
empty runs from Northfields to Hounslow early in the morning. One driver, with a
mischievous sense of humour, nailed a golf ball to a sleeper and was amazed by the number
of drivers who later complained that they were looking for some joker who had nailed a
golf ball to a sleeper.
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When the 1973 Tube Stock was first built, the batteries
provided were 4 x 12 volt heavy duty types like those used in buses. At the time,
the Underground bus and rail engineering divisions had recently been combined and this
cost saving idea was one of the products of this reorganisation. It was thought,
quite rightly, that the traditional special large 24 volt "traction" batteries
specially designed for the Underground were expensive and awkward to handle and that it
was sensible to get rid of them for a standard road vehicle type.
Of course, the design office had not reckoned with the
maintenance staff, who quickly realised that these new 12 volt batteries made excellent
replacements for car batteries. A gradual reduction in the available spares was the
first indication that anything was amiss but this soon became a bigger problem when cases
arose of trains cancelled due to "No Batteries". The comment "No
Batteries" on the failures and delays sheet usually meant that the train had flat
batteries and couldn't start the generators for the control services on the train.
However, the appearance of this failure against against a 1973 Stock train was invariably
followed by a note which said "removed by persons unknown". Eventually,
common sense prevailed and all the original 1973 Tube Stock batteries (the ones which were
left anyway) were replaced by a pair of the traditional 24 volt traction batteries.
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This is a booking office window where London Underground
seems to be adopting a new and international approach to its apologies. Obviously
intended for Japanese visitors. Or perhaps someone is offering the backside kicking
position?
Photo by Tube Troll
The first 1967 Tube Stock 4-car unit was delivered to Ruislip
depot on 27th September 1967. It was numbered 3001 - 4001 - 4101 - 3101.
Tubeprune remembers it very well. In those days he was a just a plum. The
wrinkles of his drying process had not yet begun to appear. Nevertheless, he was
invited to see the new train by one of the two Assistant Rolling Stock Engineers, a title
whose initials were unfortunate to say the least and who were often referred to as the
left cheek or the right cheek. Tubeprune digresses. The brand new 1967 Stock
unit was regarded with the same sort of reverence as the first NASA Saturn rocket.
It was very high tech for the time and no one was supposed to look at it, let alone touch
it, without permission from very high authority. It arrived wrapped in
polythene. It was pushed inside the lifting shop and had "targets" left on
it reading "THIS UNIT MUST NOT BE ROBBED". Of course, this was a useless
warning, since there was little on the train that was of much use to the depot, which at
that time was exclusively maintaining 1962 Tube Stock.
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