Tag: london underground

  • Runaway tube trains #2

    In the first part of this we looked at runaway trains on the Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly Lines and continue with the latter two. This second and a third part takes a look at those lines which one would assume did not have runaway trains of any sort. However its a surprise when one…

  • Runaway tube trains

    Imagine a tube train that somehow finds its own way through tunnels. People may think it never happens but these ‘ghost’ tube trains do happen to be reality and whats more they carry a number passengers, no doubt quite terrified in some instances when their trains does strange things or travels through the tube tunnels…

  • Another installment in the Baker Street track replacement works series! This time we can see the entire track layout at Baker Street consists of flat bottom rail, and I assume the work here has been done (apart from tidying things up and removing the other spare bits of flat bottom rail on the pit floor.)…

  • Fifty years ago in February 1959, the last tube trains to served this particular station were withdrawn. The station itself eventually became hidden for good by huge advertising boards and the only proper reminder it ever existed was a footbridge that apparently went nowhere! Recently these advertising hoardings came down and the station once again…

  • The very unusual mixed rail track at Baker Street is no more. It lasted probably just one day! What we now see is the more traditional kind of bullhead/flat bottom rail interface rather than each type on the same section of track. These pictures were taken this evening (24th January) when the platform was generally…

  • The UK’s railways have one type or another of rail which are flatbottom or the increasingly rarer bullhead. London’s underground still has a fair bit of bullhead although this is gradually being replaced with more modern flat bottom rail. Although sections of flatbottom and bullhead can often be found connected end on with special spacers…

  • Tube Viaduct Mystery!

    Remember the Arnos Park viaduct mystery? How many arches did it actually have? Here’s another London Underground Piccadilly line viaduct mystery. And this time the answer is a balls up… Let me explain. Arnos Grove station has an exhibition on its footbridge detailing the history and construction of the station and the Piccadilly’s extension to…

  • By Underground to Shanklin

    This year was the 50th anniversary of the Isle of Wight’s ‘underground’, an anniversary that appears to have been missed! There may have been local celebrations however the news archives at the British Library had nothing on record. Instead the 150th anniversary of the line was celebrated in 2014. The 2016 anniversary of 50 years…

  • TfL’s new mascot?

    The new guy on the tube? He’s the aristocrat who’s helping TfL with their awareness campaigns…. He’s meant to be promoting safety on the escalators…but so far response from the travelling public has been rather biting, even quite rude. Sir Roundlington’s no doubt risen from the depths of nowhere to assert prime spot as TfL’s…

  • Arnos Park Viaduct on the Piccadilly Line is the biggest brick viaduct ever built for London’s underground under the LPTB. 3 million bricks were used in its construction and the viaduct was built in the early 1930s, with the railway upon it to Southgate, Oakwood and Cockfosters opening in 1933. The viaduct is also the…