TRIVIA: Things you saw travelling on the LU that you don't see today

[silverfoxcc]

The level of "black dust" used to be awful , especially on the Northern line in the days of the 59 stock - window ledges used to be particularly bad. Obviously the end of cast iron / composite brake blocks and better tunnel cleaning hugely improved things.

Another lost site are the staff mail boxes on platforms , along with despatch bags being handed to guards.

Saw one today Wembley Park Southbpund Met? anyway on that line twixt Wembley Park and Hillingdon

Also those lovely Bronze/Brass uplighters on the escalators

 

[bluegoblin7]

Saw one today Wembley Park Southbpund Met?

A large number remain in situ but they are all blocked up and out of use.

 

[philthetube]

The guard’s doors weren’t interlocked providing the key was on the panel, so could be opened and closed at any time the train was moving. This applied right up until the end of guard operation in 2000.

The passenger doors wern't interlocked either, in the sense that the driver could depart with the doors open, however the guard could not signal the driver to depart unless all passenger doors were closed.

 

[philthetube]

He also had to press two button to open the passenger doors once he had looked out at a station. I remember the two buttons being separated by one button with a raised shroud which I think was the button to signal go! And they kept looking out until the guards door was nearly in the in tunnel. Exciting stuff.

Still 2 buttons to open and one to close, this is to prevent accidental opening, though this is not likely to happen now because of other safety systems in place. It is probably still in place because of what it would cost to change the safety case,

 

[321over360]

Who would have thought that back in the late 80s or early 90s, not all Central Line trains stopped at Bank Station which there is footage of on Youtube.

Also that some deep level tube stock had more windows for ventilation than just that at the end of the carriage like today (whoever thought back in the 60s that not having side opening windows was sensible is a fool as it just means less ventilation and look at the issue today with hot tube trains even in winter due to the lack of fresh air and an idiotic sense of keeping the heater circuit fuses in place)

 

[AY1975]

In the days when Tube trains had guards, my dad remembers seeing some passengers offering their used tickets to the guard as they got ready to alight, so the guard had to tell them that they needed to give their tickets to the ticket collector at the exit.

They were obviously Glaswegians on their first visit to London, as the driver or guard used to collect the tickets of disembarking passengers on the Glasgow Subway before it was modernised (see also my thread on the pre-1977 Glasgow Subway at www.railforums.co.uk/threads/the-pre-1977-glasgow-subway.180513).

 

[Enthusiast]

Some happy memories from me:

“F” Stock with their two huge oval windows in the driver’s cab (and in the ends of the cars). Last ran on the East London Line. I think they were replaced by 1938 tube stock which looked diminutive and meant a step down of about eight inches from the sub-service platforms.

The coach service between Drayton Park and Finsbury Park whilst the Victoria Line was under construction and the Northern City Line had been truncated.

The “U” tubes filled with mercury suspended over the track east of Barons Court station to prevent sub-surface stock entering the tube tunnels. I believe, though cannot remember for sure, that there was a similar device at Finchley Road to protect (what were then) the Bakerloo Line tunnels.

Pre-1938 Stock running on the Northern City line.

The Met Line locomotive parked up in the siding at Liverpool Street all day. It was awaiting the first evening peak slam door train from Aylesbury, which it would back on to and take the train to Ricky where steam would take over. I travelled on the last steam train from Rickmansworth to Amersham in September (the 9th, I think) 1961. The service was officially truncated to Amersham the next at day when A60 stock took over.

Two or three "T" stock trains parked up in Moorgate. The occasional class 31 (D55xx) loco arriving from Kings Cross (York Way) with a commuter train.

Travelling from Epping to Ongar on a pre-1938 stock train. (I was just too young to do the journey under steam which ended in 1957). I would sometimes alight at Blake Hall and wait for the train to return from Ongar. I would have a roam round and wonder why there was a London Underground station in the middle of (what to me looked like) farmland!

Travelling (just once) on the single “G” stock car (drivers cab at each end) from Acton Town to South Acton.

The lift with the ticket office inside at Aldwych.

Seeing the guard of the Aldwych shuttle press a large brass bell push before leaving Holborn. This rang a bell in the lift at Aldwych so that the station bod could ensure the lift was at the lower level to meet the train.

Trafalgar Square (Bakerloo) and Strand (Northern) stations (both now part of Charing Cross). Charing Cross (District & Circle) now Embankment.

Charing Cross on the Jubilee Line.

Seeing the first “driverless” trains on the Woodford-Hainault line. Craven-built 1960 stock as I recall with a distinctive slope to the driver’s cab.

Standing on Farringdon Station and watching a steam hauled goods train heading to Snow Hill tunnel from the “Widened Lines”.

 

[LUYMun]

Not sure if this already said, but Standard Stock carriages allocated to 1938 tube stock on the Bakerloo.

 

[PeterC]

Not a sight but the smell of leather arm rests on older tube stock.

 

[Enthusiast]

Not sure if this already said, but Standard Stock carriages allocated to 1938 tube stock on the Bakerloo.

You must mean the "58 Trailers".

And I almost forgot - the large train interval clock at the end of the northbound Bakerloo platform at Piccadilly Circus (where the ends of both Bakerloo platforms are in a wide tunnel accommodating a trailing crossover). The clock would trip back to zero as the train (with one of the "58 Trailers") headed out of the station. I seem to recall a set of frequency dials at St James's Park Station. Are they still there?

 

[Mutant Lemming]

Whatever happened to all the ticket hampers ?

Further to this it seems that the whole internal mail / lost property / used ticket system based on the hampers that were despatched on certain booked trains is lost to history. I think it was at one time the guard's responsibility to load and off load the hampers at terminal/interchange points but this was switched to station staff at some point. Am not sure when the hamper system ceased - it would be impractical and insecure to use such a system these days but it was still in use at least for most of the 80s.

 

[pitdiver]

As a former LUL employee but a rare visitor to London, what I noticed the most was the lack of staff being helpful.

 

[AY1975]

Free-standing ticket machines with a diagonal illuminated panel at the top indicating the fare for tickets from that machine.

After these machines were decommissioned, some of them were used as "Authority to Travel" ticket machines for a short while in about the late 1980s/early '90s. The concept was similar to the "Permit to Travel" machines on some BR Network SouthEast lines: if the ticket office was closed and there was no working ticket machine that would sell you the ticket that you wanted, you could obtain an "Authority to Travel" ticket and then pay your fare at your destination.

But whereas with the BR "Permit to Travel" machines you had to pay as much as possible towards your fare, with the LU "Authority to Travel" machines you simply pressed a button and it would then issue one of these special tickets. Not sure how widespread these machines were on the LU; I only ever remember seeing one once - I think it was at Tooting Broadway, Colliers Wood or South Wimbledon.

Presumably this was to enable you to prove that you had come from where you said you had come from. Otherwise you could have got off at Waterloo and asked for a single from Kennington when you had actually come all the way from Morden, Edgware or High Barnet, for example.

There were also excess fare windows at some stations, particularly at the major interchanges. If you hadn't been able (or hadn't had time) to pay your fare where you got on, you were supposed to go to the excess fare window rather than pay your fare at the barrier.

 

[LUYMun]

On summers, trains leave both their doors open at sidings before another passenger service. It was a regular occurrence of the 1973TS at Rayner's Lane siding. Do they do it nowadays?

 

[Mojo]

On summers, trains leave both their doors open at sidings before another passenger service. It was a regular occurrence of the 1973TS at Rayner's Lane siding. Do they do it nowadays?

Yes, I often see this at Rayners Lane. There is no written instruction to do this, or to not do this, it is purely at the discretion of the Train Operator.

 

[bionic]

You tend to find the majority of the drivers who pop the doors open in the sidings are smokers. I'm sure that's just coincidence though.

 

[Ianno87]

Yes, I often see this at Rayners Lane. There is no written instruction to do this, or to not do this, it is purely at the discretion of the Train Operator.

Can be seen at Harrow & Wealdstone too.

 

[bramling]

Yes, I often see this at Rayners Lane. There is no written instruction to do this, or to not do this, it is purely at the discretion of the Train Operator.

One point of order, it’s always a very good idea to wait until after having walked through the train before opening the doors, for obvious reasons!

It’s also practicable to open doors in depots and on reception roads whilst waiting to enter service - especially valuable on a hot day when the train has been sitting in the open between the peaks. However this can introduce pitfalls - forget having opened the doors and wonder why the train’s not moving (or, worse, rolling back into a dead-end depot road with a tight berth!), or on some of the ATO lines open the doors whilst the train is carrying out its “entry checks” into the signalling system and find the train fails the checks and can’t enter service. Both real scenarios which can and do bite people.

 

[Mojo]

It’s also practicable to open doors in depots and on reception roads whilst waiting to enter service - especially valuable on a hot day when the train has been sitting in the open between the peaks. However this can introduce pitfalls - forget having opened the doors and wonder why the train’s not moving (or, worse, rolling back into a dead-end depot road with a tight berth!), or on some of the ATO lines open the doors whilst the train is carrying out its “entry checks” into the signalling system and find the train fails the checks and can’t enter service. Both real scenarios which can and do bite people.

I’ve also reported on an incident whereby the Train Operator opened the doors and in the period the train had been in the siding with the doors open the wind had blown a newspaper that got caught in the train doors as they were closing, causing a delay whilst the Train Operator had to go back and investigate.

 

[Springs Branch]

I don't think the following is still the case, but it's a while since I passed through the stations concerned....

In the 1970s, at some busy Underground stations in the West End, as you descended to the bottom of the first escalator there was a sign saying "Follow the Lights", together with a series of small illuminated panels with names of BR main-line terminals in different colours.

The idea was that different coloured lights were repeated at crucial points in the maze of underground passageways and you followed the appropriate colour through to the correct platform for the Tube heading towards your station. I'm not sure whether or not the colours corresponded to the required lines on the Tube map.

IIRC, the "Follow the Lights" system was only at Tourist Central stations like Piccadilly Circus or Oxford Circus.
And I think only the long-distance London Terminals were covered - Paddington, Euston, Kings Cross etc.

Obviously the system was meant for occasional visitors from distant provinces, not for Home Counties types, who would be expected to know their way around the Metropolis (I don't recall any coloured lights showing the way to Victoria or London Bridge, for example)


Something else I've not noticed on LU recently is sets of red metal Fire buckets full of sand, strategically placed on deep-level platforms. Sand from these seemed to be regularly used to cover pools of vomit on the platform at appropriate times of the week. Today's powder or foam fire extinguishers are probably not as versatile for this purpose.

 

[urbophile]

I don't think the following is still the case, but it's a while since I passed through the stations concerned....

In the 1970s, at some busy Underground stations in the West End, as you descended to the bottom of the first escalator there was a sign saying "Follow the Lights", together with a series of small illuminated panels with names of BR main-line terminals in different colours.

The idea was that different coloured lights were repeated at crucial points in the maze of underground passageways and you followed the appropriate colour through to the correct platform for the Tube heading towards your station. I'm not sure whether or not the colours corresponded to the required lines on the Tube map.

I remember those. I don't think the colours corresponded to the colours of the lines, which made them rather pointless and confusing. A ball of string would have been more useful.

 

[Tom B]

Chocolate machines on platforms!

As to guards, I remember them, but friends slightly younger don't and were bemused at the idea!

 

[LUYMun]

Chocolate machines on platforms!

As to guards, I remember them, but friends slightly younger don't and were bemused at the idea!

Never heard of them and quite curious to ask, what chocolates did those machines sell? How much did they cost? Are there any left?

 

[jellybaby]

Never heard of them and quite curious to ask, what chocolates did those machines sell? How much did they cost? Are there any left?

There is a picture of the later machines at https://www.flickr.com/photos/giantradish/50447994/ . It had various Cadbury bars such as Dairy Milk, Fruit&Nut and Crunchie. They went in 2007 (http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/10/disappearing-chocolate-machines.html).

 

[bramling]

There is a picture of the later machines at https://www.flickr.com/photos/giantradish/50447994/ . It had various Cadbury bars such as Dairy Milk, Fruit&Nut and Crunchie. They went in 2007 (http://london-underground.blogspot.com/2007/10/disappearing-chocolate-machines.html).

I seem to remember they went as part of a project to “declutter” platforms.

From a staff perspective they were a PITA as people were forever losing money in them, the machines being rather unreliable.

 

[ijmad]

Who would have thought that back in the late 80s or early 90s, not all Central Line trains stopped at Bank Station which there is footage of on Youtube.

Interesting, got a link?

 

[Busaholic]

I seem to remember they went as part of a project to “declutter” platforms.

From a staff perspective they were a PITA as people were forever losing money in them, the machines being rather unreliable.

I think I can truthfully say I never managed to obtain a chocolate bar from any machine: perhaps I should add it always took my money, though. Very frustrating, but as I'd experienced chocolate rationing as a kid, it just seemed the chocolate would always stay tantalisingly out of reach. I wonder how many kids took up cigarettes (readily available from machines, which always DID work) instead.

 

[Antman]

Not what I saw but what I heard, on the southbound Northern Line (City branch) the track noise between Camden Town and Euston was like nothing I'd heard before, a few other passengers were grimacing or putting their fingers in their ears.

 

[trebor79]

I don't think the following is still the case, but it's a while since I passed through the stations concerned....

In the 1970s, at some busy Underground stations in the West End, as you descended to the bottom of the first escalator there was a sign saying "Follow the Lights", together with a series of small illuminated panels with names of BR main-line terminals in different colours.

The idea was that different coloured lights were repeated at crucial points in the maze of underground passageways and you followed the appropriate colour through to the correct platform for the Tube heading towards your station. I'm not sure whether or not the colours corresponded to the required lines on the Tube map.

IIRC, the "Follow the Lights" system was only at Tourist Central stations like Piccadilly Circus or Oxford Circus.
And I think only the long-distance London Terminals were covered - Paddington, Euston, Kings Cross etc.

Obviously the system was meant for occasional visitors from distant provinces, not for Home Counties types, who would be expected to know their way around the Metropolis (I don't recall any coloured lights showing the way to Victoria or London Bridge, for example)


Something else I've not noticed on LU recently is sets of red metal Fire buckets full of sand, strategically placed on deep-level platforms. Sand from these seemed to be regularly used to cover pools of vomit on the platform at appropriate times of the week. Today's powder or foam fire extinguishers are probably not as versatile for this purpose.

I remember those. I don't think the colours corresponded to the colours of the lines, which made them rather pointless and confusing. A ball of string would have been more useful.

I noticed parts of this still in situ at Piccadilly Circus. Don't think any lights were illuminated, but there is clearly very old signage with different mainline termini listed. Didn't stop to study it.

 

[trebor79]

I can remember being at the end of the train and the doors just opening into tunnel at stations where the train was too long for the platform. No announcements and selective door opening like there is these days.