Haynes London Underground Manual, anyone read it?

[PaxmanValenta]

For a while I had been considering buying the Haynes London Underground manual until I had a look at a library copy and was severely dissapointed :cry:

Unlike other Haynes manuals on Concorde, Heathrow airport, flying Scotsman etc the Underground manual was more like a chronological history book of the tube through time, with poor photos and lacking techinical diagrams, cutaways and other details. There are a lot of London Underground history books already in this format, I have a few, so its beyond me why Haynes decided to make yet another one and miss a golden opportunity to create a unique manual on all those technical aspects people didn't know a lot about.

How it should have been.

There is a tremendous amount of stuff that could have been put into a manual on the London Underground.
Diagrams and illustrations of how the 'cut and cover' method was done with how bricks were arranged. Deep tunnelling. Diagrams and cutaways of a typical interchange station, for example Embankment or Kingscross, with ventilation ducts foot bridge construction etc. How stations are maintained, fire prevention etc.

How lifts and escalators work on the underground worthy of at least a chapter on each, and use of Kings cross as an example of how the wooden escalators tragically caught fire in 1987.

Details on a few examples of tube trains such as 1938 stock, you could almost write a full manual on that topic alone! Certainly a chapter each for say 3 different types of train. How the motor bogies work, how the doors open and close, couplings between carriages and how they connect and detach. Safety checks, overhauls etc.

How trains run as part of the tube system, signalling, permanent way, third rail, electrical and power supply etc.

I'm no expert of the London Underground but the book Haynes made on it was a total dissapointment, a complete fail. Why on earth did they not consider doing it more like a manual with topics like I suggested above?

I can only hope and prey that Haynes produces a second or revised edition of this book in the format I have suggested.

 

[trash80]

I own it, i did get it for 6 quid from The Works though, i probably wouldn't have got it full price. I think its a decent book, but i hear what you say about technical info and agree a book on the workings would be excellent though but The London Electric Train by Piers Connor can't be beat for rolling stock info. Subscribing to Underground News would also be a good idea...

 

[Clip]

How it should have been.

There is a tremendous amount of stuff that could have been put into a manual on the London Underground.
Diagrams and illustrations of how the 'cut and cover' method was done with how bricks were arranged. Deep tunnelling. Diagrams and cutaways of a typical interchange station, for example Embankment or Kingscross, with ventilation ducts foot bridge construction etc. How stations are maintained, fire prevention etc.

How lifts and escalators work on the underground worthy of at least a chapter on each, and use of Kings cross as an example of how the wooden escalators tragically caught fire in 1987.

Details on a few examples of tube trains such as 1938 stock, you could almost write a full manual on that topic alone! Certainly a chapter each for say 3 different types of train. How the motor bogies work, how the doors open and close, couplings between carriages and how they connect and detach. Safety checks, overhauls etc.

How trains run as part of the tube system, signalling, permanent way, third rail, electrical and power supply etc.

I'm no expert of the London Underground but the book Haynes made on it was a total dissapointment, a complete fail. Why on earth did they not consider doing it more like a manual with topics like I suggested above?
[/B]

Comparing with the other books you mention just how big a book do you think it would be if they had everything in there you wanted?