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

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stut

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Aldgate Bars?

Sounds about right. I didn't know the area very well in those days - I just remember trying to navigate my way through the confusing tunnels trying to get from Aldgate to Brick Lane!

(I ended up working - in a now demolished building - in Aldgate, for 4 years. The centre had gone by then, and, with the change to the gyratory, the subways were largely unused. Looked very different. Even more different now.)
 

Peter Mugridge

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Sorry about that! Such an evocative sound though, I wonder if there's a recording of it anywhere?
Don't be too sorry; it's quite a nice earworm as earworms go.

I did actually put three laughing smileys in my post but they haven't shown up. Seems to be an Android thing...
 

heart-of-wessex

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I did like the 1992 stock in NSE livery on the W&C, I do miss that it looked rather smart IMO.

Another one, not a sight as such, was the emergency brake being applied sometimes on the Victoria Line 1967TS when the ATO would nearly overshoot the platform (I believe? Not sure how it happened but wasn't at every stop, the times I went on it, it would happen now and again at at least one stop)
 

bramling

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I did like the 1992 stock in NSE livery on the W&C, I do miss that it looked rather smart IMO.

Another one, not a sight as such, was the emergency brake being applied sometimes on the Victoria Line 1967TS when the ATO would nearly overshoot the platform (I believe? Not sure how it happened but wasn't at every stop, the times I went on it, it would happen now and again at at least one stop)

The issue with the 67 stock wasn’t so much overshooting the platform but as ever the need to align accurately with the OPO mirrors/monitors, which in some cases required a very accurate stop to allow the driver to obtain the required view. The 67 stock setup of ATO combined with their course braking system simply wasn’t perfect enough to always achieve this unaided.

Actual overshoots were rare in later days, with the setup having received two upgrades of the braking system in their lifetime, the “new auto driver boxes” and more latterly the “replacement auto driver boxes” which provided a great improvement over the original braking setup. However little can counter the traditional issue of rheostatic braking transitioning to friction braking in the final moments of a stop, even on modern trains this can be inconsistent, and not ideal if aligning with a precisely-angled mirror! Not so much a problem when a train is being driven by a driver as he will generally get a feel for how the individual train behaves, which the Victoria Line ATO system couldn’t do!
 

AY1975

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For a few weeks in about 1984 London Underground produced a one-off (at least AFAIK it was a one-off) children's magazine/comic type publication called the Funderground comic, available from LU ticket offices.

It contained a number of puzzles, interesting facts about the Underground, and a comic strip of a young couple exploring London by Underground who catch sight of a headline in a passenger's newspaper about a spy who is believed to be in London, then they spot him in Madame Tussauds and follow him back to Baker Street station. There they overhear him asking for a single to Victoria, and he takes the Circle Line but rather than follow him they take the Bakerloo Line to Oxford Circus then the Victoria Line so that they get there before him, then they report him to the police and sure enough they manage to catch him.

Such a chase today would be more difficult, because if he was using an Oyster or contactless card, no-one could tell where he was going so all you could do would be to follow him.
 

jon0844

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The free comic has today been replaced by free tissues placed on seats...
 

PeterC

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The mention of Aldgate reminded me of the early days of the D stock and a drunk on the platform banging on the door at Aldgate East rather than pressing the door open button. I can't say that I have seen similar problems with the auto closing on the S stock
 

Tom B

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A little leftover thing that I always notice - at Piccadilly Circus, there are signs advising on "How to get to British Rail stations". I'm pretty sure that at least one of the suggested routes is now superseded by something quicker, but annoyingly I can't remember!
 

sprunt

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A little leftover thing that I always notice - at Piccadilly Circus, there are signs advising on "How to get to British Rail stations". I'm pretty sure that at least one of the suggested routes is now superseded by something quicker, but annoyingly I can't remember!

London Bridge, now quicker to go via Waterloo and the Jubilee Line?
 

AlbertBeale

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London Bridge, now quicker to go via Waterloo and the Jubilee Line?

Given the incredibly lengthy interchange between the Jubilee and anything else at Waterloo, I'm not sure. I'd still stay on the southbound Bakerloo to E&C and nip up the stairs (being in the right Bakerloo carriage of course) to the northbound Northern there.
 

341o2

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Racing between the platforms at Camden Town because you didn't know (in one direction) which branch the train you wanted derived from. This lasted into the early 1970s.
Not so fond memories of the Northern line trying to catch a Barnet train, many times the platform indicator would show "Barnet" then change at the last minute.
Being stationary in tunnel at Camden Town waiting for a path in a crowded, stiflingly hot train
The local press had a field day with the "Cinderella line", the Piccadilly received nice new trains, the ones displaced went to the Northern line
 

Mojo

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It seems like old history when the travelator in that interchange passage actually worked ...
It was switched back on in the passageway several weeks ago, after it was taken out of service following a fatality of a cleaner.
 

1018509

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A class 47 hauling a National Rail breakdown train through Rayners Lane on the day of the Kilburn crash.
 

ijmad

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It was switched back on in the passageway several weeks ago, after it was taken out of service following a fatality of a cleaner.

Will we see an RAIB report on that, or is it outside their purview?
 

Mojo

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Will we see an RAIB report on that, or is it outside their purview?
This incident does not fall within the scope of the Raib as it does not concern the operation of trains, or the infrastructure which facilitates the operation of trains. HMRI (ORR’s safety arm) however are investigating the incident.
 

ijmad

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Not a sight, but still a sense - something I remember from when I was a kid, the overwhelming smell of ozone and brake dust on the Underground.

Definitely present especially on the SSR up until some time in the 90s when they started putting more money in to maintenance, I suppose. I can't remember the last time I smelled that smell. You used to get the brake smell on HSTs too, but the combination with ozone seemed to be unique to the tube.
 

LUYMun

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Met services calling all stations Finchley Rd to Wembley Park Sunday mornings.
Does that mean travelling on the Bakerloo/Jubilee line tracks, or calling at the (now mostly-defunct) Willesden Green and Neasden platforms? I only thought that peak-hour Met journeys to/from Uxbridge did this until 1940/41.
 

bluegoblin7

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Early morning/late evening Met trains would cross over to the Bakerloo/Jubilee tracks and run all stations. This is no longer possible following the removal of key crossovers.
 

Camden

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Three pronged metal pin turnstiles.
Trains with fronts that are lower red and upper silver/white.
Unpainted trains.
Weird looking trains in blue, and green.
A circle line that was a circle.
The East London line.
Drivers closing doors on the heads of those who are too slow.
Tube maps anyone could make sense of.
London connections maps no one could make sense of.
Ability to alight for the mainline at St Pancras and emerge on the concourse in 3 minutes. No map or walking boots needed.
The Victoria and Jubilee Lines seemed modern and snazzy (vs. the Northern Line).
Bouncy sprung, super comfy seats (Metropolitan Line especially).
A single copy of the Evening Standard left behind, comparatively neatly, and someone keenly nabbing it for the journey.
 

AlbertBeale

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...
A circle line that was a circle.
...
At least topologically, even if not geometrically.


...
A single copy of the Evening Standard left behind, comparatively neatly, and someone keenly nabbing it for the journey.
...
And even ditto the Evening News; and, once, the Star, in the days of 3 competing evening papers in London

Piccadilly Line trains terminating at South Harrow, and reversing using the trailing crossover then existing on the viaduct in the Rayners Lane direction.
 

Bedpan

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Weird looking trains in blue, and green.

What were these? Or do you mean Waterloo and City line trains when they were run by BR, green and then repainted in blue before NSE colour scheme?

Drivers closing doors on the heads of those who are too slow.
Surely this still happens, happened to me last time I went on a tube which was February! Except in the old days it was the guards closing the doors.

Which leads me to another thing that you don't see, although with 237 previous posts I wouldn't be surprised if it has already been mentioned, and that is the consoles with the buttons for opening and closing the doors and giving the right away to the driver that were used by the guards who worked from the end of one of the carriages rather than in a compartment of their own.

Ability to alight for the mainline at St Pancras and emerge on the concourse in 3 minutes. No map or walking boots needed.
Being cheekily pedantic, you can still alight from a Circle/Hammersmith and City line train and get to the concourse in 3 minutes. It's just that you have a 10 minute walk down the concourse to get to the platform, unless you are using Eurostar.
 
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