Trains stopping @ Willesden Green

There was a fair amount of "tidying" done at Willesden (I believe the platform surfaces were re-surfaced a few months back.)

The Met trains do indeed use the Met platforms. Often the closure on the Jubilee is due to works being carried out on the full length of the line that is closed, so using the Jubilee line - even for the section between Neasden and Finchley Road (where the Met's would have to enter/exit the Jubilee) is out of the question.

It would be unlikely at least for the foreseeable future. The staffing arrangements that are needed just to run the weekend services at Willesden are enough to scupper it.

The tidying was originally done so that should the service be required to stop at Willesden during this sort of engineering work, then the surface would be fit for people to walk on etc. The irony is the Jubilee works may be over half completed, and yet it is only in the last few weeks the stopping at Willesden has commenced.

Personally, I would rather Neasden and Willesden remained Jubilee only. Stopping at either or both would slow things right down between Finchley Road and Wembley, and a review of signalling may need to take place to avoid us being forever signal to signal with trains in that section.

The Piccs stop late at night when the line capacity can manage cope with it. Turnham Green is more of an interchange than Willesden or Neasden due to the island platforms anyway.
The Picc managment have tried to get the Picc non stopped at Turnham Green completely in the past, but the locals raised their voices in a campaign to keep the late night stopping. At one time the stop was actually removed from the incar diagrams.

The real advantage to Piccadilly Line trains stopping at Turnham Green would be for interchange between the Richmond and Heathrow branches that currently requires either two changes or travelling via Hammersmith.

That would have been nice

Using the Met, cross platform at Finchley Road has always been the preferred option for interchange to the Bakerloo/Jubilee, over Baker Street. And Wembley Park is needed as an 'outer' interchange (but there is no need I would say for fast (Amersham &c) Mets to stop there).
As regards Neasden and Willesden Green, I cannot see any justification for stopping Mets there normally - but the Met platforms should be kept serviceable , so that Met stops can be made when necessary, when (for whatever reason) a normal service cannot be run.

You mean the Met. is *more* than a commuter line?

I see the indomitable spirit post-1933 is still entrenched.

Is there not a possibility that the Met could have become part of the GWR instead of the LNER?

This deserves to be in Historical say and so I will not post anything more here. It certainly deserves seperate discussion!

However I seem to recall that the half-share [?] in the Hammersmith & City Joint Stock was the GWR's only interest in electric railway vehicles. Would the Met directors have elected to join the GWR instead of the LNER post-grouping, as against retaining independence?

As an aside, wasn't there also a connection with the Met on the West London Extension Railway? I'm thinking of the Uxbridge Road branch and the goods traffic from the LSWR/SR and Midland/LMSR via Turnham Green.

Let us turn the clock back a few years, to just before the Jubilee Extension and Neasden Control Centre, and to before the crossover from northbound Met to northbound Jubilee at Finchley Road was withdrawn.

At this point in time, if the Met experienced any problems between Neasden and Finchley Road, or if the Jubilee had severe delays and very few trains between the 2 stations, it was a fairly common occurrence to divert a Met via the Jubilee. Indeed, back then, there were booked early morning Met services that ran via the Jubilee line.

I think there were a handful of Jubilee Line trains that ended up on the Met, and at least one I can remember coming down as far south as Baker Street. Very few of them were actually "planned" diversions ;D

Nowadays, well let's say it's not so common. The crossover is gone, so northbound diversions are impossible. Southbound, the Met has achieved the odd diversion, but it has almost taken an act of parliament to get agreement for it to happen. It has nothing to do with any gauging issue, but more to do with delaying the Jubilee line service (which it can do, by a minute or 2, but it's hardly a huge cost for allowing a trainload of stranded passengers on a Met to get on the move.)

In the future, it will be even less likely, once the Jubilee moves onto full ATO unless the Met trains are fitted with the same or compatible system.

By 1923 the only passenger service was the Met. It was also electrified on the Met's system.

From CULG:

"on 1925-01-01 it was transferred to the Southern Railway (which had absorbed three of the six lessors), who immediately leased it back to the consortium.

The [MDR] abandoned the services in 1905 and the [Met] in 1906, leaving the line to the main-line companies, who saw it mostly as a goods rather than passenger route. In 1913 [after electrification] the Metropolitan Railway came back to the line, providing passenger services throughout."

To me, the Uxbridge branch resembles a commuter line; while the lines to Watford and Amersham resemble the "main line."

Yes there is apparently a "list" that has removal of all things that would cause "problems" with the new control of the line. I don't think the connections to Neasden depot are on it - but removing these would be typical of the "remove it rather than work out a solution" attitude that is becoming clear - especially as it now seems they are blaming such "problems" for the delay to the completion of the upgrade.

Ownership was indeed the 'connection' I was referring to.

The east London Railway was owned jointly by the Great Eastern, the London, Brighton & South Coast, the London, the South Eastern & Chatham Railway, the Metropolitan, and the Metropolitan District.

Of course the ELR was only a small part of the Met's service (and could easily have been run by the Southern after 1925). Not really enough of a connection to have pushed the Met into the hands of the Southern.

LNER makes the most sense IMO (GC lines). Perhaps the GN&C would have become part of the LNER?