Dust Cloud (not volcanic)

Get this reported to a Station Supervisor so that it can be follwed up.

As the station staff know the area better it would probably be best. And it's rare that a passenger manages to get into a control room (has been a few years!)

You cheeky monkey ;D ;D

Probably from the Colina Road fanshaft, nothing unusual if trains pass at line speed.

But yes probably suggests the shaft could benefit from cleaning, in which case the Turnpike Lane supervisor is the best person to advise.

I've never noticed any influx of dust at this point as a driver (or, admittedly, as a passenger either - but that's far more infrequent - once a month as a passenger as opposed to eight to ten times a week as a driver). That said, there is very little light in the cab so unless it was dense enough to be noticeable in the dark or to have an immediate and obvious effect on my nose, there wouldn't be much chance of noticing it anyway. I was about to say I'll keep an eye out over the next few days, but come to think of it, I have one shift this week and only one driving shift next week, then I'm on leave..!

I have often noticed the loud "whoosh" followed by clouds of fine dust between Manor and Turnpike Lane - in fact, it happened only today! I hate it because I can actually taste the dust (although it's not always visible).

Because the visible dust was very fine and whitish, I always naively imagined it was the piston effect of the two trains meeting and forcing air at a higher pressure through the ventilation fan thingy on the ceiling, dislodging the usual dust etc lodged in the fan rather than tunnel dust being sucked in.

It happens every time two trains moving at line speed between those two stations pass each other, about halfway between them as the OP noted. Only seems to happen Eastbound, and happens virtually every time I'm on a train going at a "proper" speed towards Turnpike Lane - I've never seen it Westbound though. Of course, few peak Eastbound services actually go at line speed between Manor House and Turnpike Lane as they're usually blocking back from Arnos Grove, so luckily I don't experience the dustcloud that often!

Hmmm. A large amount of dust near Holloway Road and Finsbury Park. I'd have a chat first with the cleaners of a particular football team's trophy cabinet....

I dunno, you should all think yourselves lucky at just how clean the premier Underground line is these days compared to 30 years ago! (As I was a Picc lineman I have to be patriotic!).

When we were resignalling years ago, not just the Picc but all the tube lines, we would drop the working cables from the tunnel brackets into balata straps slung beneath to clear the runs for new cable and then gradually sort and put back those that were to remain in use. This used to disturb a lot of dust and back then there was no vacuum cleaner train. The first couple of trains through every morning used to push a very dark dust cloud ahead of them often arriving at station platforms ahead of the train and covering everything in little black smuts including the passengers. I once watched a woman wearing a white suit literally turn grey as the first Southbound Northern train entered Chalk Farm one morning after we had been dropping cables during the night.
Arsenal, Holloway Road and Caledonian Road have always been particularly dusty stations but Manor House and Turnpike Lane have been clean in comparison. Perhaps there has been some disturbance to equipment in the area, that is the most common cause of dust clouds as the dust normally clumps together and sticks to surfaces as it is usually greasy and relatively dense.

It happened again last night, just before midnight, carriage number 222 (nice and easy to remember!)