Passengers on Kennington loop

Got a feeling this was fully discussed in a similar thread recently! ;D

Bighat Yeah but which bloody thread!

@rhubarbrhubarb Or that!

Been there, done that
It was quite a slow queue.

I am guessing that in a situation like that the train would be checked and detrained if neccessary when it arrives back at the platform! ;D

Also, quite amusing when you hear doors being slammed when in the loop... and then a knock on the J door, some punter asking where they are! I wonder how many punters actually know of the loop's existence?

The answer could be "between Kennington and Kennington", I suppose...

I joined LT as a direct recruit Guard and had to qualify as a porter before progressing to my actual guards training. While doing the porter bit I spent a week at Kennington where my duties seemed to consist of skulking about in the messroom or standing around on the southbound platforms shouting out “all change” whenever a reverser came in. It didn't matter if I shouted at passengers on a City or CX train. They got off anyway. If I got it wrong and it was a through train they would all stand around and look confused. At that point I always decided that I was needed top station for a while.

I was a Tunnel Tiger, and as traincrew on the Northern, it was certainly not unknown to take passengers round the loop. Particularly good fun were the late night drunks. They would get woken up on the southbound, just enough so that they became aware of where they were but left to 'relax' a little. Then off round the loop to the NB where they would get removed from the train. Kennington NB was, to say the least, a little bleak at around midnight and as you meandered off to go north they could be seen looking around, obviously wondering what had happened. They had been at Kennington when the train stopped at the previous station. Where on earth were they now; shouldn't it have been Oval?

Train crew did not like taking passengers into the sidings, particularly if you were going down the bottom. If you got stuck down there you were going to be there for a long time and, in those days there was no communications at all apart from DriCo which no one used as you would get filthy getting it all out. It stank down there. Yes, on paper there was a bolt hole and passage to Oval station. I reality you did not dare leave the train in case the stick came off for you to move up to the sidings outlet and in any case, the access to Oval was on the wrong side of the track and several yards up the tunnel from the platforms. About 20 yards I seem to recall. Passengers on the platform got a bit upset to see people wandering out of the tunnel and when you got there there didn't seem to be anywhere else to go.

All of this was on the '38 tube stock of course. Ah! Happy days.

I found once found a spare king pin in the depot. As I knew I was going round the loop during that shift, and knew that Keith, the Kennington car examiner would be on duty I took it with me, then put out a call for him to meet me. My guard and I fiddled around in the SB platform to be reasonably sure that we would have a clear run round the loop. Doing about 25 MPH round there I innocently gave to king pin to Keith and told him it had come out of that little trap door in the floor, just behind the cab. His face was a real picture. I believe he had to change his underwear once he got off the train. All good fun in those days.

Not sure if it's allowed, but since it's rumored the Kennington loop is haunted (Who spread that rumor, actually? Some LT guy to prevent people from staying on the loop due to 'ghosts')

Could be overcarried passengers moving forwards to find out what is going on!

There are loads of places on the Northern Line which are supposed to be haunted -- Kennington Loop, South Island Place, Tooting Broadway Siding, Stockwell Sidings, South Kentish Town, etc.

I've spent a lot of time at every one of the above and have never seen anything out of the ordinary (yet?!).

I have found there is a slightly sinister 'feel' to the tunnel between Oval and Stockwell when walking, but I've put this down to the tunnel lights being in a different location to normal (leading to unusual shadows being cast as one walks forwards), the general wetness of the tunnels in this area, the age of the tunnels here, and maybe also the unusually high number of ventilation shafts in the area leading to the section being unusually cool for a Tube tunnel (Kennington Park, Oval, Stockwell station x 2, Stockwell Substation, Union Road).

Straying very much off topic really, but isn't Covent Garden said to be haunted because of it's depth and the strange noises emitting in the 160+ feet between street and platform level, though there is an accompanying story too which probably whips the fear up when the two combine.

I have never seen any ghosts on the Underground Yet but I think with the stations being old there is bound to be strange noises. Are all underground stations haunted?

For some reason, most 'identified' ghosts were all murdered... odd..

Its interesting that you say that - hundreds of people were killed in that spot.

Above ground. It was a place of execution (that's why the church was later built there)