Within Living Memory

I often think of the Underground of my youth. Most of the memories concern the east end of the Central Line as that is where I spent the first 21 years or so of my life.

• Catching a London bound train from Woodford Platform 1 on a regular basis
• Waiting for the 1960TS with two Standard Stock trailers to emerge from Woodford sidings to take me to Roding Valley - lazy b*gger I know, I could have walked it quicker.
• Clearly remembering main line stock of various descriptions using the line very early in the mornings (I can't have been more than three or four years old).
• The points leading to Temple Mills just south of Leyton.
• Catching a 4-car 1962TS back to Ongar having previously alighted at Blake Hall station
• Being told there were, in fact, no scorpions at Ongar Station, or the derelict Ongar goods yard by a Station Master obviously fed up at kids turning up with buckets to collect them.
• Being able to tell the difference between a 1960TS and 1962TS from my bedroom without actually watching them go past.
• Occasionally deliberately missing out 1960TS to wait for 1967TS from Woodford - sometimes waiting hours until we realised they weren't running that day.

You have stirred up my 77 year old brain.

I remember blue pigmy lamps in the roof of the district line trains and in the tunnel of Upminster Bridge station during the war. I think the full lights were used when the trains were underground, but I don't remember.

Some (at least) of the District line trains had non automatic doors with large (at least to my young eyes) brass door handles and you could travel with them open. Gave a cool breeze in the summer.

I too remember both the terminating platforms at Mansion House, the north one is now a substation. Tower Hill was further west and I think was called Mark Lane.

I remember the slam doors on the Met line as we passed Aldgate but never went on them.

There were odd connections between the district and the then LTS railway, with a signal box near where the lines divert before Bow Road. At Mile End the Central Line was blanked off and further om the tunnels were being used as a factory by Plessey's.

A line crossed the District from the LTS to May and Baker's east of Dagenham East, and at Upminster from the Push and Pull line to Romford across to the LTS line.

Non railway my - father and I were in London during 1945and they started throwing torn up telephone directories out of the windows to celebrate VJ day.

That's all that's come to mind so far.

John

Happy days!! AS a regular commuter on the Northern Line, I too remember the "Sunshine car", the warmer lighting and soft seats of the '38 stock.

Early 20s here, so I don't have much to remember in terms of 'memories', so apologies if this all seems recent to anybody.

- When I was a young'un, I remember travelling on the Central, Northern, Piccadilly, District and Circle. I think only the Central was furbished then with the red-white & blue livery in the 90s. Northern line's 62 (or was it 59) stock with the guards was being phased out at the time, but I loved the vintage-ness of it all. I remember the rare 38 and it's comfy seats.
- Ha I still vividly remember how decrepit Bank's central line platforms were then.
- Being the TFL Journey Planner for the entire family since I had memorised the tube map by the age of 6.
- When the Dome open in 2000 (must've been 11 or so) everyone at school all marvelled at Jubilee line to North Greenwich and how unbelievably cool it was. It was probably the best school trip I had.

keef's mention of guards reminds me that I would always choose the last car to travel in so I could see the guard at work.

What about the smoking carriages? Stinking death traps liberally scattered with tab ends that you'd try to arrange into lines with your feet on the slatted floors of pre-refurb stock. Fantastic!

No Internet, iPods or anything like that in those days so you had to make your own entertainment while heading into town..... 

Woe betide you if you got caught by a ticket inspector smoking while travelling on a child's ticket. I remember one confiscating the remains of my packet of 10 Bensons (I was only 11 so couldn't afford 20) having told us that the only alternative was for him to throw me and my mate off the train at the next station. His nicotine stained fingers rather gave the game away as to his true intentions.

@whistlekiller - You're right: doing away with smoking on public transport and in - especially - offices has been the greatest advance in human happiness since chocolate - now, if you so much as sit next to a smoker, even if they're not smoking at the time, your clothes still stink of their tobacco. Ugh!

My main memories:

When travelling from Old Street to Euston with my parents to visit my aunts, hoping that a red train would come along as I was fascinating with the bare light bulbs. This was back in the mid 70's when I was about 3 or 4.

1962 stock speeding from Mile End to Stratford. Once, it nearly threw me out of my seat.

Unrefurbished A stock with its musty smell. And the fast run from Finchley Road to Wembley.

The 1940 stock on the Waterloo and City line.

Running to get the last morning H$C from Barking, which was them peak hours only.

The 1938 stock coming back to the Northern from 1986 to 1988.

Being scared of the loud compressors on the 59 and 62 stock!

The far more liberal interpretations of speed limits back then!

Interesting thread....

Lying awake at my Grandparents near Newbury Park station, listening to the clanking of the coal trains being shunted

Running into my parent's room at said house having been awakened by the first service train of the day, and demanding to be taken for a ride on the trains...(about 5.30 am?)

Getting my Mum to take me to see the mysterious "West Ruislip", just to see what was there, Standard stock days ( and being slightly disappointed at what I saw!!)

Travelling WB in the morning rush on a very full train of Standard stock with my Grandad, the train would stop with a huge jerk at each station, and then set off with much jerking and clattering from the contactors. Also the way the compressor would noticeably slow down as the train accelerated, voltage drop I guess.

Waiting with my Mum at Gants Hill for my first ever ride on a "silver" train. I think there were only very few 59TS running that day, we waited hours as train after train of "dirty old red ones" came and went, until we took the grand journey of one stop back to Newbury Park in fluorescently lit splendour!! (in hindsight this was probably called "how to keep a small boy amused on a wet Sunday afternoon!)

Catching an (eight-car?) train of 1960TS from Newbury Park WB to Leytonstone, and it stopping just into the tunnel West of NP to do a "Drico" check, as per the rulebook. Sitting as always in the RH seat behind the J door bulkhead I could see and hear it all. It was a Sunday, I recall. Must have been before the cab doors were blanked off for ATO, I guess.

Peering through the frosted windows of the prototype ATO 60TS DM with the front bay out of use to the public, trying to understand how it all worked.

Rushing down the gradient from Leyton WB and launching into the tunnel, ears popping with the pressure drop in the front car (and the window drop-lights being sucked shut with a loud clatter). Almost like a fairground ride........

Like Superteacher, I loved the spirited ride WB from Stratford, with the maximum mph occurring just as the white circles for the Old Ford fan shaft were passed (more ear-popping!)

happy days

As a small boy looking up the embankment under Parsons Green station, watching the train wheels go by; little did I know I'd be a guard there 15 years later! Riding on the A stock when it was new, being impressed by the 60 speed limit signs at Wembley Park; walking into the centre door pillars on some of the Piccadilly Line standard stock; listening to the morning coal train going through Hammersmith, usually hauled by a Jinty; following a steam-hauled ballast train from High Street to Edgware Road on the first one from Wimbledon to Edgware Road in the morning.

I can honestly say I worked on the Underground in steam days!

Standard stock on the Northern City Line and the Mellows Hire coaches that provided the link from Drayton Park to Finsbury Park when that section closed while they built the Victoria Line. Going on the Picc to Southgate to visit Beattie's Model Shop! The BEA coach garage at Hammersmith, housed in the former trolleybus depot. Catching the 660 trolleybus back from a day's spotting at Old Oak and Willesden sheds.

Being a guard on the Met, learning the Met locos and T stock for leaf-clearing services! Learning the 1902 sleet locos, Q stock, seeing C69 stock when it was new.

The other main line crossings east of Bow Road, one into a chemical works at West Ham, the crossing at Upminster from the Romford line to the LTS (already mentioned); F stock on the ELL. Brush Type 2s shunting wagons on the Hainault loop.

As a boy my father taking me into the east London line signal cabin at Whitechapel at the south end of the southbound platform. There was only about six levers. Then at Wapping the booking clerk having to write a paper privilege ticket so I could get home to Plaistow. He was not happy.
As a 16 year old booking office apprentice on Sunday morning collecting the station keys and booking office keys for Shoreditch station and walking up the track to Shoreditch and do the bookwork for the week just gone. As I walked up the track, no uniform, no hivis, I always imagined a train was coming. One sunday two of us apprentices did it so there was much larking about on the track which we did not really know if the current was on or off. Thinking about it no trains ran to Shoreditch then on a Sunday and the rail gap indicators must have been illuminated.

I think I always used to wonder about those dangly things on the Piccadilly Line trains and whether you could swing around on them like Tarzan before they got rid of them

London Midland hast only existed within the past 7 years unless you are referring to something else

How short memories are.

The London Midland Region was one of the originally six (later five) regions of British Rail: broadly the old London Midland & Scottish Railway (apart from the part in Scotland), but some tidying up in the late 1950s transfered the former LNER Marylebone route from the Eastern Region to the LMR.

(johnhw)
"LTS (or were they LMS then) ....in the early '40s"
LTSR was absorbed by the Midland Railway c 1912, which became part of the LMSR in 1923. Although on formation of British railways in 1948 it was initially part of the London Midland Region, it was tranferred to the Eastern in 1949.

(nickf)
Anyone else remember the Morecambe & Wise sketch in which well-spoken city gent (EW) coaches newsvendor (EM) to pronounce "Morning Standard" in posh BBC tones, only to be then sold a newspaper with the masthead "Morny Stannit"?