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Post by melikepie on Jan 22, 2014 16:40:12 GMT
Actually now I remember before FCC covered everything in purple (and WAGN before that) I did like the NWSE colours.
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Post by nickf on Jan 22, 2014 16:48:10 GMT
The Guinness posters opposite the platforms. An ostrich with the shape of a pint glass in its throat, Someone carrying an RSJ (I think). And in the cars I remember a very odd poster for some sort of energy pill that was coated (so they said) with silver - which was supposed to be a good thing.
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
Posts: 1,275
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Post by roythebus on Jan 22, 2014 22:13:17 GMT
There WAS another crossing between Bow Road and West Ham or Plaistow. ISTR the May & Bakers crossing was removed before my days on the DR! To answer Jtuthill, I've not reached pension age yet!! BUT, mum'n'dad got a telegram from The Queen for their 60th wedding anniversary! Mind you, having said that, I did get my BR pension a few years ago Also remembering the LOB adverts on the A stock, encouraging businesses to move out of London (LOB=Location of Offices Bureau, one of the first quangos?) Delivering newspapers newspaper on the Met Main, only the Stannit, the News had finished by then! Internal mail hampers. Being the first person to drive a train on the new formation at Wimbledon when that was relaid in 1971. Semaphores at Richmond with an intermediate block between Kew and Richmond. Signal boxes on the Wimbledon line, East Putney, Grove Road, Southfields, Revelstoke Road, Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon. Coupling the 2 car sets at Parsons Green in the afternoon...
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Post by Chris W on Jan 22, 2014 23:32:43 GMT
I can remember waiting at Bromley-by-Bow in August 1980 aged 8, deliberately missing a bus red CO/CP stock to wait for a later... and very new D stock unit with bright maple (orange) floors and working door buttons... [stamps 41 year old feet] Why why why[/stops stamping 41 year old feet] !!! What I wouldn't give now to enjoy my final CO/CP stock ride !!!??
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Post by John Tuthill on Jan 22, 2014 23:53:14 GMT
There WAS another crossing between Bow Road and West Ham or Plaistow. ISTR the May & Bakers crossing was removed before my days on the DR! To answer Jtuthill, I've not reached pension age yet!! BUT, mum'n'dad got a telegram from The Queen for their 60th wedding anniversary! Mind you, having said that, I did get my BR pension a few years ago Also remembering the LOB adverts on the A stock, encouraging businesses to move out of London (LOB=Location of Offices Bureau, one of the first quangos?) Delivering newspapers newspaper on the Met Main, only the Stannit, the News had finished by then! Internal mail hampers. Being the first person to drive a train on the new formation at Wimbledon when that was relaid in 1971. Semaphores at Richmond with an intermediate block between Kew and Richmond. Signal boxes on the Wimbledon line, East Putney, Grove Road, Southfields, Revelstoke Road, Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon. Coupling the 2 car sets at Parsons Green in the afternoon... Roy, I'm so envious of you(It's OK I'm 66) Remember the first time I saw a Met electric loco. I had an Irish grandfather, and yes he could and did get lost on the Circle Line. We'd gone from Shepherds Bush to the Bank on Standard stock, seemed to go on for ever to end up at the Monument platforms, we were going to see his brother in Bow; but we were on a Circle line train! He realised his mistake when we pulled into Liverpool Street. Fortunately for me we were in the first car, and when we got off sitting in the shunt was a "thing" I had no idea what it was (I was 7 at the time). We eventually got to Bow, but it's one of those memories that will always stay with you
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Post by revupminster on Jan 23, 2014 0:36:03 GMT
The chemical works at West Ham was Berk Chemicals and they as far as I know never accessed the C2C tracks across the District because it was up on an Embankment BUT they could have accessed the North/ South tracks of the North Woolwich line. Old ordinance survey maps indicate an alignment but I cannot find anything definite.
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Post by grahamhewett on Jan 23, 2014 9:16:01 GMT
nickf - there seemed to be local variants on the newspaper vendors' cries - in Ealing, outside our house, the order was different: "Newstarnstannart".
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Post by phillw48 on Jan 23, 2014 9:19:33 GMT
There was a crossing near Plaistow but I don't know what it connected too. The May & Bakers crossover was in use until the 1960's and was not removed until about 1970, the cut off siding itself retained tracks until the mid 90's.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 10:02:03 GMT
The electrical/brake smell in many places on the system and the slightly foggy look at many of the station platforms south of the river on the Northern line
How much brighter stations looked when the strip lighting was put onto platforms like Stepney Green and how gloomy Mile End and Stepney Green looked when platform lighting was by bulbs
Being taken by my nan to watch the trains from the car park and seeing the first silver trains on the central
The Q stock on the district a pal of mine who was also a fan of the underground said that Q stock was like going into your grans siting room !!
Being taken for days out in London when I was a small child and enjoying the underground ride to get there more than the day out
A limited Christmas day service on parts of the system till about 23:00 - I went from Leytonstone to Liverpool street xmas day 1973 to then walk to Peckham to see a girl friend - not many passengers on the train !!
When people were called passengers not customers - customers to me sounds so patronising
Getting the staff train from hainault to leytonstone at about 00:30 having seen a girl friend home (I worked on the buses by then so access to the staff train was not a problem)
When you could have a smoke on a train and how no matter how packed the smoking cars were smokers managed not to burn each other
The District sports day special from Upminster to Acton and back it ran once a year on a Sunday - A mate of mine worked on the underground who did discos in his spare time and I used to do the tech stuff for him. He was asked if he could do a disco in the train it was R stock we did it using 24v batteries to run a mains inverter and used taped records. the cars had coloured strip lighting fitted and 7in singles stuck to the windows. The looks from passengers on platforms as we passed through was a picture. I was with SWMBO by the time I did the last one she was amazed how big the train was from ground level when she saw it an Upminster depot
All in all in the 60's and 70's there was a very special feel to the Underground now lost in the mists of time
Nostalgia is a wonderful thing and the internet is a great way to share it
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Post by trt on Jan 23, 2014 11:41:36 GMT
I do remember the grimy smoking cars and the wooden battens on the train floors. The sound of the wooden escalators was something else too - very organic, a lot of bass.
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Post by oe on Jan 23, 2014 11:53:07 GMT
Re the Berk Chemicals sidings: Both the 1948-51 and the 1967-70 1:2,5000 maps on Old-maps.co.uk show tracks slewing across the District tracks from just west of the abbey curve into the sidings of Berk Chemicals. Photo's from Britain from above.org.uk are mostly inconclusive but one image titled "The Redline-Glico Works and Upper Abbey Mills Junction, Mill Meads, 1932" image ref EPW037911 appears to show tracks crossing the District line to the sidings.
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Post by grahamhewett on Jan 23, 2014 12:38:35 GMT
lulfan - "Customers"? It can only be a matter of a short time before they become "guests".
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neilw
now that's what I call a garden railway
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Post by neilw on Jan 23, 2014 13:13:43 GMT
or even worse, "clients"........
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Post by nickf on Jan 23, 2014 14:05:11 GMT
...patrons?
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Post by grahamhewett on Jan 23, 2014 14:28:55 GMT
nickf - One of the delay attribution codes used by Iarnrod Eireann is "Awaiting host". Hitherto I had assumed that it arose because Fr O'Reilly was a bit late arriving with the viaticum, now you've given me food for thought...
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Post by nickf on Jan 23, 2014 15:28:16 GMT
nickf - One of the delay attribution codes used by Iarnrod Eireann is "Awaiting host". Hitherto I had assumed that it arose because Fr O'Reilly was a bit late arriving with the viaticum, now you've given me food for thought... To quote Tom Lehrer, "Two, four, six, eight: time to transubstantiate."
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Post by londonstuff on Jan 23, 2014 16:04:20 GMT
Thread driiiiiiiiift. Let's keep on topic - it's a great thread
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Post by whistlekiller2000 on Jan 23, 2014 16:37:27 GMT
Thread driiiiiiiiift. Let's keep on topic - it's a great thread Never getting told off by a scouser for wandering off topic in the good old days when the Central line still had guards !
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class411
Operations: Normal
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Post by class411 on Jan 23, 2014 17:51:48 GMT
nickf - there seemed to be local variants on the newspaper vendors' cries - in Ealing, outside our house, the order was different: "Newstarnstannart". In Ealing near our house it was 'Newsernstannart". I still refer to Bromley South as "Bromley's 'arf" because, before recorded announcements, the porter at Whistable (Eric) would always read the destination list as: Faversham, Sittingborne, Gillingam, Chatham, Bromleysarf an' London Victoria (They didn't want passengers for Southend or Manchester getting on the wrong train.) Of course, now, the announcement is: Faversham, Teynham, Sittingborne, Newington, Rainham, Gillingam, Chatham, Rochester, Moepham, Longfield, Bromley South and London Victoria. They've had to extend the journey time considerably so that they can get the announcements in. What is scary is that when I thought about this the other day I realised that this change was well over 30 years ago!
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lt
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Post by lt on Jan 23, 2014 18:14:06 GMT
Remember many years ago travelling in the guards coach on 62TS, chatting to him about Wood Lane and other closed stations, he opened his door as we went through the old Kingsway station, couldn't see much from the passenger side of the guards barrier, but a better view than out of the window.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 19:22:19 GMT
nickf - there seemed to be local variants on the newspaper vendors' cries - in Ealing, outside our house, the order was different: "Newstarnstannart". In Ealing near our house it was 'Newsernstannart". I still refer to Bromley South as "Bromley's 'arf" because, before recorded announcements, the porter at Whistable (Eric) would always read the destination list as: Faversham, Sittingborne, Gillingam, Chatham, Bromleysarf an' London Victoria (They didn't want passengers for Southend or Manchester getting on the wrong train.) Of course, now, the announcement is: Faversham, Teynham, Sittingborne, Newington, Rainham, Gillingam, Chatham, Rochester, Moepham, Longfield, Bromley South and London Victoria. They've had to extend the journey time considerably so that they can get the announcements in. What is scary is that when I thought about this the other day I realised that this change was well over 30 years ago!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 19:29:14 GMT
nickf - there seemed to be local variants on the newspaper vendors' cries - in Ealing, outside our house, the order was different: "Newstarnstannart". In Ealing near our house it was 'Newsernstannart". I still refer to Bromley South as "Bromley's 'arf" because, before recorded announcements, the porter at Whistable (Eric) would always read the destination list as: Faversham, Sittingborne, Gillingam, Chatham, Bromleysarf an' London Victoria (They didn't want passengers for Southend or Manchester getting on the wrong train.) Of course, now, the announcement is: Faversham, Teynham, Sittingborne, Newington, Rainham, Gillingam, Chatham, Rochester, Moepham, Longfield, Bromley South and London Victoria. They've had to extend the journey time considerably so that they can get the announcements in. What is scary is that when I thought about this the other day I realised that this change was well over 30 years ago! This reminds me of a book I read some years ago about a lady describing her very middle class childhood in south-Herts around 1900. She and her sisters thought it was ever so funny to hear the man on the platform at Finsbury Park shouting 'arringay', 'ornsey' etc. when their train approached.
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
Posts: 1,275
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Post by roythebus on Jan 23, 2014 21:18:42 GMT
Ah, Q stock, especially the Q23s where the guard had his own little compartment to hide in, and hinged doors! everything on the Q stock worked on line volts except the EP brake and the guard's controls! Battery powered.
The last Q I worked was with Rick Thomas and Motorman Patel, 2 pairs of Q38s with R stock trailer going for scrap, empty from Upminster to Ealing Common.
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Post by nickf on Jan 23, 2014 21:26:23 GMT
Is my memory playing tricks, or was there once a pub in Piccadilly Circus station.....rather Spartan and with Irish names for its bars, one of them the Connaught Bar? I could be completely out here, but the memory is nagging.
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Post by John Tuthill on Jan 23, 2014 21:34:00 GMT
Is my memory playing tricks, or was there once a pub in Piccadilly Circus station.....rather Spartan and with Irish names for its bars, one of them the Connaught Bar? I could be completely out here, but the memory is nagging. There used to be a bar at Sloane Square, can't remember which platform it was on.
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Post by superteacher on Jan 23, 2014 22:55:11 GMT
Like someone mentioned earlier, I too often enjoyed the train ride more than the place that I was visiting! I would spend hours dragging my grandad around the network, going no place in particular. When I got older, I dragged myself and my friends around the system, going to places just for the sake of it. I always found time to take my grandad out occasionally though. Happy days.
I remember the smells of the underground too. I can"t describe it, but it doesn't smell the same these days. And of course, the smell of brake blocks and the station being filled with brake dust after a late and heavy application! I always recall being on a 1973 stock train which had just left Barons Court eastbound. if was motoring full pelt as it entered the tunnel and just as it did, the air pressure forced a huge cloud of dust from some of the front seats. it was, to say the least, an edge of your seat ride down to Earls Court!
Another memory dates from around 1990, when there was a series of bomb alerts. I was on a westbound 1962 stock train on the Central, which passed through most of the city and west end stations because they had been closed due to security alerts. The driver interpreted the "5mph at station starter" instruction, shall we say, somewhat liberally!
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DWS
every second count's
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Post by DWS on Jan 24, 2014 0:00:35 GMT
Is my memory playing tricks, or was there once a pub in Piccadilly Circus station.....rather Spartan and with Irish names for its bars, one of them the Connaught Bar? I could be completely out here, but the memory is nagging. There used to be a bar at Sloane Square, can't remember which platform it was on. The bar was on the Westbound platform at Sloane Square.
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class411
Operations: Normal
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Post by class411 on Jan 24, 2014 9:05:40 GMT
In Ealing near our house it was 'Newsernstannart". I still refer to Bromley South as "Bromley's 'arf" because, before recorded announcements, the porter at Whistable (Eric) would always read the destination list as: Faversham, Sittingborne, Gillingam, Chatham, Bromleysarf an' London Victoria This reminds me of a book I read some years ago about a lady describing her very middle class childhood in south-Herts around 1900. She and her sisters thought it was ever so funny to hear the man on the platform at Finsbury Park shouting 'arringay', 'ornsey' etc. when their train approached. It wasn't the accent generally that was funny, it was the fact that it really did sound like someone saying "Bromley's half" - and once you noticed it it was impossible to hear it any other way.
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
Posts: 1,275
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Post by roythebus on Jan 24, 2014 9:16:28 GMT
Ah, station buffets, yes, Sloane Square, East Ham (e/b), Gloucester Road on the bridge over the District/Circle tunnel, Baker Street (Met), to name a few! these would "sometimes" be used by train crew for a quick half between or even during trips1 Sundays on the Circle we'd sometimes have a pint put in the tea can for consumption round the Circle from the bar at Gloucester Road!!
In those days there was a far more lenient attitude to staff drinking on duty; it wasn't really allowed, but almost everyone done it, from station masters (and above)down to railmen.
Remember dashing into the pub at Tower Hill one evening for a quick during the 20 min turnround, only to be met by the Area Manager. All 3 of us surprised, he asked "what are you two doing here?". "ermmm"..."well, what are you having?" And promptly bought us a pint each. He was waiting for us next time round when we had to buy him a pint!
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Post by revupminster on Jan 24, 2014 9:30:54 GMT
Liverpool Street met eastbound had a bar on the platform and customers drank their beer on the platform. I am sure it had beer taps on the bar.
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