Sections of bullhead track on the underground

Too many to list

I certainly remember rerailing Bullhead around the Marylebone area 12 or so years ago. Queen's Park is still mostly bullhead.

I'd say track on LU is a lot better now than it was in the late 90s and early 2000s. I remember when the Central Line first went to 100kph there was still a lot of old track about, and the ride was extremely rough in places, Northolt to South Ruislip was one such section, Debden to Epping another, and also Roding Valley to Chigwell. Today is a lot smoother, but not as fun!

There's a short rough section just leaving Archway northbound, the rest of the run to East Finchley tunnel mouth is also I think still bullhead, but mostly re-railed within the last decade or so. May not be long for this world though, as it looks like new rails are dumped there (I haven't looked closely though, so they could be conductor rails). Kennington to Waterloo nb is also largely bullhead and rough in places - but a little less rough since the rail grinder has been working there, much of this section will normally see the train doing 50 mph.

I must say I much prefer bullhead track - the noise makes it easier to judge speed without having to look at a speedometer. You don't get the same sensation on long welded rails, although the Mill Hill branch has jointed flat bottom rails mainly and that does almost as good a job. One last point, the smell of creosote emanating from wooden sleepers is lovely on a summer's evening too, especially with the cab door open...

Struggling to think of much on the Northern for a start. A bit round Finchley Central, some between Golders Green station and tunnel mouth, and that's about it. Mill Hill branch is almost entirely jointed on wooden sleepers, albeit with every other joint welded, but most of that is flat bottom rail. Most of the longer sections remaining have disappeared in the last couple of years, leaving just isolated sections remaining. As posted elsewhere, this large-scale disappearance has been a much slower process in the tunnels, but it's gradually going there too, sadly.

Remember the figure of 89% of the Met now being flat bottom being mentioned on a PW course I was on last year (or perhaps the one the year before that). As North End says, when it comes to thinking about it there really isn't an awful lot left, especially north of Finchley Road on the Met which is the area I'm most familiar with. Imagine a large percentage of the overall network figure for bullhead is made up of that in the deep tube as has already been said.

On the Met there is a section just after leaving Finchley Road NB up until pretty much level with the end of the Jubilee's siding at West Hampstead, and a section on the SB from adjacent to the platform ramp at Dollis Hill through to 200m or so before Willesden Green. Those are the only notable bits of plain line bullhead on the Met main that I can think of. The Chesham single is entirely bullhead too, which accounts for a fair percentage.

Still quite a few points & crossings (P&C) in bullhead though. At Wembley Park the connection from SB Jubilee - SB Met and the set from platform 6 into Wembley Park sidings. At Harrow the entirety of the North Junction, 95 crossover North of platforms 1&2, 200 crossover South of platforms 1&2, and all the P&C on the crossovers from the NB Local and NB Fast south of platforms 3&4 at Harrow. All P&C at Watford is bullhead, along with the plain line within the station area and between the points. A few left at Amersham too, and all of the P&C at Chalfont. Uxbridge has a tiny bit left on the plain line between the points outside the station, although a couple of the points in the station throat are flatbottom.

Ballasted track renewals over the last few years on the Met and District have eliminated a huge amount of bullhead. Also a fair bit of work the northern part of the Circle too, and more recently this year on the Hammersmith branch. It is slowly disappearing. A good effort too on renewing P&C to flat bottom too recently in a number of major areas, all of the mainline P&C at Neasden is flatbottom, a large chunk of Harrow, a large chunk of Barking, and almost all of Earls Court now too along with other more basic areas such as Rickmansworth and Ruislip.

I must be behind the times. I thought it was ALL bullhead!
Speaking of jointed track; are the joints staggered in the Underground? You never seem to get the clear, precise clickety-clack of mainline memory.
Instead, just a jumble of clicks ans clacks, repeated at regular intervals.
I first noticed it as a kid, in the '60s, and it still can be heard on occasion.
There's an example of the sound in the Gary Oldman 'Tinker, tailor, Soldier, Spy', although seemingly not on LT.

Certainly a few years ago, when S7 trains were relatively new, I noticed that the bay platform and Barking has jointed bullhead - and for westbound trains this continues to where the bay platform track joins the main route.

Also noticeable is the clickety-clack noise on the jointed track.

Hope this helps

Simon

Kings Cross EB on the curve paralleling the disused Thameslink station up until the first of the Clerkenwell portals, the SB approach on the Met coming into Wembley Park and a small section of the SB Met between Dollis Hill and Willesden Green. Patches of bullhead still persist on the NB run on the Met between Baker St and Finchley Rd although the current early closure works Mon-Wed mean that these sections are getting fewer as the months roll by.

Edgware Rd (SSR) is still mainly bull head, I can't recall what the tracks are on leading up to Praed St Junction.

Farringdon has got a real mix now as the tracks immediately east and west of the station including the junction for City Sidings are of course of a modern spec but the tracks partway down the platforms leading to 36 points are on bullhead.

The Rayners Ln/Uxbridge Branch of the Piccadilly used to have quite long sections of bullhead but the last couple of years have seen more aggressive renewal plans which have relegated it to between Alperton and Sudbury Town and parts of the Roxeth Viaduct between South Harrow and Rayners Ln.

Well to be honest, the past decade has seen bull head rail's dominance on the SSR rapidly decrease especially on open sections where the track is in a more aggressive environment. In zone 1 of course the conditions are less taxing which is why even with a more intensive use there are still patches of it lying around. As long as the usual parameters such as profile are in good shape there is little incentive to replace bull head just for the sake of continuity on it's own. But for example when large scale drainage work needed to take place as seen with the fortnight blockade of the Circle/District between High St Ken and Edgware Rd the opportunity presented itself to replace the track at the same time.

Your question on parts over whole sections of track is a conundrum faced when fitting track replacements around points, depending on the level of use they may simply be worked around with constituent components patched up as seen with 36 points at Farringdon and 5 points at Liverpool St (SSR). If the points are in regular use then they will be replaced with sure locks as seen at Harrow South Jct (203 & 204?) and parts of Earls Court with whole sale track replacement taking place in the surrounding areas.

It's all conditional on the actual state of the components, intensity of use and any other works in the area that may benefit from whole sale track renewal such as drainage-works or resignalling both of which are driving the persistent programme of track renewals on the SSR.

The points at Uxbridge have not changed so that will still be the same