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Post by abe on May 31, 2007 15:38:28 GMT
The interlinked 'W' , used in the earlier roundel signs, was superceded later by the present 'double V'. It still appeared at a number of stations after the 1939/45 War. It was a standard part of the Johnston typeface, which featured variants for several letters. There's a lot more about this in Johnston's Underground Type by Justin Howes (Capital Transport, ISBN 185414 231 3), but now out of print. The disused station at Wood Lane still used this style of W on the signs that remained in place until a couple of years ago.
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Post by abe on May 29, 2007 7:34:04 GMT
Do the roundels with a non-standard, serifed, font at Sudbury Town still exist? The font is known as Delf-Smith, after the designer. I don't think that it was used anywhere else on the Underground.
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Post by abe on May 17, 2007 7:29:18 GMT
Slightly OT, but since you're collecting roundel pictures there's an unusual survivor at St James's Park, at (I think) the Broadway end. Unlike all of the other roundels it reads "St James' Park". This dropping of the possessive 's' was fashionable at one point...
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Post by abe on Jan 4, 2007 9:00:36 GMT
Co-incidentally there's an article on the history of Roding Valley in this month's London Railway Record.
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Post by abe on Jan 12, 2007 16:54:50 GMT
City Thameslink currently has an oyster reader on either side of the concourse, and until recently nothing more. There are now some eerily gate shaped plywood boxes arranged in the manner of a gateline which will probably be removed to reveal gates... I was at the Ludgate Hill entrance earlier today, and the gateline has now been revealed. They are the new-style gates with the sloping Oyster reader, together with one of the wide gates. None are operational as yet.
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Post by abe on Jan 12, 2007 9:34:21 GMT
Apparently the Barclaycard side of the mixed-mode card will monitor the transactions that occur via the 'wave if it's under £10' feature. If several occur in a row, or other 'suspicious' activity is detected then it will demand a PIN be entered to validate that it is still being used by its owner. If the PIN is entered incorrectly three times then the whole Barclaycard side will be locked (as per Chip & PIN). Of course, this will inevitably affect people using their own cards from time-to-time, but if they are aware that it can happen, and that it's for security then this will lessen the annoyance factor. And if you do lose your card it will be blacklisted as soon as the loss/theft is reported.
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Post by abe on Jul 6, 2007 18:39:15 GMT
ISBN 1-85414-115-5, Capital Transport [who else?] £9.95 and probably now out of print, since I ain't seen it for ages... Got a nice bright yellow spine and a lovely piccy on the front! There's a copy up on eBay at present, ending tomorrow: LinkCurrently only £5.50...
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Post by abe on Apr 5, 2007 7:45:06 GMT
The Ventnor tunnels are also use to bring the water supply to the town; there is a storage tank near the Ventnor end.
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Post by abe on Apr 3, 2008 7:22:19 GMT
Just in from Transport Briefing: www.transportbriefing.co.uk/story.php?id=4863"London Underground Limited has scrapped a major project to install a new signalling system for the Tube sub-surface lines (SSL), wiping £550m off the value of contractor Westinghouse Rail Systems' order book." Apparently this is more fall-out from the Metronet collapse. TfL will be retendering the contract; Westinghouse is optimistic about re-winning.
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Post by abe on Jan 14, 2008 8:50:03 GMT
As I understand it, a signal with no aspect illuminated must be treated as if it was at danger. The same applies if it shows two aspects (e.g., red and green), or if it is bobbing (i.e., aspects changing back and forth between red and green). I'm sure that I read somewhere that low air main pressure can cause bobbing signals, due to the trainstop going up and down - can someone confirm?
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Post by abe on Nov 8, 2007 8:18:06 GMT
Another one could be Amersham platform 1? The Met line uses platform 1 at Amersham a surprising amount. It's often used when a late running train needs to be turned quickly, especially if the following train is close behind and needs to get to the sidings. Several mornings per week I see an A stock in P1...
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Post by abe on Jul 25, 2007 7:07:00 GMT
the other lines were going to have a simular system installed called ESL's Emergengy Stop Lights these had plungers on platforms and when hit they would light up a light on the track to the driver IIRC these were part of the original plans for OPO, and, as you rightly say, were never commissioned. I can't remember at the moment the reason though...
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Post by abe on Jun 14, 2007 7:29:44 GMT
I can't speak for the C&SLR (but I'm sure that another member can!), but the Yerkes tubes used rotary converters - basically big AC motors that drive DC generator sets. Hence 11KVAC goes in (via big cables from the power station), and each substation produces line voltage. Substations typically had two or three rotary converters (1.2KW and 1.5KW were typical sizes). Mercury arc rectifiers were introduced in the late 1920s - Balham was one of the first installations on the Underground, and the Piccadilly extension to Cockfosters used them in place of rotary converters. Solid-state silicon (not silicone!) rectifiers came in later (probably 1960s, but not able to check this at present). I presume that this technology has continued to evolve for the latest substations, but again, I'll need to check this.
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Post by abe on May 30, 2007 7:12:08 GMT
The Video 125 DEV showed a long string of fixed yellows along the right-hand side of the rte 3 siding, ending in a single red at the buffer stop. IIRC these were installed in all tunnel sidings as a result of a fatal crash in the siding tunnel at Tooting Broadway, to remind drivers that they were not on the main line but in a dead-end. I think that this occurred c.1971. Someone needs to check the TCs, but I seem to remember those yellow lights being there before that date. You're right. I've just checked the Accident Report, and they were in place when this accident occurred (4 May 1971). They were not in place at the time of a previous, non-fatal crash in the same siding, on 6 October 1960, which makes me think that I've confused them and they were installed in the early 1960s as a result of the latter crash. As a point of interest, the report states that they were/are powered from the traction supply (also the FRL), and cannot be switched off. The tunnel lighting (white) was also on permanently as a further reminder that this was a siding.
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Post by abe on May 29, 2007 7:21:58 GMT
The Video 125 DEV showed a long string of fixed yellows along the right-hand side of the rte 3 siding, ending in a single red at the buffer stop. IIRC these were installed in all tunnel sidings as a result of a fatal crash in the siding tunnel at Tooting Broadway, to remind drivers that they were not on the main line but in a dead-end. I think that this occurred c.1971.
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Post by abe on Nov 29, 2006 21:26:51 GMT
I think that you're right about Moorgate. I believe that the gate is installed in a large tunnel (possibly adjacent to the crossover, although this is guesswork). The difficulty with the numbers is that some sources list sites, whilst others list gates. There also tends to be confusion between the WWII gates, which were indeed controlled from Leicester Square during the war, and the later gates.
The wartime gates were also controlled from Bull & Bush. The control panel from Leicester Square was moved there, probably in the early 1950s, and a new panel fitted next to it to control the new gates. It would appear that all had fallen into disuse (although were perhaps still operable) by the mid-1970s.
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Post by abe on Nov 28, 2006 7:59:55 GMT
There are two separate sets of gates between Liverpool Street and Bethnal Green. The gates closer to Liverpool Street are part of the ring around central London; those closer to Bethnal Green were installed to counter the risk of flooding from the east. The Lea Valley and Mile End area are very marshy ground. Why two sets were installed instead of one to serve both purposes I don't know...
One suggestion I have concerns the type of gate used. Unlike those installed in WWII (which slide horizontally across the tunnels) these gates descended vertically. It is not stated whether they slide or hinge down. If they are hinged then the direction of hinging will affect which side they are designed to take the pressure. Since the ring around central London was to prevent flooding outside this area in the event of bombing and a breach in the central zone the gates east of Liverpool Street would be designed to take pressure on the London side (west). The Bethnal Green gates would be fitted the other way to resist pressure from the east. This is just a hypothesis though...
And interestingly no gates were installed on the Bakerloo. Perhaps it was felt that the existing gates at Waterloo and Trafalgar Square were sufficient.
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Post by abe on Nov 27, 2006 20:35:15 GMT
In a word - floodgates. Eighteen were constructed in a ring around central London between 1953 and 1957. I believe that none are still operational. They were sited as follows: Northern line- North of Kennington (both branches)
- South of Tottenham Court Road
- North of Moorgate
Central line- East of Tottenham Court Road
- East of Liverpool Street
- West of Bethnal Green (risk of flooding from the Lea Valley)
Piccadilly line- East of Green Park
- South of Russell Square
The Victoria line was also constructed with a pair south of Green Park for the same reason. A single massive floodgate east of South Kensington ( District/Circle) was also installed at (I think) the same time, this being the only one on a sub-surface line. I hope that this helps!
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Post by abe on Apr 4, 2007 12:05:48 GMT
Just noticed reply #9. I must have used the NB stairs hundreds of times and not registered the doors. Whoops!
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Post by abe on Apr 4, 2007 12:05:04 GMT
'Pages Walk' is the long, sloping tunnel constructed to link the District Railway with the Bakerloo Tube when the latter opened. It was a tiresome interchange, and the LER closed it in 1914 when the station was rebuilt with escalators. IIRC at Bakerloo level the connections are from the passageways currently in use at platform level, i.e., on the NB platform the Way Out turns left and goes up stairs; the old passageway would have turned right. If this is the case then these connections have been permanently blocked, rather than having doors installed.
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Post by abe on Feb 19, 2007 10:45:53 GMT
Only one person had mentioned cost with regard to creating a separate Wimbledon - Edgware Road line. I recall from a paper I read about 5 years ago that renaming a station on a single line costs around £50,000 for new signs (at the stations - and the rest of the line), maps, amending internal diagrams, paperwork, media information, etc. etc. The cost of creating a new line would be far in excess of this. This would mean new line diagrams and platform signs (but not roundels) at 14 stations. A new line might mean entirely new internal documents need creation. I can't see any change from £1 million...
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Post by abe on Jun 1, 2007 7:30:39 GMT
There is a flow of water in the aquifer - the water is not static. The boreholes at Stockwell will be positioned such that the slightly warmer water will be pumped back in downstream from, and at a different level to, the extraction borehole.
And to answer the comments about the pointlessness of blowing warm air around the system, there is another important factor to consider aside from temperature: humidity. When we feel hot and start to sweat on the tube it's because the air around us is saturated with water vapour. If air is blown past us then it never gets a chance to saturate, and so we feel cooler because the sweat is able to evaporate. That's why standing by the end doors with the window open makes us feel cool even when the air on the platform where we waited felt warm and stifling.
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Snow
Jan 24, 2007 13:40:53 GMT
Post by abe on Jan 24, 2007 13:40:53 GMT
Yes, saw the long train at the road bridge at Chalfont & Latimer as I drove under. The line was suspended north of Rickmansworth for a time; this was then reduced to just Chalfont-Amersham according to the staff at Rickmansworth, who were very helpful in trying circumstances. It was a shame that Chiltern refused to help out by stopping two of their SB trains to help some commuters get to work; instead they reversed a train north to south in platform 1 at about 07.30.
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Post by abe on Feb 7, 2007 9:52:04 GMT
Well for Chesham, I don't suppose a taxi from Amersham or Chalfont would cost more than a couple of quid? How late/early do the Chilterns run? More like a fiver from Amersham (and more from Chalfont). The basic rate in Amersham is now £2.70, and that gets you about a mile. Of course, those who live closer to Amersham will end up paying less, but the majority of the housing in Chesham is on the far side of the station...
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