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Terry Casey

In article ,
says...

In article , polygonum
wrote:
On Sun, 01 Jan 2012 21:12:10 -0000, Terry Casey
wrote:

The Circle is an Underground (sub surface) line - mainly cut and cover.

The deep tubes are bored.

You can take a tube train on the underground but you can't take an
underground train down the tube ...

Actually I remember hearing about a British Rail track recording coach
being taken through part of the LU network. Must have been in the 1980s.
Did a little damage at the ends of the coach - and to the tunnel - but
nothing too bad. Not sure if they pursued the idea of sharing the
resource.

remember that "cut and cover" lines were originally built for "normal
trains".

Indeed! And not just 'normal' underground trains - before the war,
through excursion trains ran from Ealing Broadway to Southend ran over
District metals as far as Barking then onward via the London, Tilbury
and Southend Railway.

Googling for "london underground steam trains" and selecting images
brings up a selection. Deleting 'london' and trying both lots of wording
both with and without inverted commas provides some variation ...

The East London Railway was the strangest 'Underground' line. It used
the Thames tunnel cut (but NOT cut and cover!) by Brunel and his father
for pedestrian traffic.

The East London Railway Company converted it for railway use but never
owned a single locomotive or item of rolling stock, making their money
instead by leasing running rights over it to other companies. Excursion
trains from Liverpool Street to Brighton used it for a while.

There used to be a triangular post by the buffer stop at Shoreditch,
beside the former Bishopsgate junction, that had LONDON AND NORTH
EASTERN RAILWAY UP ROAD on one face and EAST LONDON RAILWAY DOWN ROAD on
another.

I often used to see it when I was commuting during the 70s and 80s if my
train was stuck outside Liverpool Street Station.

Then, one day, I noticed that someone had painted over it with lime
green paint - although the raised lettering was still discernible. It
stayed that way for several years, then disappeared! I've often wondered
who's got it and how much money it changed hands for ...

--

Terry