Jago has what no other youtuber I know of can get...a way to get me to stick around to the end of every video. He is the ritalin to my..oh look a squirrel
I can, wait I have to (2 hours later) (watch the video again) (2 hours later) relate. Seriously, 3 not 36 projects is manageable. Maybe 2. Overwhelmed again.
Frankly I'm surprised that the East London Line wasnt called the Metropolitan, District, London Brighton & South Coast, South Eastern & Chatham and Anyone Else who Might be Interested as Well Joint Railway. It would have been in keeping with the spirit of the age
The MDLBASCSEACAAEWMBIAWJR, hmm, that doesn't quite work. But if you mess around with the order of those names and there has to be a good acronym somewhere.
@@Dave_Sissonthey say if you successfully spot the secret acronym you will travel with Underground free of charge for the rest of your life* * This deal is not valid for Metropolitan, District, London Brighton & South Coast, South Eastern & Chatham Line 😅
The Circle Line did of course eventually get some track all of its own: the eastern curve at Earl's Court and a metre or two of track south of the platforms at Aldgate.
@@quintuscrinis CartoMetro shows all the platforms at Gloucester Rd and High St Kensington as used by the District, but the lines joining them as used by the Circle Line only. High St Ken is used by District trains on the branch line from Edgeware Rd to Earl's Court, and Gloucester Rd is used by District trains on the main line from Upminster to Earl's Court. At HSK it shows platforms 3 and 4 as terminating District only, and at GR platform 1 is District only. (That platform is _probably_ westbound only. It looks theoretically possible to use it eastbound for trains from Kensington Olympia at the expense of reversed working through Earl's Court, but that sounds unlikely.)
@kgbgb3663 High Street Kensington has a junction to pull the District from the Earls Court line into platforms 1 and 2 as the main journey on that branch. Platforms 3 and 4 are used for workings on the Olympia shuttle (although this isn't a regular service any more), although they do use these platforms for workings out of and into Lillie Bridge Depot at the start and end of service. But yeah 2 at Gloucester Road is a Circle only platform, a weird situation brought about by the way the infrastructure was built. The empty space on the other side of the the joint Westbound platform used to host the Circle services before the merger of the lines into TFL. In practice though platform 2 at Edgware Road is Circle only now as well.
@@quintuscrinis Yes, that all makes sense. CartoMetro has Platform 2 at Gloucester Road marked in dashed Circle yellow and District green, but following the line west it splits into a yellow track leading to HSK and a yellow and green spur which apparently used to connect up with the _eastbound_ line from Earl's Court (!?) but which now just stops short. So I think that the green dashes on platform 3 must just be a mistake by CartoMetro, as the platform presumably can't be used for terminating District line trains as well as for through Circle trains, given the frequency of the service. (And why would you want to do that, anyway?) Sorry to have given you the bother of having to reply to put me right.
The problem with the circle line is which way to go round. If for example you're a tourist iit's easy to make a mistake, and go completely in the wrong direction. Of course you'll get there eventually, as it is a circle line afterall, but still. Perhaps you could do a video about this problem?
My first time in London, I stayed near the Circle Line's Edgware Road station, and it was so confusing to be at a simple-looking station where Circle Line trains nevertheless depart in three different directions, and where they terminate but also don't.
*three* directions ? Oh, yes, of course, I hadn't thought of it like that. Platform predictability at ER subsurface has improved a lot since the old days. In fact, you only need three platforms now AFAICT: Eastbound (Circle clockwise, H+C eastbound; Southbound Wimbleware outbound, Circle anticlockwise); Westbound (H+C and anticlockwise circle). This has the advantage that you can wait on a single platform for Hammersmith, without caring whether the train is a H+C or through circle. It also has the advantage that the SB services to W and Circle both start there. Does anybody know if this platform consistency actually happened on prescribe. I haven't been there for a while but it used to be a dog.
My first visit to London was a school visit to the museums. One of the schoolkids managed to get on a circle line train by mistake, and a teacher set off in pursuit in another. I still don't know if one met up with the other. I have this image of the teacher telling the driver to "follow that train".
@@sillypuppy5940 Sounds rather like the time when at age 8 I ran on ahead of the rest of my family and got on the waiting train (I forget where), and the doors immediately closed behind me. Fortunately the guard was very much on the qui vive and, noticing my frantic parents and realising what had happened, promptly opened the doors again.
Jago has made videos about the outer and the middle circles a few years ago: th-cam.com/video/YyDCrXfX28A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=SIEFLw5ab4nUMqFh and th-cam.com/video/l5oN08kvH30/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5pLCXtpjNqMqKji_
I just love the combination of railway companies and 'meddlers' including the infamous Mr Yerkes etc, that go to make up our wonderful 'metro' railway system, without which it wouldn't be so very colourful and interesting? Please just keep this coverage coming Jago Hazard!
There was a junction between the District, Metropolitan and the East London Branch using the St Mary's Curve just west of Whitechapel station, opened in 1874, passenger services lasting until 1939 and then used for stock movements and engineering trains. I remember it was still in use in the late 70s, as I used to use the District Line there as a commuter, and would see the red signal lights in the curving tunnel section after the junction. The St Mary's Curve junction was removed in 2009 but the curving tunnel still exists.
At least the names are vaguely linked to function - but key to navigation is the amazing idea of identifying the platforms by direction - Northbound, Westbound etc. In Paris you had to know the identity of a a bunch of obscure suburban Mairies (town halls) to navigate - Quelle bonne idée !
The cardinal directions idea is my favorite part of London’s (and new York’s but they use up and down town) way finding. I have at least a vague map of every city I visit in my head but rarely know the terminal stations, especially in non English speaking countries
In Paris, several lines turn back on themselves, making xxxBound a bit pointless. Also, I wish the subsurface lines in London would actually say 'District Line' rather than say 'Tower Hill'. This would make it obvious to someone waiting at Victoria for a circle to Liverpool Street, that this one wasn't going there. They do this on the spoken announcements, but not on text presentations. *I* instantly know which line it is, given the destination, but a lot of people wouldn't: they'have to consult the map every time to see whether the destination was before their stop, after it, or mutually exclusive with it. I agree that at Paddington BBR for example, on the westbound platform, it matters not whether it's a circle or H+C. Similarly, eastbound from Whitechapel. Saying 'circle line via..' is also not helpful. Some announcers tend to say 'inner rail' for anticlockwise and vv.
In Washington DC where I lived I had to take the Red Line to Shady Grove. I have no idea what Shady Grove is. Or Glenmont, which was the wrong way. To be fair that line is a big U and another is a big L, complicating any N/S/E/W designations. In NYC "Uptown/Downtown" works in Manhattan and if it goes anywhere else there's a different borough name to use.
The East London line is particularly interesting, because it used to be used as a means of taking passengers from places like Croydon, not having a direct link to the City, actually to the city via St Mary's curve. It then became a Cinderella of the Underground, but was revived as part of the Overground, although in re-connecting Croydon and sundry other places, it buggered up the connection to the City that it once offered.
Of course, the East London Line was built, in part, to take advantage of Marc Brunel's Thames Tunnel - the world's first subaqueous road carrying tunnel, and also the first tunnel to be built using a tunnelling shield. The Thames Tunnel was a financial disaster, and so was left derelict for many years before the East London Railway purchased it at a bargain price. Formerly the tunnel not only took London commuter traffic, but was heavily used by freight trains on long haul routes seeking a Thames crossing, ditto for long distance passenger trains. Contrary to the naysayers, the tunnel fabric, which is of brick, did not show significant damage due to vibration from heavy trains.
I was always surprised that the Met/District/H&C didn't use the East London line to get to alternative destinations than Barking/Upminster. Did that happen at all in pre-LT days? - or was there too much freight traffic, or suburban trains off the LBSCR etc?
The tunnel was used a toll footway for a while, but was used by ladies of ill repute to ply their wares and had to be closed in the interests of public decency!
@@ricktownend9144 Yep, they did between 1874 and 1939 via the St Mary's curve near Whitechapel. I'm guessing District Railway routes from Richmond and Ealing, and maybe Metroplitan services from Hammersmith to New Cross and New Cross Gate.
It's like so many of the Brunel bulids/projects, they were more than up to the task they were envisaged for, the Royal Albert Bridge across the Taymar River should/would have been twin track, but the investors said NO, the fact that it's still being used today tells the story they weren't right and as foresighted as they should have been. Brunel built for the future, like so many Victorian engineers and not just the present?!
I enjoyed that video Jago! I especially found getting all the different stations you had shots - I was very pleased at the number of locations I named correctly
Here in Toronto, referring to our subway lines by number if a fairly recent thing. Before that they were referred to by the street(s) they primarily ran under or parallel to. That's why Line 1 was initially referred to as the Yonge Line - later Yonge-University, and then Yonge-University-Spadina. Line 2 is still considered Bloor-Danforth by me and many others, and Line 4 was the Sheppard Subway - or 'Stubway', seeing as it is only about a third the length of what it was supposed to be. (Line 3 is the Scarborough RT, which was slated to close later this year, to be replaced by an eastern extension of Line 2...if it hadn't already been closed due to a train derailment on the line a few weeks ago.)
Ah me - the great lost Underground journeys - the Circle line of my youth was a circle & the game was to start with a pint in a pub, then jump on the circle line & nip out at each station & grab a half in the nearest pub, ending up back in the pub you started at for last orders. Happy days.
Hi. I live in Ireland but for some reason i have an almost unhealthy fascination with the London underground. Just discovered your channel and binge watching everything. Fascinating. Keep up the good work...
It’s fascinating to imagine that if the makers of the Metropolitan Railway had built the other subsurface lines as well, they probably would have retained the Metropolitan name for branding purposes, and therefore the entire network might have later become known as “The Metropolitan” or “Metro” for short, like in other cities
If you visit the Isle of Man today you can travel behind narrow-gauge, 2-4-0 versions of the classic Metropolitan & District steam locomotives (like the preserved No. 23) also built by Beyer, Peacock of Manchester, from the 1870s onwards. These splendid little engines were constructed to the same general design with inclined cylinders though without condensing apparatus. Even when the Manx steam trains are travelling at 40 m.p.h. or thereabouts the way that the carriages are bucketing along makes it feels like 80.
Informative & concise yet again! Observation: One would think St Paul's would be a station on the East London line, since it was a Holy Separate Line and all...
The most super-duper-duper Outer Circle line would be Fort William to Kyle of Lochalsh, being the most distant line that is orbital to the centre of London on the mainland. I fondly remember the Metropolitan Line East London Section (as it was called) when operated with half-length 1938 tube stock. It was a strange, mostly empty, musty'n'fusty backwater and a relic from another time. Great that it's so well used now.
And Moscow! They've just completed their outer circle, with, if I remember right, nine beautiful new stations opening on the 1st of March. There's a TH-cam video "9 NEW METRO STATIONS 🚇 The world's longest Metro Ring Line was opened in Moscow".
Looking forward to the deep level tubes lines next! Also one thing to add that the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines do have some part of the track to their own: Gloucester Road has a platform (2) only serving Circle line services before taking a curve heading to High Street Kensington; as well as platforms 1 and 4 at Aldgate The H&C has its own track where it takes a curve near Aldgate station to Aldgate East to share tracks with the District line
I love the fact that the subsurface line names are kind of disconnected from their meaning that they once had as it means they are now just unique words. I fear that with the Victoria, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines the words are just going to fuse together in some form of royal jumble.
In Kyiv the lines got names according to the localities it connected: Святошинсько-Броварська, Оболонсько-Теремківська and Сирецько-Печерська lines (Sviatoshyn to Brovary, Obolon' to Teremky and Syrets to Pechers'k). And still Brovary is hella far from the terminus of the former and previously the second line held the first name of Куренівсько- (Kurenivka to ...) since it was first planned to build it there. But eventually people defaulted to the colour map scheme (red, blue and green lines respectively)
I love (, factually) this sort of information. I might never get to share it with anyone, but it interests me. No - I'll try to find a way to work it into conversation even though I'm in America and drive almost everywhere. I've talked at length about things of less historical (or any) value and people continue to invite me places.
Thanks Jago. When I was at school the Hammersmith & City was definitely the Metropolitan Line. We used to get it at Goldhawk Road or Hammersmith. I don't really understand why the name was changed, apart from distinguishing it from the line out to Harrow, etc..
The East London line was descibed as the Metropolitan Line East London section, until 1984 when it was given its own "line" status. It went orange six years later.
He did: - The Outer Circle: The Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/YyDCrXfX28A/w-d-xo.html - The Middle Circle: The Other Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/l5oN08kvH30/w-d-xo.html
I'm not sure I've heard of a super outer circle. Super doesn't sound like a weird a Victorian or Edwardian would use. Do any of these circle lines have any correlation with the North London Line?
@@quantisedspace7047 Generally, yes, some of the outer circles were not full circles (Broad Street To Richmond in a way but using bits of Hammersmith Grove Road link was possible. In the end the faster through town things like the Picc Railway + some tram routes meant outer ends could not feed enough paying passengers into the middles. Maybe some new (Both sides of thames) circle connections are now needed)
Dear Sir, you dropped an excellent tease in this most recent videogram mentioning a multitude of circle lines inner outer and more that I am sure has piqued interest in your devoted viewers more than just my humble self. Might I respectfully request you produce one of your most excellent videograms providing all the “ins and outs” pertaining to said concentric circles you have most recently eluded to. My sincerest regards, The Yorkshireman.
The new version of the Circle was unofficially called the Teacup or T-Cup by various members of the railway press at the time of its change, don't know how much that name was adopted by staff - BTW yes please to the full history of Outer/Middle/Super Outer Circles \m/
That's another fine vid you've got me watching! Tho I misread Surrey Docks as Surrey Ducks - the joy of aging eyesight! BTW: I reckon King's Cross is the tube's "centre" - as in you can get a train with a tube ticket direct to the most (about half) of the c500 stations on a Tube map (inc Overground, Elizabeth Line, and Thameslink in London Zones)...
A comment in anticipation of Part II: In a recent video, someone (I _think_ you) mentioned that the Elizabeth Line was the second to be named after a monarch. I'm not sure that that is true. I had heard that the Victoria line was _not_ named after Queen Victoria. The story was that it was named afer Victoria Station. And that Victoria Station was also not named after Queen Victoria. It was named after Victoria _Street._ And that Victoria Street was _also_ not named after Queen Victoria, having been named long before there was such a person. A definitive answer to the question would be great, if you could find it out.
Did the Royal Commission to Investigate the Various Projects for Establishing Railway Termini Within or In the Immediate Vicinity of the Metropolis have their own headed paper 📃? Would there have been room for anything else on it?
Actually this is a very interesting video. It's actually stuff we've been curious about but have never actually found out like the rules of Mornington Crescent. It's all in a name.
For me, this naming of parts is practically a public service announcement. I should say the colour aspect of identifying the under/overground lines also brings to mind the Teletubbies program. Thankyou
So that explains why I only started seeing the Hammersmith & City Line as a separate line on the Tube map from the 90s onwards. I half thought it must be a new line.
And there was me thinking that it had been the Waterloo and CTY line, the initials atanding for Charles Tyson Yerkes, a man inexplicably missing from this video. O well, maybe he'll be back another day.
I can confirm this evening I am strap hanging ( these dungeon clubs in london nowadays have wi-fi which is great, but really we are not supposed to get our mobiles out on the premises)
In Google Maps there's an option to show transit systems. The London Underground is properly colour coded to correspond to the famous if not legendary map.
Jago has been cajoled into providing maps a couple of times, but it's not really his thing -- he tends to make mistakes such as mirror-imaging bits of the map, with branches leaving on the wrong side of the main line or similar. (I think he uses the part of his brain that you and I use for maps in composing his wonderful prose.) I'm not sure why he doesn't use maps created by other people, though. Perhaps there are copyright difficulties.
Thanks Jago - really good to get 'below the surface', as it were, of the history of the naming of the sub-surface lines. I can remember certain things that would stand out, regarding the sub-surface lines. For example, before the Hammersmith & City Line was separated from the Metropolitan Line, the trains that ran on the Barking to Hammersmith route, were always of the six-car type (sorry I don't know the proper carriage designation), whereas once you got past Aldgate, andcwere on the platforms West of there, you'd observe the other Metropolitan Line trains bound for Amersham, Chesham, Watford and Uxbridge, which had transverse seating. In those days that wasn't such a novelty as the push-button District Line trains also had transverse seats. The other interesting thing is seeing the St. Mary's tunnel just west of Whitechapel - which you can see in the darkness of the tunnel, as the trains move from Whitechapel to Aldgate East. I guess that's how the old East London Line was physically joined to the Metropolitan Line, when it 'owned' the District Line track. Also, just for a short time and just prior to the separation of the Hammersmith and City Line from the Metropolitan Line, you could get trains that ran from Barking all the way to Amersham / Chesham / Watford / Uxbridge. Wish I tried one if those journeys! It's also of interest learning that the Metropolitan Line used to run on to Brill, Great Missenden, Stoke Mandeville, Verney Junction and other locations in Buckinghamshire, I think right up until the early 70s. Great video. Thanks again ❤ 👍🏾 Looking forward yo the second part about the deep-level lines soon.
He did: - The Outer Circle: The Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/YyDCrXfX28A/w-d-xo.html - The Middle Circle: The Other Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/l5oN08kvH30/w-d-xo.html
Of course!! classic Royal Comission to Investigate the Various Projects, for Establishing Railway Terminai, Within or in the Inmediate Vicinity of the Metropolis (or RCIVPERTWIVM) shenanigans
And In the Beginning , when the combine did the sub-surfaces and tubes , they did bringest their creation unto the first aMericAN (CTY) whom didst namest each line according to its form and function.
Been on the Metropolitan Line, Circle Line, District Line and Hammersmith & City Line and also been on the S8 and S7 Stocks. Perhaps you should do a video on the new Piccadilly Line 202x Stock that is to be built by Siemens and is schedule to enter service from next year.
I believe that the Circle line was branched to Hammersmith to help stabalise the timetable, otherwise a train going round and round would find it almost impossible to recover lost time. If that is the case, how does the Glasgow subway work?
1:25 I ought to know this, and Jago has probably done several videos on it already, but does the sign imply that there were two separate stations at Aldersgate Street and Barbican? I thought they were on the same site, just with different names.
I think from the Barbican video it was called Aldergate & Barbican, but I think people were arguing in the comments that there was no mention of Barbican until the estate was built.
I was a little confused by this one, mostly because I didn't know that tube lines shared tracks. Would it be possible to do a video explaining which sections of tracks are shared and how they work together?
In my younger days you could get on the circle line train and just stay there all day in the warm and dry. I believe this is one of the reasons they turned it into an end-to-end service as too many homeless people were doing this.
Bit of an off topic question, but does anyone know where lots of the roofs went from these stations? The barbican got bombed, but what happened to the arched roof at High Street Kensington, or Gloucester Road, etc? I want to know, the few that remain really make the stations seem so grand and nice places to be!
For your own safety, please stand behind the spiraling yellow line. Stay tuned. I'm sure theres a whole video that could be made by some character who is interested n words or phrases that have lost the direct applicability. "Stay Tuned" from radio, initially but later also applied to TV. Do you still dial a number on the phone? Do we still film content? Is it a carriage or a coach? (If never quite understood travelling "coach" on a plane). Somebody will get steamed up about it I'm sure.
I would argue that "stay tuned" has *not* lost its' meaning. When you watch a television or listen to a radio, the device is tuned to receive a particular frequency, just like it always was - the difference is that with modern synthesised tuners, you change the tuning by pressing a button rather than turning a dial. Other verbs have come into use - you call a phone number and record content. On an aircraft "coach" means coach class which is a vernacular expression for economy; its' origins are obscure to me.
Hi, you have done a lot on the lines and the characters involved with building them ,but how about a proper series of biographies of Watkins and the like featuring those characters (inc Pick/Ashfield/Beck and so on that had an impact on the development of the tube and rail network (of london))
Seems to me only an accident of history that these four services are treated as separate “lines” while the various DLR or Overground routes aren’t. I know the Picc and Bakerloo also share tracks with full-size trains but the sub-surface lines have more in common with the Overground than with the true tube lines.
At the end of the video I didn’t quite understand the bit where you say it was part of London Underground but it ain’t any longer … 🤔 … is it because it’s part of the overground now, or is it because it’s out of the limit of London ?
Thanks Jago, but what this doesn't explain - and I've always wondered, is why "District"? It's just a word that means any distinct region or area of a place. It seems an odd choice for a railway company name as every line goes through one or more districts. Maybe it was used synonymously with "suburb" as in the 'outlying districts' in Victorian times.
Jago has what no other youtuber I know of can get...a way to get me to stick around to the end of every video. He is the ritalin to my..oh look a squirrel
🤣
I can, wait I have to (2 hours later) (watch the video again) (2 hours later) relate. Seriously, 3 not 36 projects is manageable. Maybe 2. Overwhelmed again.
His videos are short, he has an excellent voice, and is even known for a bit of humour every now and then. That's the perfect formula, I think.
Frankly I'm surprised that the East London Line wasnt called the Metropolitan, District, London Brighton & South Coast, South Eastern & Chatham and Anyone Else who Might be Interested as Well Joint Railway. It would have been in keeping with the spirit of the age
😂👏!
The MDLBASCSEACAAEWMBIAWJR, hmm, that doesn't quite work. But if you mess around with the order of those names and there has to be a good acronym somewhere.
@@Dave_Sissonthey say if you successfully spot the secret acronym you will travel with Underground free of charge for the rest of your life*
* This deal is not valid for Metropolitan, District, London Brighton & South Coast, South Eastern & Chatham Line 😅
The Circle Line did of course eventually get some track all of its own: the eastern curve at Earl's Court and a metre or two of track south of the platforms at Aldgate.
Technically platforms 1 and 4 at Aldgate are Circle line only as well (also one of the platforms at Gloucester Road - think it's 2)
@@quintuscrinis CartoMetro shows all the platforms at Gloucester Rd and High St Kensington as used by the District, but the lines joining them as used by the Circle Line only. High St Ken is used by District trains on the branch line from Edgeware Rd to Earl's Court, and Gloucester Rd is used by District trains on the main line from Upminster to Earl's Court.
At HSK it shows platforms 3 and 4 as terminating District only, and at GR platform 1 is District only. (That platform is _probably_ westbound only. It looks theoretically possible to use it eastbound for trains from Kensington Olympia at the expense of reversed working through Earl's Court, but that sounds unlikely.)
@kgbgb3663 High Street Kensington has a junction to pull the District from the Earls Court line into platforms 1 and 2 as the main journey on that branch.
Platforms 3 and 4 are used for workings on the Olympia shuttle (although this isn't a regular service any more), although they do use these platforms for workings out of and into Lillie Bridge Depot at the start and end of service.
But yeah 2 at Gloucester Road is a Circle only platform, a weird situation brought about by the way the infrastructure was built. The empty space on the other side of the the joint Westbound platform used to host the Circle services before the merger of the lines into TFL.
In practice though platform 2 at Edgware Road is Circle only now as well.
@@quintuscrinis Yes, that all makes sense. CartoMetro has Platform 2 at Gloucester Road marked in dashed Circle yellow and District green, but following the line west it splits into a yellow track leading to HSK and a yellow and green spur which apparently used to connect up with the _eastbound_ line from Earl's Court (!?) but which now just stops short. So I think that the green dashes on platform 3 must just be a mistake by CartoMetro, as the platform presumably can't be used for terminating District line trains as well as for through Circle trains, given the frequency of the service. (And why would you want to do that, anyway?)
Sorry to have given you the bother of having to reply to put me right.
The problem with the circle line is which way to go round. If for example you're a tourist iit's easy to make a mistake, and go completely in the wrong direction. Of course you'll get there eventually, as it is a circle line afterall, but still.
Perhaps you could do a video about this problem?
My first time in London, I stayed near the Circle Line's Edgware Road station, and it was so confusing to be at a simple-looking station where Circle Line trains nevertheless depart in three different directions, and where they terminate but also don't.
*three* directions ? Oh, yes, of course, I hadn't thought of it like that. Platform predictability at ER subsurface has improved a lot since the old days. In fact, you only need three platforms now AFAICT: Eastbound (Circle clockwise, H+C eastbound; Southbound Wimbleware outbound, Circle anticlockwise); Westbound (H+C and anticlockwise circle).
This has the advantage that you can wait on a single platform for Hammersmith, without caring whether the train is a H+C or through circle.
It also has the advantage that the SB services to W and Circle both start there.
Does anybody know if this platform consistency actually happened on prescribe. I haven't been there for a while but it used to be a dog.
My first visit to London was a school visit to the museums. One of the schoolkids managed to get on a circle line train by mistake, and a teacher set off in pursuit in another. I still don't know if one met up with the other. I have this image of the teacher telling the driver to "follow that train".
@@sillypuppy5940 😂😂😂😂😂
@@sillypuppy5940 Sounds rather like the time when at age 8 I ran on ahead of the rest of my family and got on the waiting train (I forget where), and the doors immediately closed behind me. Fortunately the guard was very much on the qui vive and, noticing my frantic parents and realising what had happened, promptly opened the doors again.
Don’t just tempt us with suggestions about an outer circle line and super outer circle line video: we look forward to having the story!
Only the existence of the Green Belt has prevented a clamour for a super super outer circle line by now.
Jago has made videos about the outer and the middle circles a few years ago: th-cam.com/video/YyDCrXfX28A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=SIEFLw5ab4nUMqFh and th-cam.com/video/l5oN08kvH30/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5pLCXtpjNqMqKji_
The Circle Lines of London!
I just love the combination of railway companies and 'meddlers' including the infamous Mr Yerkes etc, that go to make up our wonderful 'metro' railway system, without which it wouldn't be so very colourful and interesting? Please just keep this coverage coming Jago Hazard!
There was a junction between the District, Metropolitan and the East London Branch using the St Mary's Curve just west of Whitechapel station, opened in 1874, passenger services lasting until 1939 and then used for stock movements and engineering trains. I remember it was still in use in the late 70s, as I used to use the District Line there as a commuter, and would see the red signal lights in the curving tunnel section after the junction. The St Mary's Curve junction was removed in 2009 but the curving tunnel still exists.
At least the names are vaguely linked to function - but key to navigation is the amazing idea of identifying the platforms by direction - Northbound, Westbound etc. In Paris you had to know the identity of a a bunch of obscure suburban Mairies (town halls) to navigate - Quelle bonne idée !
Hence the Northern line is the southernmost line.
The cardinal directions idea is my favorite part of London’s (and new York’s but they use up and down town) way finding. I have at least a vague map of every city I visit in my head but rarely know the terminal stations, especially in non English speaking countries
In Paris, several lines turn back on themselves, making xxxBound a bit pointless.
Also, I wish the subsurface lines in London would actually say 'District Line' rather than say 'Tower Hill'. This would make it obvious to someone waiting at Victoria for a circle to Liverpool Street, that this one wasn't going there. They do this on the spoken announcements, but not on text presentations. *I* instantly know which line it is, given the destination, but a lot of people wouldn't: they'have to consult the map every time to see whether the destination was before their stop, after it, or mutually exclusive with it.
I agree that at Paddington BBR for example, on the westbound platform, it matters not whether it's a circle or H+C. Similarly, eastbound from Whitechapel.
Saying 'circle line via..' is also not helpful. Some announcers tend to say 'inner rail' for anticlockwise and vv.
@quantisedspace7047 Don't the S Stock trains, in fact, indicate which line they're on?
In Washington DC where I lived I had to take the Red Line to Shady Grove. I have no idea what Shady Grove is. Or Glenmont, which was the wrong way. To be fair that line is a big U and another is a big L, complicating any N/S/E/W designations. In NYC "Uptown/Downtown" works in Manhattan and if it goes anywhere else there's a different borough name to use.
The East London line is particularly interesting, because it used to be used as a means of taking passengers from places like Croydon, not having a direct link to the City, actually to the city via St Mary's curve. It then became a Cinderella of the Underground, but was revived as part of the Overground, although in re-connecting Croydon and sundry other places, it buggered up the connection to the City that it once offered.
Of course, the East London Line was built, in part, to take advantage of Marc Brunel's Thames Tunnel - the world's first subaqueous road carrying tunnel, and also the first tunnel to be built using a tunnelling shield.
The Thames Tunnel was a financial disaster, and so was left derelict for many years before the East London Railway purchased it at a bargain price.
Formerly the tunnel not only took London commuter traffic, but was heavily used by freight trains on long haul routes seeking a Thames crossing, ditto for long distance passenger trains.
Contrary to the naysayers, the tunnel fabric, which is of brick, did not show significant damage due to vibration from heavy trains.
I was always surprised that the Met/District/H&C didn't use the East London line to get to alternative destinations than Barking/Upminster. Did that happen at all in pre-LT days? - or was there too much freight traffic, or suburban trains off the LBSCR etc?
The tunnel was used a toll footway for a while, but was used by ladies of ill repute to ply their wares and had to be closed in the interests of public decency!
@@ricktownend9144 Yep, they did between 1874 and 1939 via the St Mary's curve near Whitechapel. I'm guessing District Railway routes from Richmond and Ealing, and maybe Metroplitan services from Hammersmith to New Cross and New Cross Gate.
It's like so many of the Brunel bulids/projects, they were more than up to the task they were envisaged for, the Royal Albert Bridge across the Taymar River should/would have been twin track, but the investors said NO, the fact that it's still being used today tells the story they weren't right and as foresighted as they should have been. Brunel built for the future, like so many Victorian engineers and not just the present?!
@@frglee i gather there were pickpockets and parties too. No surprise there
🎵"Like a Circle in a spiral
like a wheel within a wheel ... "
I enjoyed that video Jago! I especially found getting all the different stations you had shots - I was very pleased at the number of locations I named correctly
Here in Toronto, referring to our subway lines by number if a fairly recent thing. Before that they were referred to by the street(s) they primarily ran under or parallel to. That's why Line 1 was initially referred to as the Yonge Line - later Yonge-University, and then Yonge-University-Spadina. Line 2 is still considered Bloor-Danforth by me and many others, and Line 4 was the Sheppard Subway - or 'Stubway', seeing as it is only about a third the length of what it was supposed to be. (Line 3 is the Scarborough RT, which was slated to close later this year, to be replaced by an eastern extension of Line 2...if it hadn't already been closed due to a train derailment on the line a few weeks ago.)
Ah me - the great lost Underground journeys - the Circle line of my youth was a circle & the game was to start with a pint in a pub, then jump on the circle line & nip out at each station & grab a half in the nearest pub, ending up back in the pub you started at for last orders. Happy days.
Love the channel! Londoner and regular viewer. I was intrigued to hear you mention Middle, Outer, and Super-Outer circles. Please, a video on those!
All those station names...I can't help thinking about the brilliant 'London Tube Stations sketch' by The Two Ronnies...
Maybe Jago can recreate this.
@PsychicLord - Yes please! 😄
Hi. I live in Ireland but for some reason i have an almost unhealthy fascination with the London underground. Just discovered your channel and binge watching everything. Fascinating. Keep up the good work...
It’s fascinating to imagine that if the makers of the Metropolitan Railway had built the other subsurface lines as well, they probably would have retained the Metropolitan name for branding purposes, and therefore the entire network might have later become known as “The Metropolitan” or “Metro” for short, like in other cities
Brilliant video sir, am looking forward to part two!
Thanks!
And thank you!
Great video and great names and history, much more interesting than numbers, letters or colours! 👏
If you visit the Isle of Man today you can travel behind narrow-gauge, 2-4-0 versions of the classic Metropolitan & District steam locomotives (like the preserved No. 23) also built by Beyer, Peacock of Manchester, from the 1870s onwards. These splendid little engines were constructed to the same general design with inclined cylinders though without condensing apparatus. Even when the Manx steam trains are travelling at 40 m.p.h. or thereabouts the way that the carriages are bucketing along makes it feels like 80.
Informative & concise yet again! Observation: One would think St Paul's would be a station on the East London line, since it was a Holy Separate Line and all...
Don't you mean a Royal peculiar ?
Fascinating as ever .Looking forward to the next episode
The circle line, can now be called the banjo line because the main part is the sound box, and the 1990's extension is the frets!
The most super-duper-duper Outer Circle line would be Fort William to Kyle of Lochalsh, being the most distant line that is orbital to the centre of London on the mainland.
I fondly remember the Metropolitan Line East London Section (as it was called) when operated with half-length 1938 tube stock. It was a strange, mostly empty, musty'n'fusty backwater and a relic from another time. Great that it's so well used now.
I would LOVE to see something about the inner, middle, outer and super-outer circle.
Maybe in comparison with Paris, Berlin and Munich.
Yes, it's quite a tease to hear about the upcoming 3 filmed portions
And Moscow! They've just completed their outer circle, with, if I remember right, nine beautiful new stations opening on the 1st of March. There's a TH-cam video "9 NEW METRO STATIONS 🚇 The world's longest Metro Ring Line was opened in Moscow".
Looking forward to the deep level tubes lines next! Also one thing to add that the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines do have some part of the track to their own:
Gloucester Road has a platform (2) only serving Circle line services before taking a curve heading to High Street Kensington; as well as platforms 1 and 4 at Aldgate
The H&C has its own track where it takes a curve near Aldgate station to Aldgate East to share tracks with the District line
The Circle Line does have its own track, the bit between Aldgate and just before Tower Hill
I love the fact that the subsurface line names are kind of disconnected from their meaning that they once had as it means they are now just unique words.
I fear that with the Victoria, Jubilee and Elizabeth lines the words are just going to fuse together in some form of royal jumble.
Jubilee line? What's that? Do you mean Jaylee? ;)
In Kyiv the lines got names according to the localities it connected: Святошинсько-Броварська, Оболонсько-Теремківська and Сирецько-Печерська lines (Sviatoshyn to Brovary, Obolon' to Teremky and Syrets to Pechers'k). And still Brovary is hella far from the terminus of the former and previously the second line held the first name of Куренівсько- (Kurenivka to ...) since it was first planned to build it there.
But eventually people defaulted to the colour map scheme (red, blue and green lines respectively)
I love (, factually) this sort of information. I might never get to share it with anyone, but it interests me. No - I'll try to find a way to work it into conversation even though I'm in America and drive almost everywhere. I've talked at length about things of less historical (or any) value and people continue to invite me places.
Thanks Jago. When I was at school the Hammersmith & City was definitely the Metropolitan Line. We used to get it at Goldhawk Road or Hammersmith. I don't really understand why the name was changed, apart from distinguishing it from the line out to Harrow, etc..
I may well be wrong but i think it changed when circle line trains started running to Hammersmith.
@@Slycockneyno it was before then. Early 90s if memory serves.
The East London line was descibed as the Metropolitan Line East London section, until 1984 when it was given its own "line" status. It went orange six years later.
Lets have some more on the middle , outer and super outer Circle ines? and why are they not so any more? Keep em coming Jago!
I think they are on the early part of Jago's playlist to some extent
He did:
- The Outer Circle: The Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/YyDCrXfX28A/w-d-xo.html
- The Middle Circle: The Other Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/l5oN08kvH30/w-d-xo.html
I'm not sure I've heard of a super outer circle. Super doesn't sound like a weird a Victorian or Edwardian would use. Do any of these circle lines have any correlation with the North London Line?
@@quantisedspace7047 Generally, yes, some of the outer circles were not full circles (Broad Street To Richmond in a way but using bits of Hammersmith Grove Road link was possible. In the end the faster through town things like the Picc Railway + some tram routes meant outer ends could not feed enough paying passengers into the middles. Maybe some new (Both sides of thames) circle connections are now needed)
At 0:54 the most catchy committee name that I have ever heard!
Good to see this video made
The Circle Line really had to deal with Mummy and Daddy fighting. #CircleInTheMiddle
Ah history - love it! I’m always sad I never made it onto the east London line whilst it was still an underground line
Dear Sir, you dropped an excellent tease in this most recent videogram mentioning a multitude of circle lines inner outer and more that I am sure has piqued interest in your devoted viewers more than just my humble self. Might I respectfully request you produce one of your most excellent videograms providing all the “ins and outs” pertaining to said concentric circles you have most recently eluded to. My sincerest regards, The Yorkshireman.
The new version of the Circle was unofficially called the Teacup or T-Cup by various members of the railway press at the time of its change, don't know how much that name was adopted by staff - BTW yes please to the full history of Outer/Middle/Super Outer Circles \m/
I think of it as The Paperclip.
Great video!
That's another fine vid you've got me watching! Tho I misread Surrey Docks as Surrey Ducks - the joy of aging eyesight!
BTW: I reckon King's Cross is the tube's "centre" - as in you can get a train with a tube ticket direct to the most (about half) of the c500 stations on a Tube map (inc Overground, Elizabeth Line, and Thameslink in London Zones)...
A comment in anticipation of Part II: In a recent video, someone (I _think_ you) mentioned that the Elizabeth Line was the second to be named after a monarch. I'm not sure that that is true. I had heard that the Victoria line was _not_ named after Queen Victoria. The story was that it was named afer Victoria Station. And that Victoria Station was also not named after Queen Victoria. It was named after Victoria _Street._ And that Victoria Street was _also_ not named after Queen Victoria, having been named long before there was such a person.
A definitive answer to the question would be great, if you could find it out.
Did the Royal Commission to Investigate the Various Projects for Establishing Railway Termini Within or In the Immediate Vicinity of the Metropolis have their own headed paper 📃? Would there have been room for anything else on it?
Since the Royal Commission wasn't a railway company, it obviously wouldn't have its own stationery.
I'll get me coat.
We definitely need a video on London's _other_ Ringways Plan: the concentric Railway Circles!
Actually this is a very interesting video. It's actually stuff we've been curious about but have never actually found out like the rules of Mornington Crescent. It's all in a name.
Toronto used to have/sort of still does have line names, as does Vancouver. So (Anglophone) Canada stuck close to the UK’s lead.
For me, this naming of parts is practically a public service announcement. I should say the colour aspect of identifying the under/overground lines also brings to mind the Teletubbies program. Thankyou
So that explains why I only started seeing the Hammersmith & City Line as a separate line on the Tube map from the 90s onwards. I half thought it must be a new line.
And there was me thinking that it had been the Waterloo and CTY line, the initials atanding for Charles Tyson Yerkes, a man inexplicably missing from this video.
O well, maybe he'll be back another day.
You've got some outlying stations there Jago, Latimer Road, that was near where my Granny lived
Loving the love for the east London line, both in the vid and here in the comments
I was going to type "Aha, you've forgotten the East London Line, I claim my prize". But you hadn't 🤣
I can confirm this evening I am strap hanging ( these dungeon clubs in london nowadays have wi-fi which is great, but really we are not supposed to get our mobiles out on the premises)
If possible occasional map graphics would be helpful as a non-Londoner, although I do enjoy watching the trains come to a halt in the background!
In Google Maps there's an option to show transit systems. The London Underground is properly colour coded to correspond to the famous if not legendary map.
Jago has been cajoled into providing maps a couple of times, but it's not really his thing -- he tends to make mistakes such as mirror-imaging bits of the map, with branches leaving on the wrong side of the main line or similar. (I think he uses the part of his brain that you and I use for maps in composing his wonderful prose.)
I'm not sure why he doesn't use maps created by other people, though. Perhaps there are copyright difficulties.
@@kgbgb3663 ah I see, new viewer so thanks for letting me know
Thanks Jago - really good to get 'below the surface', as it were, of the history of the naming of the sub-surface lines. I can remember certain things that would stand out, regarding the sub-surface lines. For example, before the Hammersmith & City Line was separated from the Metropolitan Line, the trains that ran on the Barking to Hammersmith route, were always of the six-car type (sorry I don't know the proper carriage designation), whereas once you got past Aldgate, andcwere on the platforms West of there, you'd observe the other Metropolitan Line trains bound for Amersham, Chesham, Watford and Uxbridge, which had transverse seating. In those days that wasn't such a novelty as the push-button District Line trains also had transverse seats.
The other interesting thing is seeing the St. Mary's tunnel just west of Whitechapel - which you can see in the darkness of the tunnel, as the trains move from Whitechapel to Aldgate East. I guess that's how the old East London Line was physically joined to the Metropolitan Line, when it 'owned' the District Line track.
Also, just for a short time and just prior to the separation of the Hammersmith and City Line from the Metropolitan Line, you could get trains that ran from Barking all the way to Amersham / Chesham / Watford / Uxbridge. Wish I tried one if those journeys!
It's also of interest learning that the Metropolitan Line used to run on to Brill, Great Missenden, Stoke Mandeville, Verney Junction and other locations in Buckinghamshire, I think right up until the early 70s.
Great video. Thanks again ❤ 👍🏾 Looking forward yo the second part about the deep-level lines soon.
Good video.
I like hearing about Routes now gone. I like seeing maps.
Can you do more video about: tunnels.
Will you be doing a video, or 2 (please) on the other circle lines (middle and outer)?
He did
He did:
- The Outer Circle: The Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/YyDCrXfX28A/w-d-xo.html
- The Middle Circle: The Other Other Circle Line -- th-cam.com/video/l5oN08kvH30/w-d-xo.html
@@AaronOfMpls Thanks folks, I missed them.
Now we know thanks to Jago 🙂🚂🚂🚂
When LTE /TfL do advertising that includes Orange Aid, you can see where the pun section of the comments originates from.
There should be a Stratford-Upon-Avon line, a line by any other name shall still be late. 🙂
Smart 4 choices of names.
The correct nomenclature for the yellow line should now be the Paperclip Line 📎
Teacup Line seems to have been the unofficial nomenclature for over a decade now.
It looks more like a snail to me. And for several of the trains I have been on that would not be inappropriate.
Of course!! classic Royal Comission to Investigate the Various Projects, for Establishing Railway Terminai, Within or in the Inmediate Vicinity of the Metropolis (or RCIVPERTWIVM) shenanigans
The profusion of names and the confusion they cause remind me of the outcome when you ask the marketing department to choose a name for a product.
And In the Beginning , when the combine did the sub-surfaces and tubes , they did bringest their creation unto the first aMericAN (CTY) whom didst namest each line according to its form and function.
Most Victorians named stuff which we stuck to because it was easier. Trust me, we know 😂
I personally wouldn't have our tube lines any other way....long may they survive...P.S. My favourite name is the Piccadilly Line...
I believe it's some sort of shirt collar.
Been on the Metropolitan Line, Circle Line, District Line and Hammersmith & City Line and also been on the S8 and S7 Stocks. Perhaps you should do a video on the new Piccadilly Line 202x Stock that is to be built by Siemens and is schedule to enter service from next year.
Re District railway, I refuse to believe any part of London underground naming being done to avoid confusion...
Hola Diego par Hasard!
Que tal? Ca va?
Perhaps after you run out of London metro stations you could consider Paris and Madrid? 😊
Dear Jago,
Could you do a video about how the Whitechapel and Bow railway got its name?
More about the etymology of the words probably
I guess we're supposed to stay tubed on here?
I believe that the Circle line was branched to Hammersmith to help stabalise the timetable, otherwise a train going round and round would find it almost impossible to recover lost time.
If that is the case, how does the Glasgow subway work?
please do a video on the circle line pub crawl, great video, thanks
1:25 I ought to know this, and Jago has probably done several videos on it already, but does the sign imply that there were two separate stations at Aldersgate Street and Barbican? I thought they were on the same site, just with different names.
I think from the Barbican video it was called Aldergate & Barbican, but I think people were arguing in the comments that there was no mention of Barbican until the estate was built.
@@CarolineFord1 Ah, so "Aldersgate & Barbican" is one station, not two? That makes sense, thanks.
I was a little confused by this one, mostly because I didn't know that tube lines shared tracks. Would it be possible to do a video explaining which sections of tracks are shared and how they work together?
I have! I believe it was called something like “Where the Underground Shares its Tracks.”
In my younger days you could get on the circle line train and just stay there all day in the warm and dry. I believe this is one of the reasons they turned it into an end-to-end service as too many homeless people were doing this.
I once went to a Circle line party, which lasted at least three laps.
Bit of an off topic question, but does anyone know where lots of the roofs went from these stations? The barbican got bombed, but what happened to the arched roof at High Street Kensington, or Gloucester Road, etc? I want to know, the few that remain really make the stations seem so grand and nice places to be!
For your own safety, please stand behind the spiraling yellow line.
Stay tuned. I'm sure theres a whole video that could be made by some character who is interested n words or phrases that have lost the direct applicability. "Stay Tuned" from radio, initially but later also applied to TV. Do you still dial a number on the phone? Do we still film content? Is it a carriage or a coach? (If never quite understood travelling "coach" on a plane). Somebody will get steamed up about it I'm sure.
I would argue that "stay tuned" has *not* lost its' meaning. When you watch a television or listen to a radio, the device is tuned to receive a particular frequency, just like it always was - the difference is that with modern synthesised tuners, you change the tuning by pressing a button rather than turning a dial. Other verbs have come into use - you call a phone number and record content.
On an aircraft "coach" means coach class which is a vernacular expression for economy; its' origins are obscure to me.
doesn't the circle line still have that curve of track from gloucester road to high street kensington, and that tiny bit from aldgate to tower hill?
Ah I saw the ex - Shoreditch station. I wish that this building had a good use, but seems to keep being vandalised.
A video on Nomenclature? I’m sat. And it’s not rush hour 😂
When did Euston Square arrive on the circle/ metropolitan?
It was one of the original Metropolitan Railway stations dating from 1863, but it was called Gower Street. It was renamed to Euston Square in 1909.
I have had a couple and so you have addled my brain. I will have a n other go l8ter
Huh. I was sort-of aware that there was an Outer Circle, but not a Middle Circle nor a Super-outer Circle. Here's hoping you do some videos on them.
Hi, you have done a lot on the lines and the characters involved with building them ,but how about a proper series of biographies of Watkins and the like featuring those characters (inc Pick/Ashfield/Beck and so on that had an impact on the development of the tube and rail network (of london))
I've been to a fair number of Metropolitan stations, but I never got as far as etc..
Seems to me only an accident of history that these four services are treated as separate “lines” while the various DLR or Overground routes aren’t. I know the Picc and Bakerloo also share tracks with full-size trains but the sub-surface lines have more in common with the Overground than with the true tube lines.
Now that the Circle Line isn't a circle any more I think it should be called the Paperclip Line.
Cool!
Actually very good actually ❤
Three Stations at the Southern End of the East London Line, Jago, lets not wipe Old Kent Road from History
When you do the deep level lines will you also do the Northern City line?
That pesky caveat of pedants, the Waterloo and City Railway.
Good morning.
At the end of the video I didn’t quite understand the bit where you say it was part of London Underground but it ain’t any longer … 🤔 … is it because it’s part of the overground now, or is it because it’s out of the limit of London ?
The East London Line is now part of the Overground
@@norbitonflyer5625 ah ok … so to resume, it’s still part of London but it’s just overground. Got it … thanks a lot. 👍
@@roadhog6 "part of London" - a topic which has no doubt sparked hundreds of brawls.
@@roadhog6 But don't forget that despite being the Overground, at Whitechapel it goes under the Underground.
Many Tourists use the colours not the name. It appears that it is much easier to remember. After that, is it going north or south, east or west.
Thanks Jago, but what this doesn't explain - and I've always wondered, is why "District"? It's just a word that means any distinct region or area of a place. It seems an odd choice for a railway company name as every line goes through one or more districts. Maybe it was used synonymously with "suburb" as in the 'outlying districts' in Victorian times.