We're hosting Hidden London Hangouts live on Friday 6 December! Join Chris, Laura and Alex for an evening of Hidden London sneak peeks, fun & conversation. bookings.ltmuseum.co.uk/ltm/events/4be51f5f-b334-8b63-7f67-e3513998cb51
I found you a few days ago when under the weather - I've binge watched all 138 episodes and the specials! Thank you for making the interesting series(points, signals and the wonderful tiles), love the abandoned tunnels and platforms. Hopefully more to come! And thank you Alex for the giggles :)
In his 1972-made documentary ‘Metro-land’ Betjemen sat on that platform saying: “And I can remember sitting here on a warm autumn evening in 1929 and seeing the Brill tram from the platform on the other side with steam up ready to take two or three passengers through oil-lit halts and over level crossings, a rather bumpy journey, to a station not far from the remote hilltop village of Brill."
Interesting take to say the Great Central died out and was taken over by the LNER rather than saying when it came to the big grouping the Great Central was lumped into the LNER. The Great Central main line remained until Beeching, although more used by freight..
Finally got around to watching! Looks like you were having a heap of fun...Quainton Road always makes me sad for the loss of the Great Central Main Line, and reminds me of Betjeman on that platform remembering the past. Happy new year to you all. Hope to see you back soon.
Fantastic, very informative!! I wonder if you would consider doing a similar episode about Crouch Hill, Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill and Ally Pally stations?
Coincidentally when this was originally supposed to be on Saturday evening I’d just got back from Chesham, via the still-operating Metropolitan Line. A few weeks before I had to take a rail replacement bus out there and whilst it wasn’t quick the views from the top deck were very enjoyable. And it went through Chesham Bois, which is so wooded it’s dark even in the daytime.
Very well worth the wait! Fascinating to see the gorgeous old Metroland stations. The sausage barms and sloes were a great bonus, as were the pithy comments, classic HLH innuendos and fascinating facts. I hope New Boy Matt has not been scared off, and the Landrover/ Mystery Machine will return in future episodes
Verney Junction was used in the Doctor Who story 'Black Orchid'... 2 episodes of 1930's-set wonderfulness. If you have the DVD it's featured in the extras as well.
Hated to miss the premier due to work, but most happy that you got the tech woes sorted. Must get to Quainton Rd someday. Thx much for a gin-uinly interesting episode.
At last! I love you all! I missed this when it was released 2 weeks ago! If only we could have waited a few more weeks - I’m on my way to the UK from NZ, I could have joined you! Ps I know what a dag is - they ain’t one! 😂
Welcome back albeit not quite running to time,great episode and most interesting I especially like the Gin Chris I make my own it's called Severn Rivera Tincture The Sloes are picked on the side of the line from Temple Meads to Severn Beach ,not saying quite where as I want some left ! And from a safe distance away from the running line. Mine differs from Metropolitan in the addition of half a dozen Black Pepper Corns which you heat in a dry pan to bring the spice to life only just toast them then let it cool again add to the gin whole no need to grind, and let it fester for four to five month adds a subtle gentle smokeyness to the drink Cheers.
Super programme. BTW, there are frequent references to being in the middle of nowhere and, even, "wildlife". Yet these are real places and what happens there isn't nothing or wilderness but agriculture.
The Long Shop Museum, Leiston, Suffolk have a sister (brother) engine in their collection to the Aveling and Porter light rail locomotive. Built in 1906 and originally in service in a gypsum mine and was named Sirapite, it was later purchased by Richard Garrett Engineering as the site shunting engine. Now fully restored and a working exhibit at the museum, it is a very popular and unque visitor attraction.
Well worth the extra wait! And so funny (although not exactly a surprise) to see how sloe gin is like mother's milk to our intrepid presenter Alex ... PS I hope the New Boy survived!
Another fantastic Video. . A Family Friend was a Loco Fireman at Neasden Loco She'd. When they Used to take over from the Mets Electricblocosnat Rickmansworth hauling Metropolitan trains up To Aylesbury.
A very happy Christmas to all of you , I hope you are all well , thanks for all the wonderful trips you have taken us on during 2024 , all the best for 2025 and best of all luck to Siddy Holloway 🎄⛄✴️🌈💕
It’s incredible to think the reach of the Underground was so far; I guess at one point, much of 'Metroland' was this rural. Must admit to 🎶 Riding Along in an Army Truck from Camberwick Green going through my head a few times! And it seems Alex rather enjoyed the Sloe Gin at the end!
Part of the Brill Tramway became an access road for RAF Westcott which became a centre for post WWII development of rocket propulsion for Britain's nuclear weapons systems.
Might need to have a wander around Metroland soon! Are the sloe fruits abundant and easily found, or are there turf wars among the gin makers? A warm welcome to new playmate Matt, and a gold star to Alex for keeping the tone raised!
Lived in Harrow until 2007 which was very much "Metroland" & was able to explore the "Met" line up to Aylesbury &,of course,beyond to Quainton Rd & Verney.This section from Marylebone shared track with the GCR which ran up through Rugby and beyond.I now live in Rugby & have naturally explored what remains which is quite a lot despite Mr Beechings best efforts!
Wikipedia's 'Brill Tramway' entry has a wealth of information on the branch, including details of a proposal to extend it from Brill to Oxford. In anticipation of this it was renamed the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad but the idea came to nothing and operation of the line was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway. I have memories from the 1960's of rummaging around in the Buckinghamshire countryside trying to find traces of it.
I blame you all for what felt like my immenant demise in Covent Garden station two weeks ago. I was on a day trip to the smoke from home on the Isle of Wight. I went to Battersea Power Station Station, and shared the experience you all had. Liked it a lot. Did stuff at the powerstation itself and then went to Covent Garden. Being a fan I checked out and photographed early tiling and signs and then, near fatally (or so it felt at the time) decided to go up the stairs, as all good hangout fans should. The sign at the bottom said it was 204 steps and, for real, 15 stories :-) I am a bit older than I was when I first used the tube (my home station was Turnpike Lane so I'm a Holden/cream, blue and bronze fan) or as a student in the early 1980s and so halfway up I had to have a breather... and soon after another... and another. I got to the top, and survived, but it was really hard work.I blame you all. Thanks :-) I wanted to go to the LT Museum but I had lost my card at Battersea and didn't have enough emergency cash on me.😵💫 So a visit will have to wait for another day/year/decade.
While it’s nice to see and get photos of old abandoned rail infrastructure, to see it being brought back into life for EWR is even better. I believe the long term plan will even see the line through Quainton Road reopened to passenger traffic to give Aylesbury a link to Milton Keynes (it’s currently freight only for waste traffic to Calvert). My only problem is a lack of ambition and opening EWR as a non electrified line (especially as it connects to electrified lines at Bletchley and south of Oxford at Didcot).
The Brill Tramway was built by the Duke of Buckingham, originally as a horse tram route, in 1871. His goal was to 'transport goods between his lands around Wotton House and the national rail network'. There is a good summary on Wikipedia.
There's actually a lot more on-line than that, this episode got me searching again (I had done an in-depth search prior as I've always had a fascination with the former reach of the Metropolitan).
I was re watching the old Hidden London hangouts and was wondering if during the explores of abandoned part's when you come across interesting artifacts for example the old tube map at Earls court do you go back to collect them for the museum?
Quick question...."Anybody?"....was there a 'head-on' track connection between the Brill Tramway and the Metropolitan etc heavy mainlines that allowed direct onward routing of goods wagons?
There was. Mostly incoming wagonloads of coal, not that there was a huge amount of it - I don't think the tramway carried very much traffic away from the area into the big wide world.
The Christmas shopping special trains to Milton Keynes in the ‘80s served Winslow and I think Quainton Road Stations, and passed through but did not stop at, Verney Junction. The problem with the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is that it’s very difficult to get to. They no longer seem to have the charter trains from Aylesbury on two bank holidays, and the local bus does not run on Sundays or bank holidays when I would want to go. Some years ago when I was on the train I met Adrian Shooter of Chiltern Railways and a man who used to work for British Transport Films, I can’t think of his name now, but somebody here will probably know who I mean, he supplied many of the prints when The NFT did a BTF season some years ago. Both sadly no longer with us now.
Even at the "height" of the service I presume the Brill branch only got a couple of trains each way per day? How frequent would the service up to Verney Junction have been?
There's a lot online on this. Use an apt phrase in a search engine. Your choice of words matters. I've found a lot by following names and terms on maps. "Brill Tramway" is one name at one point of its evolution, there are others, and once you trip across them, you can expand your search. In a cursory search I found that 'Waddesdon Manor was built from material shipped in on the tramway'.
Think that the only real way to travel the old line to Brill and Verny was to build houses, and create demand for Chiltern Railways to provide a service, as there’s a lot of land doing nothing outside of London.
Alright, here's something interesting for all you absolute nerds out there: Verney Junction to Aylesbury: 31 minutes (Bradshaw's, 1920) Aylesbury to Amersham: 22 minutes (Google Maps) Amersham to Moorgate: 63 minutes (Google Maps) Moorgate to Mile End: 12 minutes (Google Maps) Mile End to Epping: 31 minutes (Google Maps) Epping to Ongar: 15 minutes (ABC 1981-11) Total: 174 minutes That's just under 3 HOURS (give or take depending on exactly which train you use in the timetable) to get from one end of the Underground to the other. Of course, not all of these sections were open as part of the Underground at the same time. And Verney Junction to Aylesbury would have been steam-operated, so one could knock off some time from that. The general rule of thumb I've often seen is that electrics take about 2/3 the time of steam, so it would be about 20 minutes. If we apply a smaller time gain between Aylesbury and Amersham, we can cut that down to about 18 minutes. That gives a time of 2:30. Two and a half hours is still quite a long time. One wonders-if the Eastern part of the Central line was built to Subsurface standards and a track connection installed at Mile End, then the more suburban-oriented rolling stock might have kept Epping-Ongar open. Imagine what a through-run would be like from end to end. What a trip that would be! What kind of stock would be used? Can you imagine food service on the Underground?
@alexgrundon2346 Hi again as I am from a place called Redcar if you pardon the pun there is place called Saltburn 6.3 miles from Redcar there is a miniature Railway trains in the valley gardens that is running 2 this day and also has a funicular cliff lift and the oldest surviving today witch is water balanced and in Redcar we have in the oldest surviving lifeboat in the World
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@alexgrundon2346 Hi again as I am from a place called Redcar if you pardon the pun there is place called Saltburn 6.3 miles from Redcar there is a miniature Railway trains in the valley gardens that is running 2 this day and also has a funicular cliff lift and the oldest surviving today witch is water balanced and in Redcar we have in the oldest surviving lifeboat in the World
Suggestion, try adding noise gates to the microphones so that they only pick up the wearer. That way, you get rid of the chorus effect due to everyone's mic picking each other up.
Thanks for the suggestion - but it’s not what you think. We had mic failure on a couple of scenes and I had to scavenge audio from other mics. It’s why you don’t have echo in most sections. Sorry I know it’s a bit irritating but was the best achievable.
Gating is not that simple. Although not a vid engineer, I an am electronic one. The human ear is the best....hmmmm...let me rephrase that...the human *psyche* (audio section, and it's a huge part of the cerebral function) is best at discerning what is apt to focus on and devalue what isn't. Peak compression can help the listener, but again, there's always a consequence to processing audio. I'm giving away my age, but for many of us who can handle music in a raw state: Ever wonder why so much commercial music nowadays sounds like processed pap? It's because it is.
@@chrisnix6352that makes perfect sense, the alternative is scrapping the entire episode and it wasn’t worth the trouble…plus it gave your editors a lot of work but showed their skills as professionals
@@BobGronenberg but you KNOW that wasn’t the case! We were hours off duty and at Nixy’s house when the booze was opened! I didn’t even open my hip flask on the tube home!
I suspect there was/is a concern in the production team that 'repetition' saturates demand, and viewership starts slipping. The episode on the beach on the Isle of Wight was a bit of a low point, at least for me looking for real meat, but it might have been the beginning of finding a new lode of material to present. And if so, this is where it starts to pay off. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be intrigued on 'what the Metropolitan (and by extension, London rail transit) used to be'. Grundon stated what many of us wonder: (paraphrase) "Here we are, rebuilding these very useful links, when they existed a century ago". Even though I'm a Dual resident in Toronto, and the same pertains here, in the US and elsewhere, the UK represents a pronounced example of 'discarding' very useful transit RoWs. One can understand discontinuing a lot of them. Beeching, for instance, albeit not a medical Doctor, had to deal with a massive malignancy with BR, and as with any surgical intervention, good tissue was lost with bad. The enduring sin, however, is in not keeping the RoWs for the use of future generations. Even if for recreational trails, electric transmission, or many other alternate uses, those RoWs should have been protected.
@@stephensaines7100 Railways or "the PERMANENT way" should be kept open where possible or they should have been Mothballed and if lifted their Trackbeds should have been secured JUST INCASE they were needed in future the GCR being one also the S&D and the Many lines in Wales that were lifted too e.g. Barmouth - Ruabon but sadly they weren't! They were offed pretty quickly and land sold off a shame! A real shame
😂 So sad to see you townies making such a fuss about eating a sloe. Seriously, for anyone who enjoyed this excellent episode seek out ‘Metroland’ Sir John Betjeman’s documentary from the 1980s. It used to be on BBC iPlayer but I think it has now been removed.
I don't begrudge the team a Jolly, but especially as we had to wait and wait and after the unexpected brevity of the twelve second teaser too, I would have appreciated a warning in the episode title. There was one, granted 39:20 We had to wait until the end for it "This episode is the very definition of a long walk for a short drink." Perhaps it can be filed in the vaults as Sloely it'll dawn on you that this is a know your audience episode. Three + 1 city types ham it up in the countryside ostensibly searching for a lost tramway, getting Sloely diverted as they go. There's so much history and out of the ordinary titbits to be told about this end of the UndergrounD, yet all we got was generics and then Gin. Not the most enlightening episode I ever done see.
@alexgrundon2346 As usual, I could have put it better. I was trying to express the disjointed state I was in. Looking forward to the usual heady mix of footage, facts and frivolity and aware that there's a wealth of entertainingly eccentric anecdotes to be told about this end of the network, I was disappointed to discover it was on a different tack altogether. As I said, a well deserved jaunt, it's just a fair distance from what I had expected and as I watched, still hoped it would become. Love gin, love the tube, love you guys. Just dismayed that my assumption that it would be the usual train-centred banquet was totally derailed by this off piste liquid lunch instead.
@ to be honest since we filmed this I’ve seen similar films about this same subject that are full of outtakes, expletives and crap, frankly. I must take issue with one thing though, about knowing our audience. The passing trade who stumble over these videos as they head for more established and advertising-funded players in this field are welcome. But I think our true audience base is those who met us in lockdown, coped with it with a little encouragement from us and stayed for the longer journey. And I think (well,hope) this episode delivered exactly what they were expecting. Not for everyone, but I do think we know our audience, in which you are most welcome.
@@alexgrundon2346 Invitation gratefully received whilst acknowledging that you all most certainly do know your audience. I'd just like acknowledgment that what we got to see in the latest video was much more Keith Floyd and Countryfile than your usual balanced edutainment I think they call it. Crowd~pleasing titillation on the one hand and awkward currs like me~pleasing answers to mysteries and questions we've had about the tube all along. There's nothing better than finally getting the answer to a long~standing itch which no amount of poring over the brilliant book nor going on another terrific tour, has been able to settle.
We're hosting Hidden London Hangouts live on Friday 6 December! Join Chris, Laura and Alex for an evening of Hidden London sneak peeks, fun & conversation.
bookings.ltmuseum.co.uk/ltm/events/4be51f5f-b334-8b63-7f67-e3513998cb51
It's a pity that I will be in London for a festival 5 days before. Sigh!
Nooo! Christmas do in Lewisham (of all places) so I'll miss it! Oh well maybe they'll do another one in the New Year.
I'm finally all caught up with the past episodes. It took about a half a year and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I'm anxiously awaiting the next episode.
I found you a few days ago when under the weather - I've binge watched all 138 episodes and the specials! Thank you for making the interesting series(points, signals and the wonderful tiles), love the abandoned tunnels and platforms. Hopefully more to come! And thank you Alex for the giggles :)
In his 1972-made documentary ‘Metro-land’ Betjemen sat on that platform saying: “And I can remember sitting here on a warm autumn evening in 1929 and seeing the Brill tram from the platform on the other side with steam up ready to take two or three passengers through oil-lit halts and over level crossings, a rather bumpy journey, to a station not far from the remote hilltop village of Brill."
Interesting take to say the Great Central died out and was taken over by the LNER rather than saying when it came to the big grouping the Great Central was lumped into the LNER.
The Great Central main line remained until Beeching, although more used by freight..
Finally got around to watching! Looks like you were having a heap of fun...Quainton Road always makes me sad for the loss of the Great Central Main Line, and reminds me of Betjeman on that platform remembering the past. Happy new year to you all. Hope to see you back soon.
Fantastic, very informative!!
I wonder if you would consider doing a similar episode about Crouch Hill, Cranley Gardens, Muswell Hill and Ally Pally stations?
YES! We’ve got it on the list!
@@alexgrundon2346include beyond Edgware and you can get the Landy out again!
Coincidentally when this was originally supposed to be on Saturday evening I’d just got back from Chesham, via the still-operating Metropolitan Line.
A few weeks before I had to take a rail replacement bus out there and whilst it wasn’t quick the views from the top deck were very enjoyable. And it went through Chesham Bois, which is so wooded it’s dark even in the daytime.
Brilliant. Great to see you back. Thanks for another great show.
Very well worth the wait! Fascinating to see the gorgeous old Metroland stations. The sausage barms and sloes were a great bonus, as were the pithy comments, classic HLH innuendos and fascinating facts. I hope New Boy Matt has not been scared off, and the Landrover/ Mystery Machine will return in future episodes
Sausage what-now?
Hurray! It is finally working
i was about to add that and saw you had already done it.
It's the End of the Line replacement service. 😁
@@RoyCousins very good. never liked bus replacemnent services, this is better
Verney Junction was used in the Doctor Who story 'Black Orchid'... 2 episodes of 1930's-set wonderfulness. If you have the DVD it's featured in the extras as well.
Excellent - wonderful trip. Thank you
Nice to see you back guys ❤ a great adventure thanks 🌈🙏
Thank you for fixing the 12second presentation,😊😊😊
@@Pigeon35-666 we like to give you the full length.
@@alexgrundon2346COUGH MR G We know you like a length or two 😂🤣😂
Hated to miss the premier due to work, but most happy that you got the tech woes sorted. Must get to Quainton Rd someday. Thx much for a gin-uinly interesting episode.
At last! I love you all! I missed this when it was released 2 weeks ago!
If only we could have waited a few more weeks - I’m on my way to the UK from NZ, I could have joined you!
Ps I know what a dag is - they ain’t one! 😂
Welcome back albeit not quite running to time,great episode and most interesting I especially like the Gin Chris
I make my own it's called Severn Rivera Tincture
The Sloes are picked on the side of the line from Temple Meads to Severn Beach ,not saying quite where as I want some left ! And from a safe distance away from the running line.
Mine differs from Metropolitan in the addition of half a dozen Black Pepper Corns which you heat in a dry pan to bring the spice to life only just toast them then let it cool again add to the gin whole no need to grind, and let it fester for four to five month adds a subtle gentle smokeyness to the drink Cheers.
Yay, full episode. Because of these hangouts, I'm now finding myself saying 'anybody' in a high voice. 😊
That was well worth the wait thank you
Ah, good to see the full version has now been uploaded. Hoping there will be enough tiles to see for Laura in this video!
Super programme. BTW, there are frequent references to being in the middle of nowhere and, even, "wildlife". Yet these are real places and what happens there isn't nothing or wilderness but agriculture.
We’re city types. Anywhere without an Oyster touch pad is terrifying to us
@@alexgrundon2346you could tell you lot are city types when it came to the brambles and over growth 😂
The Long Shop Museum, Leiston, Suffolk have a sister (brother) engine in their collection to the Aveling and Porter light rail locomotive. Built in 1906 and originally in service in a gypsum mine and was named Sirapite, it was later purchased by Richard Garrett Engineering as the site shunting engine. Now fully restored and a working exhibit at the museum, it is a very popular and unque visitor attraction.
Well worth the extra wait! And so funny (although not exactly a surprise) to see how sloe gin is like mother's milk to our intrepid presenter Alex ... PS I hope the New Boy survived!
@@Shalott63 Matt’s brilliant. We love him
Another fantastic Video. . A Family Friend was a Loco Fireman at Neasden Loco She'd. When they Used to take over from the Mets Electricblocosnat Rickmansworth hauling Metropolitan trains up To Aylesbury.
Nice surprise to see more of my neck of the woods!
Well worth the wait and I'm loving the new vehicle it's beautiful and so is that area countryside
Fantastic episode guys .
Very enjoyable 👍
A very happy Christmas to all of you , I hope you are all well , thanks for all the wonderful trips you have taken us on during 2024 , all the best for 2025 and best of all luck to Siddy Holloway 🎄⛄✴️🌈💕
It’s incredible to think the reach of the Underground was so far; I guess at one point, much of 'Metroland' was this rural.
Must admit to 🎶 Riding Along in an Army Truck from Camberwick Green going through my head a few times! And it seems Alex rather enjoyed the Sloe Gin at the end!
A rumpety bumpety army truck.
The John betjamin documentary on metroland from 1972 is an absolute classic.
These are my favourite trio of the lot.
Part of the Brill Tramway became an access road for RAF Westcott which became a centre for post WWII development of rocket propulsion for Britain's nuclear weapons systems.
Wonderful! Thanks for that!
14:10 would love "basha" tarpaulins in moquette patterns.
Might need to have a wander around Metroland soon! Are the sloe fruits abundant and easily found, or are there turf wars among the gin makers? A warm welcome to new playmate Matt, and a gold star to Alex for keeping the tone raised!
There’s lots around Bucks and Oxon. There’s lots of bushes from a footpath from the car park at my local supermarket, and some 10 mins from the house!
Yes you find lots of sloe bushes around that way. If people have found particularly good ones they tend to keep to themselves in my experience.
Very good. I hope Chris has enough elixir for 6 December
Lived in Harrow until 2007 which was very much "Metroland" & was able to explore the "Met" line up to Aylesbury &,of course,beyond to Quainton Rd & Verney.This section from Marylebone shared track with the GCR which ran up through Rugby and beyond.I now live in Rugby & have naturally explored what remains which is quite a lot despite Mr Beechings best efforts!
Wikipedia's 'Brill Tramway' entry has a wealth of information on the branch, including details of a proposal to extend it from Brill to Oxford. In anticipation of this it was renamed the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad but the idea came to nothing and operation of the line was taken over by the Metropolitan Railway. I have memories from the 1960's of rummaging around in the Buckinghamshire countryside trying to find traces of it.
This is so interesting! I grew up in Chesham and Amersham 😊
❤ Alex Grundon (LNR) x
I blame you all for what felt like my immenant demise in Covent Garden station two weeks ago. I was on a day trip to the smoke from home on the Isle of Wight. I went to Battersea Power Station Station, and shared the experience you all had. Liked it a lot. Did stuff at the powerstation itself and then went to Covent Garden. Being a fan I checked out and photographed early tiling and signs and then, near fatally (or so it felt at the time) decided to go up the stairs, as all good hangout fans should. The sign at the bottom said it was 204 steps and, for real, 15 stories :-) I am a bit older than I was when I first used the tube (my home station was Turnpike Lane so I'm a Holden/cream, blue and bronze fan) or as a student in the early 1980s and so halfway up I had to have a breather... and soon after another... and another. I got to the top, and survived, but it was really hard work.I blame you all. Thanks :-) I wanted to go to the LT Museum but I had lost my card at Battersea and didn't have enough emergency cash on me.😵💫 So a visit will have to wait for another day/year/decade.
Well done! And yes please come back! There’s so much to see.
It's that "15 storeys" again: th-cam.com/video/pBTvmrRGlbE/w-d-xo.html
While it’s nice to see and get photos of old abandoned rail infrastructure, to see it being brought back into life for EWR is even better.
I believe the long term plan will even see the line through Quainton Road reopened to passenger traffic to give Aylesbury a link to Milton Keynes (it’s currently freight only for waste traffic to Calvert).
My only problem is a lack of ambition and opening EWR as a non electrified line (especially as it connects to electrified lines at Bletchley and south of Oxford at Didcot).
That was a Brill episode!
Lovely episode! Must reread that chapter of the book. I guess that sloe gin is similar to our Spanish pacharán...
The Brill Tramway was built by the Duke of Buckingham, originally as a horse tram route, in 1871. His goal was to 'transport goods between his lands around Wotton House and the national rail network'. There is a good summary on Wikipedia.
There's actually a lot more on-line than that, this episode got me searching again (I had done an in-depth search prior as I've always had a fascination with the former reach of the Metropolitan).
Jago Hazard did a good video about it.
There is only one way to describe this episode. Brill
Excellent. Painful, but excellent.
badumtish!
Ah, Matt. I thought that Siddy looked different :-). BTW, "The Chilterns" is the name of Amersham Crematorium.
I was re watching the old Hidden London hangouts and was wondering if during the explores of abandoned part's when you come across interesting artifacts for example the old tube map at Earls court do you go back to collect them for the museum?
The ink well in the lift shaft at Angel was a cracker of a find
Chris, you didn't mention that the sloe fruit crystalise with the sugar and are very moreisssshhhh!
Thanks for the show. The very very slow introduction of Matt was a bit odd. I was thinking "Sidi looks different today."
Excellent more please
Quick question...."Anybody?"....was there a 'head-on' track connection between the Brill Tramway and the Metropolitan etc heavy mainlines that allowed direct onward routing of goods wagons?
There was. Mostly incoming wagonloads of coal, not that there was a huge amount of it - I don't think the tramway carried very much traffic away from the area into the big wide world.
Quainton Road, the film Titfiekd thunderbolt sprang to mind. 😊
Strange acoustics. Is this just on my phone?
On my PC as well
on my tablet as well…echoie and muted particularly Alex’s mic
@@bostonrailfan2427it’s probably for the best….😉
Hi all- it's all gone a bit quiet again. Series 10 in 2025? Perhaps? Maybe? Please!!!!!
Never mind all that- Happy New Year to all the team.
I really like this show, The Fabulous 4, but the three of you are great, plus the new guy.
Yipeeee, it is back!
2:39 double yellow lines = no waiting at any time, tut tut
Wishing siddy well
She posts most days on her professional Facebook account.
The Christmas shopping special trains to Milton Keynes in the ‘80s served Winslow and I think Quainton Road Stations, and passed through but did not stop at, Verney Junction.
The problem with the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre is that it’s very difficult to get to. They no longer seem to have the charter trains from Aylesbury on two bank holidays, and the local bus does not run on Sundays or bank holidays when I would want to go.
Some years ago when I was on the train I met Adrian Shooter of Chiltern Railways and a man who used to work for British Transport Films, I can’t think of his name now, but somebody here will probably know who I mean, he supplied many of the prints when The NFT did a BTF season some years ago. Both sadly no longer with us now.
I’ve remembered his name, it was Alan Willmott of course.
Overrunning engineering works finally fixed. Bravo raggazzi!
Well that was a sloe burner!
I'd be interested in what was involved in making the museum's 2016 Defender ULEZ compliant.
There’s a conversion kit available for later Duratorque engined models. It gives it Adblue and an extra Cat I believe.
@@chrisnix6352 Thanks Chris 👍
Even at the "height" of the service I presume the Brill branch only got a couple of trains each way per day? How frequent would the service up to Verney Junction have been?
There's a lot online on this. Use an apt phrase in a search engine. Your choice of words matters. I've found a lot by following names and terms on maps. "Brill Tramway" is one name at one point of its evolution, there are others, and once you trip across them, you can expand your search. In a cursory search I found that 'Waddesdon Manor was built from material shipped in on the tramway'.
Can you get that book in the museum in London
YES
Siddy's changed @2:52
Not taking Alex out for a drink at the pace, he drank that gin.
Had the Pre war Northern Extension been built, would it have gone as far north as the Met?
Elstree …
Seeing "End of the line" and Geoff not being there is a bit odd.
Where is syndney
Do you mean Siddy? Maternity leave. She’s had a baybeeeeee
Think that the only real way to travel the old line to Brill and Verny was to build houses, and create demand for Chiltern Railways to provide a service, as there’s a lot of land doing nothing outside of London.
... and after you've strained the sloe gin, you've got a whole load of gin-soaked sloes.
You can then re-soak them in port for a second round.
Good tip!
Alright, here's something interesting for all you absolute nerds out there:
Verney Junction to Aylesbury: 31 minutes (Bradshaw's, 1920)
Aylesbury to Amersham: 22 minutes (Google Maps)
Amersham to Moorgate: 63 minutes (Google Maps)
Moorgate to Mile End: 12 minutes (Google Maps)
Mile End to Epping: 31 minutes (Google Maps)
Epping to Ongar: 15 minutes (ABC 1981-11)
Total: 174 minutes
That's just under 3 HOURS (give or take depending on exactly which train you use in the timetable) to get from one end of the Underground to the other.
Of course, not all of these sections were open as part of the Underground at the same time.
And Verney Junction to Aylesbury would have been steam-operated, so one could knock off some time from that. The general rule of thumb I've often seen is that electrics take about 2/3 the time of steam, so it would be about 20 minutes.
If we apply a smaller time gain between Aylesbury and Amersham, we can cut that down to about 18 minutes.
That gives a time of 2:30. Two and a half hours is still quite a long time.
One wonders-if the Eastern part of the Central line was built to Subsurface standards and a track connection installed at Mile End, then the more suburban-oriented rolling stock might have kept Epping-Ongar open.
Imagine what a through-run would be like from end to end. What a trip that would be! What kind of stock would be used? Can you imagine food service on the Underground?
Interesting thoughts. Food service seems increasingly rare on trains these days.
Well, at least it lasted for more than 12 seconds 😂
It’s the aim of all men
Is that a dog in t6he back?
As it is the Anniversary of the Railway why not visit Stockton and Darlington Railway
Love to.
@alexgrundon2346 Hi again as I am from a place called Redcar if you pardon the pun there is place called Saltburn 6.3 miles from Redcar there is a miniature Railway trains in the valley gardens that is running 2 this day and also has a funicular cliff lift and the oldest surviving today witch is water balanced and in Redcar we have in the oldest surviving lifeboat in the World
@alexgrundon2346 Hi again as I am from a place called Redcar if you pardon the pun there is place called Saltburn 6.3 miles from Redcar there is a miniature Railway trains in the valley gardens that is running 2 this day and also has a funicular cliff lift and the oldest surviving today witch is water balanced and in Redcar we have in the oldest surviving lifeboat in the World
Suggestion, try adding noise gates to the microphones so that they only pick up the wearer. That way, you get rid of the chorus effect due to everyone's mic picking each other up.
Thanks for the suggestion - but it’s not what you think. We had mic failure on a couple of scenes and I had to scavenge audio from other mics. It’s why you don’t have echo in most sections. Sorry I know it’s a bit irritating but was the best achievable.
Gating is not that simple. Although not a vid engineer, I an am electronic one. The human ear is the best....hmmmm...let me rephrase that...the human *psyche* (audio section, and it's a huge part of the cerebral function) is best at discerning what is apt to focus on and devalue what isn't. Peak compression can help the listener, but again, there's always a consequence to processing audio.
I'm giving away my age, but for many of us who can handle music in a raw state: Ever wonder why so much commercial music nowadays sounds like processed pap? It's because it is.
@@stephensaines7100 I'm a retired AV Lecturer and musician, so please put it back in your pants and stop waving it around.
@@chrisnix6352Ah, so that’s what caused the delay.
@@chrisnix6352that makes perfect sense, the alternative is scrapping the entire episode and it wasn’t worth the trouble…plus it gave your editors a lot of work but showed their skills as professionals
It almost feels weird that Geoff Marshall doesn't appear in this video.
….why?
@@alexgrundon2346 I believe it's because Geoff does a series called end of the line.
@@Why24244 I think he did do one at Amersham?
5.03…don’t want to concern you but you know someone else got in the back of the LR with you, right?
And of course Chris knows everything about LRs 😂 there’s literally nothing he doesn’t know!!
Ahh, 7.00…it’s Matt! Hello Matt!
There’s a very strong gin theme running through this.
Just like my blood
It's a lot of filler, but it doesn't detract from the actual 'goods'. What was missed on 'gin' is that is a contraction of "engine".
Drinking sloe gin and driving a LTM Land Rover ?
@@BobGronenberg but you KNOW that wasn’t the case! We were hours off duty and at Nixy’s house when the booze was opened! I didn’t even open my hip flask on the tube home!
@@alexgrundon2346 I don’t think you needed to 🤪
Please don't say this is the End of our Line! Please say there is more!
I suspect there was/is a concern in the production team that 'repetition' saturates demand, and viewership starts slipping. The episode on the beach on the Isle of Wight was a bit of a low point, at least for me looking for real meat, but it might have been the beginning of finding a new lode of material to present. And if so, this is where it starts to pay off. I'm sure I'm not the only one to be intrigued on 'what the Metropolitan (and by extension, London rail transit) used to be'.
Grundon stated what many of us wonder: (paraphrase) "Here we are, rebuilding these very useful links, when they existed a century ago". Even though I'm a Dual resident in Toronto, and the same pertains here, in the US and elsewhere, the UK represents a pronounced example of 'discarding' very useful transit RoWs. One can understand discontinuing a lot of them. Beeching, for instance, albeit not a medical Doctor, had to deal with a massive malignancy with BR, and as with any surgical intervention, good tissue was lost with bad.
The enduring sin, however, is in not keeping the RoWs for the use of future generations. Even if for recreational trails, electric transmission, or many other alternate uses, those RoWs should have been protected.
@@stephensaines7100 Railways or "the PERMANENT way" should be kept open where possible or they should have been Mothballed and if lifted their Trackbeds should have been secured JUST INCASE they were needed in future the GCR being one also the S&D and the Many lines in Wales that were lifted too e.g. Barmouth - Ruabon but sadly they weren't! They were offed pretty quickly and land sold off a shame! A real shame
probably the last episode of the series but will be back for series 10 next year
@@bostonrailfan2427 i hope so! I really do
@@edbridges1164 I suggest you reference "Permanent way". That's not what I meant. It's the *Right of Way"...no rails, no infrastructure.
these days they want public transport used more ,.but its not there to use ,,no one looked into the future
😂 So sad to see you townies making such a fuss about eating a sloe. Seriously, for anyone who enjoyed this excellent episode seek out ‘Metroland’ Sir John Betjeman’s documentary from the 1980s. It used to be on BBC iPlayer but I think it has now been removed.
I can honestly say if a sloe began to grow in town(ies) I’d walk on by.
@ 😂
12+ seconds long!
Queensland australia, laugh dag ????????
Sounds like a dagboard belongs somewhere around the dunny or the sheep dip
I don't begrudge the team a Jolly, but especially as we had to wait and wait and after the unexpected brevity of the twelve second teaser too, I would have appreciated a warning in the episode title.
There was one, granted
39:20 We had to wait until the end for it
"This episode is the very definition of a long walk for a short drink."
Perhaps it can be filed in the vaults as Sloely it'll dawn on you that this is a know your audience episode. Three + 1 city types ham it up in the countryside ostensibly searching for a lost tramway, getting Sloely diverted as they go.
There's so much history and out of the ordinary titbits to be told about this end of the UndergrounD, yet all we got was generics and then Gin.
Not the most enlightening episode I ever done see.
What an utterly bizarre bit of feedback.
@alexgrundon2346 As usual, I could have put it better. I was trying to express the
disjointed state I was in.
Looking forward to the usual heady mix of footage, facts and frivolity and aware that there's a wealth of entertainingly eccentric anecdotes to be told about this end of the network, I was disappointed to discover it was on a different tack altogether.
As I said, a well deserved jaunt, it's just a fair distance from what I had expected and as I watched, still hoped it would become.
Love gin, love the tube, love you guys. Just dismayed that my assumption that it would be the usual train-centred banquet was totally derailed by this off piste liquid lunch instead.
@ to be honest since we filmed this I’ve seen similar films about this same subject that are full of outtakes, expletives and crap, frankly. I must take issue with one thing though, about knowing our audience. The passing trade who stumble over these videos as they head for more established and advertising-funded players in this field are welcome. But I think our true audience base is those who met us in lockdown, coped with it with a little encouragement from us and stayed for the longer journey. And I think (well,hope) this episode delivered exactly what they were expecting. Not for everyone, but I do think we know our audience, in which you are most welcome.
@@alexgrundon2346 Invitation gratefully received whilst acknowledging that you all most certainly do know your audience.
I'd just like acknowledgment that what we got to see in the latest video was much more Keith Floyd and Countryfile than your usual balanced edutainment I think they call it. Crowd~pleasing titillation on the one hand and awkward currs like me~pleasing answers to mysteries and questions we've had about the tube all along.
There's nothing better than finally getting the answer to a long~standing itch which no amount of poring over the brilliant book nor going on another terrific tour, has been able to settle.
@geofftech2 should had sued
Ah but then @geofftech2 would then have to worry about Victoria Coren Mitchell! 😆
Gave up on this one, too off-topic for too long.
Is it me, or was this a sloe episode....?....I'll get my coat...
It wasn't going to be oriGinally.
Gave up & unsubscribed when the silly townies started taking the piss out of the Landy and rural places.
Shame we can’t see your name. I’d have loved to say goodbye