No Smoking on the Underground

Fantastic. I am amazed that today's 'elfin safety' permitted it. Whilst years of acute discomfort associated with the Paddington - Westminster section of the Circle during the rush hour cured me of any affection for the tube I too would love to see it.

According to the article all the tickets for the January runs have been sold but I may just risk a trip to London just to see it.

I guess the great and the good got first pickings as usual.

Brian

I guess the great and the good got first pickings as usual.

Brian

Bback then the tunnels were quite shallow and there were ventilation chimneys. Many were removed on electrifiction but some remain.

Have the stations sunk since they were built so they are no longer shallow?

A lot of the early underground was surface railway in cuttings, covered only where unavoidable.

Colin Bignell

The Metropolitan/Circle/District line was the first to be built and is sub-surface cut-and-cover rather than bored tunnel underground. Much of it runs in open cuttings.

I appreciate that - there are some excellent pictures of the process. But harry seemed to be suggesting that the tunnels *were* quite shallow

- but does that mean they no longer are?

It says UKP180. And they went instantly.

Peter Hendy, the commissioner of Transport for London: "This is the advantage of having your own railway ? you don't have to ask permission"

Andy

Bit of a risk if you are coming from afar, Most of it will be Underground after all and it's a fair bet that there will have to be crowd control at stations. Even if you can find a spot where you can peer over a wall or can get access to a building that overlooks an open section it will be dark by the time it runs .

G.Harman

The early ones were shallow, as that was all they could build and operate using steam traction. Then in 1890 or thereabouts they started using the shield method of building the tunnels, and depth became almost irrelevant except for access problems. The needed prior invention to make these lines possible was reliable electric traction, with the coal burning taking place in a power station and reliable transmission of power. See:-

Even the shallow lines with their many open air sections required the steam engines to be fitted with apparatus to "digest" the smoke, often by passing it through the water in the side tanks of the locomotive. This was not very effective.

But did they change the shallowness of, for example, the existing Baker Street station?

Beeb has got a film:

No. In places it is even the original beams which are holding the roof up and the retaining walls apart. In places, the original tiled wall finish is in place behind the modern decorations

If you go for a ride on the Circle line. you will see an awful lot of daylight as you travel.

They are still. I can look over part of the cutting for the Kings Cross to Farringdon section from my front window.

No, if you look at the photograph in the Guardian article linked in the OP you can see a light well at the side of the opposite platform. It's now sealed up with a lamp giving the illusion of daylight, but originally that was open to the surface. The Kings Cross to Bakers Str Section is just below Euston Road.

No, I'd have thought that was pretty obvious even to you. It just means there were no deep ones. Dunno why such stupid questions go through your mind when you can find out most things with a few mouse clicks

Metz CT-60.

Ballot, my arse. You can be utterly sure before the ballot took place that some were 'allocated' to high heid yins.