London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's The Friday Fashion Victims on Saturday (moving house meant eveything's skew whiff). So it's the weekly look at commuters who are slaves to fashion or people who are taking a "trendy" style and "making it their own" regardless of whether it suits them or not. Finally I have a man to redress the imbalance of women over the past weeks.

Low Slung Hoodie

There's a going on around this guy's behind. He's going for the low slung baggy arse look with added layers T Shirt, jumper and pretty err.... inventive looking hoody / hoodie:



Fishnets & Trainers

I'm not getting into the fishnets or no fishnets debate this week. But I would love to have known whether this woman did have a pair of smart shoes in her bag, and was just doing the "I've just come back from the gym" look or the "My office shoes are so painful that I can't walk properly in them, and have to wear trainers to get around town in quickly" look


I know women who do this, and if I were them, I think I'd just buy a pair of smart work shoes that I could easily hop around the Tube on. But I spose having a pair of heels in your bag might come in handy if you ever need to swing your bag someone.

Enormous Turn Ups

Is it just me or are some people trying to get their jean turnups to take up half their legs?



Coloured Boots

Finally a look at two women who decided that brightly coloured boots are nice. I've fairly boring and conventional with my boots and they either are brown or black and that's it. But there's nothing (too) wrong with a bit of brightness. The lady below resplendent in purple boots and a matching funky purple "leopard skin" bag pulls it off quite impressively:


Whereas this lady on South West Trains doesn't:


Pink Uggs with an anorak. Or rather Pink Uggs with anything. The mind boggles!

That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Saturday, April 22, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Where is Hickory Road Tube Station? Quiz

Win some Art Deco Luggage Label Stickers and a mini photo frame

Friday's quiz on Thursday (I'm moving house, up to my eyeballs in boxes & will only have sporadic internet access over the next day or so). A few weeks ago, me and Neil were watching an old episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot called "Hickory Dickory Dock" & much of it was based around a Tube station called "Hickory Road".

We were wracking our brains trying to work out where the London Underground station really was. Searching the net was no help. In fact, I found another person who was also trying to work out where it was filmed. Fortunately, a regular contributor to the blog was also watching Poirot and we had the same discussion, but he managed to take a number of screen shots including the ones below:














However, we still couldn't actually work out where it was filmed. It's obviously a station that was around in the 1920's or 1930's when the story was based. The outside shots looked like they could have been a set, but the ones inside definitely looked like a real Tube station.

I asked another contributor who was likely to know and he came up with an excellent suggestion. Neil checked it out on Monday and took a shot of the lines from the station in question.

So can you also work out where it is? This time, one guess only please and as usual to enter, leave either your email address and/or website or blog in the comments below.

You have until 23.59 on Sunday 30th April to enter. In the event of more than one person guessing the correct answer, Neil's paperclip selection will come into play.

The prize is a book of 53 "Old Fashioned Luggage Labels" stickers.

They remind me of the fab art deco opening titles to Poirot, which always want to make me travel on the Orient Express.


There's also a bonus prize if you can come up with a caption for what Damian Lewis (pictured above) from the same episode of Poirot, is saying to his lady friend on the Tube to make her laugh.

The funniest caption will win this rather unsual photo frame / fridge magnet in the style of the ticket booths that were around at the time.

Same deadline of the 30th April, but the more the merrier with caption guesses.

Have fun!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, April 20, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Celebrities & celebrity lookalikes on the Tube

Spot the famous person

A few weeks ago Phill Price sent me a picture of the white haired guy below, who is famous and asked me to guess who he was. I guessed fairly quickly cos I'm a bit of a tube celebrity stalker. Do you know who he is? No prizes, just the satisfaction of knowing you're right!


I took a picture of the next guy for two reasons, firstly he caught my eye because he was reading a copy of London Under London, one of my favourite books about life underground which has been re-printed loads of times. He also looked a bit like Keith Allen, the Northern actor/comedian, most recently the narrator in the Manchester Passion over Easter:


There must be quite a few people who travel on the London Underground who just happen to look like celebrities and have people staring at them or people like me try to take pictures of them. Have you seen any celebrities or people who look like celebs recently?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, April 19, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Hamper from our Tube Cop

Greetings from New Orleans & Tube Relief Reunion Update

You may remember that a few weeks ago we had a reunion with Tami Brisset, the New Orleans Police Captain who came over in August to take part in Tube Relief and then ended up being stranded here while Hurricane Katrina was wrecking havoc to her home.

She said she would send me a "little something" for organising the party, so I've just received quite a big something in the form of a package, containing all the New Orleans food goodies below:


It's extremely generous of Tami as she already gave us all a load of Mardi Gras beads when she was over. I must think of a suitable food related quiz so that I can share some of this. But in the meantime, thanks so much Tami, it's really appreciated!

Sam Cawley (pictured on the far right) who was also came to the Tube Relief Reunion and individually raised the most money for the event, has a non Tube plea, which any football fan might be interested in.

She's trying to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis and has the following items for auction:

Manchester United football signed by 13 first team players,
Everton team photo signed by the whole first team squad,
2 adult and 2 junior Exeter match tickets for any league game valid until end of next season,
1 adult and 1 junior Brentford match tickets valid until end of next season,
Signed Yeovil Town "In a Different League" book,
Tottenham Hotspur pennant signed by the first team squad,
Plymouth pennant signed by the first team squad,
Barnet poster signed by the first team squad,
Newcastle programme signed by Alan Shearer,
Bath Rugby poster signed.

Plus something for cricket fans - 2 Hampshire cricket tickets, valid for any Totesport league or Cheltenham and Gloucester trophy, but not floodlit!

If you would like to bid on any, please email her on sam.cawley@btinternet.com.

Many thanks, and watch this space for a food/London Underground related quiz for a share of the hamper!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, April 19, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Mobile Phones on the Tube - coming soon

"Can't speak, I'm going into a tunnel"


Well it looks like we might not be hearing that any more from the summer of 2008 as the London Underground is going ahead with plans to have mobile phone transmitters in Tube, in spite of initial fears by the Lib Dems that the transmitters might provide a new way to detonate bombs.

According to the BBC, the political party "have been persuaded that any extra risk is minimal and that in an emergency, people need their phones. A study looking at putting transmitters in four stations begins this month. The two-month feasibility study will look at the space, power and changes needed to put mobile phone masts in stations."

The project, to put transmitters which would also allow internet access and WiFi hot spots, was put on hold after the July 7th bombings. In Spain, investigations revealed that the Madrid bombers, while using mobile phones as detonators, set off the bombs by using the phone's alarm function rather than by calling each individual phone.

A spokeswoman from London Underground said "The timers of mobile phones are not affected by whether a signal can be received or not so the Tube would not be at a greater risk from that type of attack than it is now".

Lib Dem MP and former London Assembly Chair of Transport Policy, Lynne Featherstone, conceded that "Better communications could be of enormous benefit in the event of an emergency, allowing passengers to communicate with the emergency services and worried relatives".

But we will still have a fairly peaceful "haven" where people aren't shouting into their phones, above the racket of being in deep level stations, for a year or so. The Tube's spokeswoman said: "It is our intention to commence a trial at a small number of Tube stations in late 2007 with the aim of introducing mobile phone and new technology provision at stations from summer 2008."

For the full story check out BBC News.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, April 18, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Beware of Trains - World's Smallest Public Railway

Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway

Just a mini break from the London Underground, as me and Neil were on a mini Easter break to Kent to see the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, the world's smallest public railway. I had actually been on it before, but it was Neil's birthday on Saturday so I treated him to the delights of the world's smallest public steam railway.

I hadn't been to the Model Railway Exhibition at New Romney station before, which was one of the highlights for me. I love this enamel sign and am now kicking myself that I didn't buy one from the shop back at Hythe:


The other great thing about the model railway exhibition there were the rather bizarre juxtaposition of things in the scenery alongside the trains. Every so often you'd hear someone say, "Oh look there's a dalek", or "Look at the dinosaurs", or my favourite "Look at the rat"!


We took the railway for the 13 and half miles from Hythe to Dungeness, stopping off at New Romney on the way, for lunch and a visit to the Model Railway Exhibition. Dungeness is probably one of the worst places to visit in Kent. By the railway it is totally flat and deserted and the only things that break the bleak landscape are occasional spots of yellow gorse bush, two pretty uninspiring looking lighthouses and the splendour that is Dungeness power station. It was pelting with rain by the time we reached there, which was fortunate as it meant it didn't take long for me to convince Neil to stay on the train and loop straight back towards Hythe.

There's something typically "English" about seaside towns in the rain and although all of the stations ran along the coast line you can't actually see the sea properly from the trains. You get glimpses of it from Romney Sands (sounds much nicer than it is - basically the land of caravans and grim 'holiday homes') and perhaps if it wasn't so grey and wet from Dungeness, we might have caught a glimpse of it then.

However, we actually had a good laugh, you can see Neil giving the train a "thumbs up" when we left Hythe.



It was also good to see that the mini guard was still working at New Romney


There was also a suitably London Underground style announcement apologising for the late running of the train into New Romney, just so that we felt at home!


I'm sure Neil will update his blog with his version of the day and hopefully more photos than me. He took quite a lot of the marshy wet Dungeness (apparently a great place to bird-watch - so it does have its benefits) and you'll be able to see how different it looks from the sunny "Welcome to Dungeness" poster from the Model Railway Exhibition.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, April 18, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Happy Easter

A special Easter message

No Tube fashion victims today as it's Bank Holiday weekend, but I thought you might like the picture of the Easter Bunnies below as we celebrate "National Eat Loads of Chocolate" weekend:


Happy Easter and cheers to my colleague, Wozza, for sending me the picture!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, April 14, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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"So, How was your journey?"

Going back to my roots with London Underground Ad

Just got in from a leaving party at work, (Bon Voyage Alick, you'll be missed), and after staring rather hazily at a cross platform ad at Leicester Square, I thought, "Crikey this is one of the reasons why I began GoingUnderground in the first place".


The ad focusses on one of those days when you are stuffed in the Tube with your face in somone's armpit and you feel the need to really moan about your journey, when someone asks how it was. In the New Year of 1999, I thought that I fancied building a website, but wanted one where I could wax lyrical about something I felt other people might want to wax lyrical about too. The Tube seemed the obvious thing to me, as I can't remember the amount of conversations I've had over the years with people saying "You would not believe the journey I had into work today".

At the leaving party, a number of us were talking about those "old" sites like Fortunecity, where you could build a site for nothing, and they were all in "streets" roughly divided into categories - Goingunderground still exists in some rarely updated shape and form at http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/finsbury/254/ (beware the horrible pop ups), and I think I chose victorian as a place to house my site because of the Victorian nature of the Tube and I think Finsbury meant that it was a UK related or a London related site. Christ knows now, to be honest, but I've got a lot to thank Fortunecity for, even though I now pay for my hosting of goingunderground elsewhere.

Anyway, yesterday morning, I really felt like the woman in the ad above, as the Northern Line was acting as normal, meaning there were long delays between each train and even though it was 9.50am during a holiday week, I was on a crowded train with no prospect of a seat. Even the female breakfast show presenter on Heart FM (Harriet Scott) had been moaning about the Northern Line like mad and saying how she now walks extra stops rather than put up with it.

Apparently it's even harder to sell your house or flat if it's on the Northern Line route, so it's not called The Misery Line for nothing. My sympathies to all fellow Northern Line passengers and woe betide the person who asks us how our journey was. Incidentally, how was your journey today?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, April 13, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Scavenger Hunt Quiz - Results

And the winner is......

I must thank all of you who entered Fimb's excellent London Underground scavenger hunt quiz. The answers were so imaginative that Fimb and myself felt compelled to give some bonus prizes of fridge magnet calenders or London Underground lapel badges to the most creative answers too.

But onto the main winner by points. Fimb fortunately kept track of all of your answers on a spreadsheet and four of you had ten points - Lewis, John B, Jo and Michelle


Soooooo, Neil had to do his paper clip selection and the winner of the London Underground Anagram Map Mug is Jo. So well done to Jo who has won the "banned" limited edition mug above.

Onto the most creative answers - Jo's fab link for the picture of a celebrity on the London Underground (Jodie Marsh dressed as a chicken on the Tube) was ingenious, so not only does she win, but she also gets a bonus prize too!. John B gets a prize for giving us a painting of Blur for the best celebrity (or celebrities found on the Tube), Jon Justice gets a prize for going to the trouble of making some images for the quiz - I particularly liked his Tube train you can eat picture, Dmitri for his inventive Tube related tattoo and Lewis's Tube train swiss roll also deserve bonus prizes.

So well done to all the winners and to everyone who entered into the spirit of the quiz.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, April 12, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Alliterative Tube Stations

How many London Underground Stations have alliterative names?

Not a quiz, but Big Blue emailed me with the following query:

"I recently got asked the following question (indirectly) on my blog: "How many London Underground stations are alliterative?"

The question was indirect because the reader entered it into a search engine to get to my blog. I was wondering if you could help us answer the question?"

Surprisingly I don't think there are actually that many - Seven Sisters, Charing Cross, Clapham Common and Golders Green were the only ones I could come up with, and Hampstead Heath (although as it's on the North London Line, I don't think it really counts). But perhaps I'm missing some.

I much prefer even more unique station names, such as the only two stations which have every vowel in them and the only station that has none of the letters from the word mackeral in it.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, April 12, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Do you have a poker face on the Tube?

London Underground Online Poker Ads

The Sunday Times had an article about the rise and rise of game shows this weekend, and said that TV is having to catch up with the internet with dumbed down games - hence the launch of ITVPlay channel next week. "Gaming on the internet is growing, and people have become accustomed to the idea of pursuing a solitary obsession through a relationship with a machine."

Last year Pacific Poker were running lots of ads above people's heads on the Tube:


This year Ladbrokes are running very similar ads playing on us looking at the faces of the inscrutable people sitting opposite us:




I have a bit of a poker face on the Tube, specially when taking pictures of people sitting opposite me. But in general I think, the advertisers have got a point here, as most commuters have pretty good poker faces.

We all generally avoid eye contact and turn off our personality on the Tube. If we haven't got anything to read, we try to put on that vacant air to show that we're not really thinking about much at all, and that we're certainly not imagining what the person sitting opposite us does for a living, or what they might be having for tea that night, or what they've just had for breakfast. Even if we do have such thoughts, they usually leave us the minute we get off the Tube and we go on with our real life overground.

And we certainly don't think that they might be having exactly the same thoughts about us. Or do we? How many times have you imagined a life or story for the person sitting opposite you, or does the Tube "Poker Face" get in the way?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, April 11, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Mind the Smell

Body odours and farts are most hated commuter habits

Yet another survey on commuter habits has "revealed" our pet hates when travelling on public transport. According to Mobizines™, the "top five most hated behaviours are - bad body odour or breaking wind, loud telephone conversations, loud music, getting angry and kissing."

The press release continues "Rather than complaining about late-running trains, one in three commuters (33%) cited catching a whiff of body odour or someone breaking wind as their pet hate when travelling to work. In fact, music from personal music players (16%), loud telephone conversations (26%) and public displays of affection (5%) were cited as being among the habits that fuel commuter rage rather than service disruptions."

As the man behind Mobizine™, Scott Beaumont, says "Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote that 'hell is other people' and our research proves him right. With passenger numbers set to increase by 30% over the next 20 years and no plans by the government to increase capacity, commuter patience is set to be tested to the breaking point."

The research seems to show that rather than us being more annoyed about the delays and poor service we're more worried about fellow commuters. Only 15% of people said that they got stressed out by overcrowding, accidents and delays to public transport.

However, it looks like we just grin and bear bad habits, as only 3% admit to asking people to stop their irritating behaviour. But if the annoying behaviour is just being smelly, farting, and snogging, I spose it's hardly stuff that we can say "Please stop" to.

Sadly for Mobizine™ - reading over people's shoulders didn't seem to come out as highly as an annoyance with commuting as they probably hoped. The company could only make the following comment to help promote their mobile magazine downloading tool "Having something interesting to read while travelling helps take our minds of crowded conditions and people's antisocial habits. Unfortunately public transport is often so full, you can't even read a book, let alone a paper. With Mobizines™, it's the first time commuters can download 'snack sized' versions of their favourite magazines in a rich, colourful format to their mobiles, perfect to read even in crowded spaces."

I wouldn't say that smelly people on the Tube is my biggest worry, but with air conditioning on the London Underground supposedly being impossible and with experiments like Madeleine to pump out calming perfume, not making it past trials at Euston, Piccadilly and St James's Park, it looks as though we will have to put up with more "people odour" this summer.

However, being able to hear the music from people's iPods and the like is definitely a pet hate from mine, and I've often wondered what it does for the hearing of the "offender". The problem is they wouldn't be able to hear even hear you say "Turn down your music mate"!

So do you agree with the survey, would farts, BO, loud music and snogging be amongst your personal peeves? Or do you have other pet commuting hates?

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, April 10, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Friday Competition - Caption Time

Win a London Underground brolly

It's great to see contributors to the blog being so generous with prizes for the competiton. Firstly, we had Graham O'Mara with a number of books, then Fimb with last week's London Underground Anagram Map Mug quiz, (still time to enter that until Sunday 9th April) and now we have another regular contributor, Jon, who's giving away a London Underground Map Umbrella for those April showers and a set of Feng Shui candles for err, well, don't ask.

Ant and Dec's alien film, Alien Autopsy, opens this weekend (to some fairly awful reviews - ah, poor Dec and Ant), so it's kind of fitting there's an alien theme to the competition. The screen grabs below are for a TV ad for Airwaves chewing gum, featuring an alien on the Tube.


Jon says: "All you have to do is suggest captions and/or speech bubbles for the 'toon above. Submit your ideas in the comments below by Friday 14th April (leave your email address and/or website and blog too). All entries will be worked up and submitted to the people on Jon's list. The winner will be the one who gains the most votes from the people on the list and will be announced as soon as the votes are all in, probably a week later on April 21st."

Easy enough. Good luck and have fun!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, April 07, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Fashion Victims

Fashion Victims on the Tube

Here's our regular Friday look at commuters who are slaves to fashion or people who are taking a "trendy" style and "making it their own" regardless of whether it suits them or not. It's ladies week this week and I must admit I usually find fewer male fashion victims than female ones.

Where's Wally

Do you remember those books where you had to spot a character called Wally who wore stripy clothes in a crowd of people? Well this was definitely a case of spotting Wally's sister, who actually wasn't too hard to spot


Ah there she is, inside the train and the man sitting next to her put his hand on her knee to stop her getting away


I'm not sure what sort of shoes "go" with such stripy tights. Probably nothing, but at least keeping to black and white wasn't such an assault on the eyeballs.

Metallica

Speaking of assaults on the eyeballs


The brown boots in the foreground are OK. The metallic boots on the left are, well, bearable I suppose. But blue metallic shoes! Jesus, what was she thinking when she bought them? I was particularly flabberghasted to see the chequered pattern on them and the black ribbon running round the edge, just to emphasise the hideousness of the blue. The shop assistant saw her coming, and thanks to that shop, now the rest of us can see her coming from a mile or so away.

White Moccasins

I promise not to go on about the fishnet tights, but purlease, black fishnets with white shoes. Fashion police where are you, when we need you?


First Birkenstocks of the Year

Hurrah, only last week we were talking about Birkenstock sandals and here's my first sighting of them in early April


They look like a nice comfy pair too, but (ah the horror), she's wearing them with tights. This is the female equivalent of men wearing sandals with socks. However, when you look at her elegantly cut toenails it's hardly surprising she chose to cover up her feet a bit.

Red Belts or Red Skirts

I'm going to sound like someone's Mum here, but why do girls go out wearing skirts that are so short they could almost be belts?


I'm not sure why the girls at Waterloo station had such an obsession with red either, perhaps they wanted to draw even more attention to themselves.

That's it for this week. The previous entry for London Underground fashion victims is here and all of them together can be seen on the following Flickr set.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, April 07, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Another Spoof Tube Site & more Wapping Shafts

Alternative London Underground Travel News

KJ sent me a link to this excellent site - Not the Underground - which features some travel updates which you could almost see on the Tube's website but not quite. You're invited to send in some of your own. Here are some of my favourites:

"We apologise for the slow train on the Central line at West Acton but we have had reports of a cow on the line and we need to sneak up on it quietly if we want to get it for dinner."

"I'm proud to announce the Bakerloo line has been voted the line of the brownest colour for the 3rd year running."

"Although we can't speak on behalf of the Overland we'd like to clarify that if you are a Womble at Wimbeldon Station you cannot go 'Underground, Overground, Wombling Free'. All passengers on the Underground must pay for a ticket and that includes Wombles."

Plus I'm still collecting actual funny overheard London Underground announcements which have been on www.goingunderground.net since 1999.

Wapping Tunnel Tour to celebrate Brunel's 200th Birthday

This weekend Isambard Kingdom Brunel would have been 200 years old and you can celebrate this by going on a tour of his dad's tunnels underneath the Thames between Wapping and Rotherhithe Tube stations. The brilliant curator of Brunel Museum, Robert Hulse, will be running innuendo ridden tours for a fiver.

"To mark the historic occasion the museum is also launching a new book by Harold Bagust.

The author will be on hand to talk about the publication, a new biography of Sir Marc Brunel called 'The Greater Genius?' and to sign copies between 1pm and 2pm on both Saturday and Sunday.

The book tells the story of Isambard's father who was also a revered engineer, from his origins in France and escape from the French Revolution, through to successes which saw him linked to many of the greatest engineers and influential people of the time."

To book visit the museum website.

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Friday, April 07, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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London Underground Security

Meet the Opinionmeter

Coming home from work last week, I noticed the snappily named "Opinionmeter" at Leicester Square, which is a large machine where you can tap in your opinion about the personal security at the station, as part of a "Secure Stations Scheme".


In theory this is quite a good idea, as you get a quick say as to whether it's - Very Good, Fairly Good, Neither Good nor poor, Fairly Poor, Very Poor or you can even say if you have no opinion. You then have to say whether you are male or female as presumably what sex you are my have an effect on how "secure" or not you you feel you are.

I feel fairly secure at the station, but that's because I use it every day and travel through it quite quickly. Also as it's one of the busiest stations in London, I even feel OK travelling through it very late at night. This is more than can be said about some stations in East London, or even stations that I don't feel that familiar with when travelling late at night.

Some corridors feel eerie and weird late at night as you can walk for a while without seeing anyone at all and never knowing who might be around the corner.


The corridor to the Waterloo & City Line from Bank is going to look like this until September now, but it felt strange to see it so empty.

I wonder how many other Opinionmeters there are around the Tube and whether they are just related to safety or not? I'd quite like to see one for the Northern Line in general. How do you rate the Northern Line? Is it Very Pants, Fairly Pants, Neither Fair nor Good, Fairly Rubbish, Very Rubbish or not worth the Opinionmeter's time?

Blogging Demystified

Also a quick thanks to Londonist for letting me rattle on about blogging last night at the Apple Store Event - Blogging Demystified with Random Tom Reynolds and the girls from Inky Circus (sadly Tom Coates was too ill to join us). My thoughts before the event are summarised here, and fortunately after the event & the warm welcome, I think I managed to make some sense. Thanks muchly if you came along, it was cool to see friendly faces like Neil and Version-3-point-1 in the audience and very nice to meet other visitors that I'd never before including Sole who was pleased to see I wasn't that nerdy looking or wearing a metallic anorak!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Thursday, April 06, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Mind the Gap or Sign Malfunction Photos

A photo interlude

Some photos for you. Firstly this was found while I was playing Mornington Crescent on Flickr (much more fun than the normal game, but you need a good set of pictures)


This fab picture is by Darius and Downey Jones and Akira Kev bought the print at Santa's Ghetto (top name!) I seem to remember others like this and London Underground staff spent forever getting the giant spoof roundels and signs off the seats!

Now, two non Tube but railway related pictures. Here's one sent to me from regular contributor & London Underground Fashion Victim commenter Mags. This would be a good one for fans of Private Eye's Pseud's Corner


Mags said "The whole thing read 'last 2 coaches calling at: PSEUDO'." If anyone knows where Pseudo is we'd love to hear.

The next is a great one sent to me by an old work colleague Lou and we're not sure if it's a warning or a saucy invitation!


If anyone else sees any railway or Tube sign malfunctions please don't hesitate to send them my way!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, April 05, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Delays on the Northern Line......

Because one of our staff is missing

If I'm late for work this morning it's because there were delays on the Northern Line this morning due to a missing staff member. Staff were searching for a "lost" colleague at Clapham South station today, (which for some reason caused disruption to the whole line) and in the end it turned out that he'd simply failed to clock in for work!

Only on the Northern Line!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, April 05, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Ken Livingstone is Boring

Sheriff Ken is boring on about Carla

No Ken hasn't been suspended again for likening an Evening Standard reporter to a Nazi or calling a US diplomat a "chiselling little crook". This time he started the £5m, 540-tonne boring machine "Carla", that will be used to connect the DLR's King George V station to Woolwich's town centre.

The Docklands Light Railway Woolwich Arsenal station is going to be beside the mainline station and is due to open in early 2009.

Ken said: "All over London we are starting to see the work starting on the massive investment programme in our public transport system, and the Woolwich Arsenal extension will be a vital new transport link that will regenerate the local area and play an important role during the 2012 London Olympic Games".

Here's what's planned for the area according to Transport for London's press release:

Improved transport links, connecting Woolwich to London City Airport in five minutes, Canary Wharf in 19 minutes, Stratford in 20 minutes, and Bank in 27 minutes. In the peak period, trains could leave every four minutes

Supporting the regeneration of Woolwich and the southern Royal Docks, through transport which can boost the creation of new jobs, homes, shops and leisure facilities along the route

Direct interchange with main line services on the North Kent line, the planned Greenwich Waterfront Transit scheme, over 100 bus routes, eight Underground lines and coach, taxi and riverboat services

And "here comes the science bit":

"Two tunnels will be bored to allow trains to run in both directions. The tunnelling will take 15 months to complete, during which time the boring machine will run at depths of up to 35m under the River Thames.

It will surface in Woolwich Arsenal in the Autumn before being removed and reinstalled at the launch chamber for its second crossing.

The tunnel boring machine (TBM) is six metres in diameter - as tall as a two-storey house.

The TBM will remove 104,000 cubic metres of material - enough to fill around 1,100 double-decker buses or 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools

The TBM and material removed will be transported via Thames' river barges, thus reducing the impact on London's roads, particularly those in the centre of Woolwich."

Ian Brown, Managing Director of TfL London Rail and Chairman of DLR, said: "With DLR passenger numbers forecast to increase from current levels of over 50 million to 80 million by 2009, the link will help accommodate demand and play a critical role in ongoing success."

In case you're wondering how the boring machine got its name. Apparently, the tradition in tunnelling projects is for the tunnelling machine to be given a woman's name and this one "was named after AMEC's site receptionist, Carla Murphy, whose name was drawn in a lottery".

That's a dubious honour (and also a funny way for the woman to have got her name in the first place). I'm not sure I would want my name to be associated with a large noisy boring thing, but I suppose we're lucky the receptionist wasn't called Chantelle!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Tuesday, April 04, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Tube Seat Pencil Case answers

Moquette Pencil Case results

Not too many entrants to this quiz, so very well done to those who gave it a try. But no one correctly guessed the regular contributor whose Mum who made them:


The answers are:

1) Which London Underground Line does or did the upholstery come from?

Two answers here. IanD had initially said 1938 Northern Line stock but he later found out that the same fabric was used on 1938 District Line stock too.

2) Whose mum makes the pencil cases and draught excluders?

Just in case you hadn't guessed from the answer to number one - it's IanD's

3) Which line on the London Underground has the newest design of upholstery?

The District Line (although apparently the Waterloo & City Line is testing new upholstery when it comes back into action)

4) What's the generic term used for this type of upholstery?

Moquette

5) There was a popular urban myth going round about the sorts of nasty things that were found on Tube seats. Name one of the things supposedly found on them

Loads of things - see here

Jon and Rich had most answers correct and Neil did his paper clip selection thingie or tossed a coin to select the winner.

And the winner is Jon - so very well done. I'll be in touch to get your address so the very lovely pencil case will be on its way to you shortly!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, April 03, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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Waterloo & City Line Trains "rescued"

Trains in air, trains on the road

As most people probably know, the Waterloo & City Line (Drain) is undergoing a refurbishment and this means it was closed from the 1st April and won't be re-opening until September 2006. What you may not know, is that in order to do the work, the Tube trains had to be lifted from their tunnels by crane. Regular contributor, Stephen Knight, was on the spot taking pictures when this was happening on Saturday:


The Waterloo and City line doesn't have a rail connection to any other part of the London Underground or mainline network, so the only way of getting carriages and equipment into and out of Waterloo, is via a shaft on Spur Road, to the side of the Waterloo Action Centre.

The whole thing reminded me a bit of the rescue operation with the Thames whale being hoisted from the river by crane. This seemed even more the case when Allan Williams sent me a picture of one of the trains, then travelling by road.


Allan said "I spotted this while driving up the M40 last night. The sign on the back showed its destination to be BANK. I assume it is a Waterloo and City line train on its way to be repaired and I imagine, like a pit pony, it is a little shocked to be out in daylight and rain." The trains will actually be repainted in standard London Underground livery during their visit to Doncaster.

The last time the trains were hoisted from their natural home was in 1993 when the stock themselves were being replaced and Steve Everett sent me a link to that story with similar pictures.


"The class 487 trains which ran on the Waterloo and City line between 1940 and 1993 were taken by road to Glasgow for scrap."

Cheers guys for all the links and photos, and my sympathies to everyone who needs to find a new route until September. I made that journey on the Drain for about a year and the alternatives aren't fantastic, to say the least!

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Monday, April 03, 2006 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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