Have to say that S.Smith and Sons Shop at number 9 the Strand, is a great deal more elegant than the look of that particular part of the Strand today. It must have originally been sited in modern terms inbetween Boots (5 the Strand) and Next (11 the Strand) with not a trace left just a gap.
One of London's "Ghost Stations" remains in the Strand. The entrance to the former underground station at the junction with Surrey Street. According to this wiki article, down below the track and infrastructure are maintained in operational condition, and a train of ex-Northern line 1972 tube stock is permanently stabled on the branch. This train can be driven up and down the branch for filming, and the station has been much used in film and television.
Oh Neil, you're now entering one of my favourite subjects! There's a whole world of abandoned stuff under London... And not only railway related... It's worth spending a lot of time on the subject
The old London hydraulic system is a most interesting one and the hydraulic accumulators can still be seen in a few locations...
Then there's the bits of the London Underground that were planned but never built such as the Northern Heights extensions to the Northern Line... It answers the vexed question of why Mill Hill East is a short dead-end branch off the main line... I was never intended to be..
Finally, look at the history of the Epping to Ongar line
All absolutely absorbing...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
The University of London used to run an 'Adult Education' course in Industrial Archaeology, which was largely focussed on what is under London. It was 1 night per week, running during the university terms, but 90% of the lessons were field trips or walking tours of the hidden gems of Georgian and Victorian London. The funny thing about the course was that the same pupils enrolled for it year after year, so it was quite difficult to get in. I did the course for 1 year, I think 2002, and I don't think that they ran it after that.
I remember one evening we were doing a walking tour around Kings Cross and St Pancras just before most of the demolition started for the international line to St Pancras, and we managed to blag our way into one of the old railway workers tenements that was in the process of being cleared, and ended up doing a tour of someone's home while they were living there and up onto the roof to see the view of the railway sidings.
One of the 'regular' pupils was a retired London Underground engineer, and in previous years they had done late night (after the trains had stopped) walking tours of the Brunel tunnel and some of the lost underground stations, but I missed the best of those.
apparently so....the hot brick design known as "Fowlers Ghost" never took off, but the steam locos, were condensing and used coke, and then smokeless Welsh coal. Still would have required a fair bit of extractor fannage to clear the air in the underground bits I would have thought.
Just for completeness this is the only surviving image of Fowler's Fireless Engine
Fowler's Ghost Locomotive [Public domain], by scanned from The Story of London's Underground by John R. Day and John Reed, 2008, isbn: 978-1-85414-316-7, from Wikimedia Commons
NewcastleFalcon wrote: ↑04 Oct 2017, 18:48
Still would have required a fair bit of extractor fannage to clear the air in the underground bits I would have thought.
Regards Neil
Best I could come up with at such short notice - sorry
LU Fan - Own work
Looking up LU shaft 1 - Own work No idea why it's on its side !
The fires were usually kept well damped while underground, but I remember being told that on the line from Farringdon which came out of the tunnels at kings cross, the section coming out of the tunnel was fairly steep uphill, and if the driver misjudged the weight of the train, he could run out of steam part way up. He then had to reverse back into the tunnel and open the dampers to build up steam for another attempt...
Steam engines ran on that line until the early 1960s.
Not a London Underground ventilation fan, but an underground ventilation fan nonetheless, and not the largest one I've been to, but still pretty large. For scale - note the ladder leading into the nacelle with the shaft and bearings in it (you'll need to click on the photo) - the actual blades of the fan are at the rear of the shot. The motor is outside of the ventilation shaft to the right, the fan is driven by belts and pulleys.
Undergound ventilation fan - Own work
Edit.
Although this isn't necessarily the same fan from the other side, it is a similar fan. The large metal plate in the foreground is a large gas valve. I reckon it's about 20 foot diameter.
Underground ventilation fan, other side - Own work
Like the Lone Pine Archive, esp pic 4 or 5 of the Austin A40 Somerset. Had one of those in the mid '60's; quite a pleasant drive. There must have been some horrendous injuries in the crashed vehicles, well before the days of seat belts, air bags and crash testing!
Regards, Harry
2000 Nov Forte HDI 110 hatch in Wicked Red; currently SORN
2000 Mar Exclusive HDI hatch in Quartz; currently SORN
2013 C4 Picasso Excl E
Peugeot 207cc 1.6 Roland Garros
harryp wrote: ↑05 Oct 2017, 15:03
Like the Lone Pine Archive, esp pic 4 or 5 of the Austin A40 Somerset. Had one of those in the mid '60's; quite a pleasant drive. There must have been some horrendous injuries in the crashed vehicles, well before the days of seat belts, air bags and crash testing!
Yes, an interesting but odd collection of photo's.
Interesting, odd or mundane POTD thrives on participation so
CitroJim wrote: ↑07 Oct 2017, 07:45
I might have something for later Neil. I'm in Somerset this weekend and I'm sure something will offer an opportunity
You may be familiar with the work of David Shepherd Jim, an absolutely tremendous artist, whose paintings were based on his passion for wildlife and railways. Evocative atmospheric images, first one I picked out at random is here, worthy of a picture of the day in anyone's book.
...Oh, and the connection with your trip to Somerset.....
He was a founder of the East Somerset Railway which may not be a million miles from where you are going, and according to my research there is a small gallery of his work in the old signal box at the said railway at Cranmore.
Sadly David Shepherd passed away recently in September this year but what a catalogue of tremendous work.
This 18 minute mini-tribute covers a flavour of his work, and and interesting footage of his involvement with the East Somerset Railway, the Black Prince and the Green Knight, in the last 5 minutes of the film. Maybe worth bookmarking for later
