Sep 1, 2010 The Evening Standard may have leaked this a day or two early as the LT Museum booking office hasn’t had the full details confirmed yet – but there will be guided tours of the disused Aldwych tube station later this month running from 24th-26th September.
Absolutely no more information is known yet, so don’t bombard the LT Museum for details. As soon as the details are finalised, they will put it on their website, and my auto-tracking systems will alert me to update this blog post.
Nonetheless, the chance to get down into the bowels of this iconic station is one not to be missed – even though I have actually been down there once before.
More photos to wet your appetite.
I wonder if they read my previous blog post about tours of the disused station and will include the tunnels as well *grins*.
The ticket office floor of the station was opened to the public recently, for the Transforming the Tube exhibition.
2 Comments 
aldwych, london underground, subteranean
Aug 22, 2010 Unexpected – as the poor thing has been rather ill recently – but the lovingly restored 1938 era tube train will be taking trips along the tube network in a couple of weeks time, and you can be on it.
I’ve been on it quite a few times in the past – and it is a lovely trip to take, not just for the train itself with its art-deco interior and 1980s adverts still in place, but also the joy of watching stunned passengers on the platforms as you pass various stations in the old train.
There are five trips on Sunday 12th September.
£25 – 8:50 Ealing Broadway to Harrow on the Hill
£25 – 10:26 Harrow on the Hill to Amersham (via the North Curve!)
£15 – 11:30 Amersham to Watford and back again
£20 – 12:57 Amersham to Harrow of the Hill and back again
£20 – 14:30 Amersham to Harrow on the Hill
You also get free trips on the lovely Sarah Siddons, subject to spare seats being available (normally costs £5).
All tickets should be purchased in advance through the Online Ticket Office online (warning - based on previous experience, use Microsoft Internet Explorer to book tickets) or over the phone on 020 7565 7298.
In addition, free heritage bus service will run every 15 minutes between Amersham Old Town and Amersham station. This service will link you to the variety of activities taking place as part of their Heritage Day, between 11am and 5pm.
Aug 12, 2010 Fancy a week (well, almost) of events about the mysteries that lurk unseen under the streets of London? Sadly, mainly limited to talking about what is down there rather than actually visiting the places, the talks will still be of interest to many Londoners who share my fascination for the hidden underworld.
Although most of the events invite you to tour the subterranean world through the vicarious medium of lectures – there are two tours that will include going below ground.
Organised by Illumini, the talks are free and you can just turn up on the day – although to guarantee a seat, you can send them an email booking tickets if you want. However, for a couple of the tours, booking is required.
To book tickets for any of the tours,walks or talks – send an email to illumini@hotmail.co.uk with your details and which talks/tours you are interested in.
Walks/Tours:
Then there are the talks:
All take place at The Basement Shoreditch Town Hall, 380 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LT
Friday 10th Sept
Saturday 11th Sept
Sunday 12th Sept
Monday 13th Sept
Jul 28, 2010 I know almost nothing about this – thanks the paucity of information offered in the email that arrived this morning – but it is probably worth highlighting anyway.
Between 19th August and 19th November, Burgh House in Hampstead is hosting an exhibition of tube posters and objects that feature Hampstead Station.
The sole information is: Burgh House & Hampstead Museum presents an exhibition on the history of Hampstead Underground station, featuring objects from the Museum’s collection and a selection of posters kindly lent by London Transport Museum.
It might be a large room full of goodies, or a small annexe with half a dozen items, but the station was built during the “golden age” of the London Underground, so could be quite interesting to visit.
Burgh House is a short walk from Hampstead Station.
Opening hours are quite restricted. Wednesday – Friday & Sunday: Open 12-5pm. It might be open on Saturday afternoon as well, but only if the exhibition is in the art gallery rather than in the museum.
Admission is free.
I am actually quite keen on the old tube posters and design, and picked up a copy of a book on poster design when the Transport Museum held an exhibition about them in 2008, so will probably wander over one Friday afternoon to see what it is like.
Jul 9, 2010 There lurks on the London Underground network a tube station that wont appear on any tube map, past, present or indeed future. In use on most days, yet no trains ever call there and no passengers ever use it. Fully fitted out with Oyster card readers, signalling and display boards, it isn’t an old abandoned station.
Welcome to West Ashfield Tube Station.
This is in fact a fully fitted out fake tube station built by London Underground on the 3rd floor of an office block in West Kensington and is used to teach new employees what goes where and when.
It is slightly surreal to go into a fairly generic office building, then on the third floor, find the entrance to a tube station – complete with fake newspaper stall and wire mesh grills.
The whole floor is used for training staff, and I was able to attend a tour of the facilities thanks to the The Institution of Engineering and Technology – The IET.
Despite the presence of the mocked up tube station, the rest of the floor is made up of conventional office rooms, although in a nice touch, each room is also named after a former tube train stock number.
Our group was broken up into four groups for convenience, and the tour covered the tube station, the new S-Stock simulator and a fully functioning model railway. We also got to play with some of the “big boys” toys.
The tube station is probably the highlight for any visitor and in addition to looking like a tube station, it also behaves a bit like one. When a train is due to arrive, although no physical train appears, the platform rumbles, speakers drown out conversations and there is even a fan in the corner blowing to simulate the wind blast that heralds the arrival of the train.
Not a sensible place to stand if this was a real train station
We were given a quite in-depth introduction to how the signalling systems work based on the “moving block” system the tube uses at the moment, with a brief overview of the system being introduced on the Jubilee Line at the moment.
Authentic tube station decoration
Most pertinent was how the tube network deals with faults – and what causes them. For example, there is a small break in the running rails which acts as a signal isolator, but over time that gap gets filled in with metal filing from trains, and the signal breaks. Sometimes, simply scuffing the surface with your shoe is what it takes to fix a signal.
Which is why sometimes signal failures last just a few minutes before magically vanishing.
The white line in the rail is the signal isolator
However, as we were to later learn, sometimes a signal failure in the wrong place can be a nightmare and totally screw up the network for several hours.
The decoration is printed onto office privacy blinds
Incidentally, West Ashfield station is indeed in the western wing of the office block. Maybe there’ll be an East Ashfield station sometime in the future?
One floor down is the BIG BOYS TOY writ large, as there is a fully functioning training simulator for the forthcoming S-Stock trains that will be appearing on the Metropolitan Line next year (and Circle/District later on)
Instructors control desk for the S Stock simulator
After a quick overview of the trainers own operations desk, it was time to play with the train itself. Several members of the group got to play at being train driver – driving through Red Lights at Danger (SPADS) with alarming regularity.
I didn’t actually get to drive the train, but (in my opinion) probably got the better part of the deal by standing outside and chatting to the instructor and getting much more background information.
A dream come true for tube geek, LondonStuff
Quite interestingly, although a SPAD is not a good thing, in of itself it isn’t mission critical. Due to the nature of the tube network signalling systems, SPADS are almost guaranteed, and the tube network only takes action if someone is rather incompetent and keeps passing red signals. As a SPAD could be a signalling failure and not the drivers fault, the driver seeks permission to drive carefully after each incident and after 3 minutes, returns to driving at normal speed. The new S Stock automatically limits the speed for three minutes, then releases the driver to go at full speed again.
The new trains also have some interesting improvements, such as if someone has got a bag jammed in a door because they jumped on when the doors are closing, then the train will only open that one door rather than all the doors on the train – which usually results in more people leaping on (and getting stuck between closing doors).
Incidentally, standing outside the simulator as the train starts moving forward is a very unsettling experience as you see the scenery moving, but don’t feel the usual sensation of a train accelerating. Takes a bit of getting used to as your brain gets confused by the illusion of moving without moving.
A brief talk about how they use a static model railway to set up possible scenarios and teach tube staff how to handle situations.
Then on to the ultimate model railway.
This is a fully functioning model railway that was only recently built to replace an older model based in White City many years ago. That older model used signalling systems that were so close to the live kit, that sometimes an engineer would run in and nick a component to fix a broken signal at White City!
That’s not going to happen with the new model train set.
In addition to being configured with a selection of more modern signalling systems as used on the London Underground, they also have a lovingly recreated old lever based signal network which is used to show staff how things worked in the past.
Even comes with authentic graffiti
We were then let loose on the system and told to basically run the the network, getting trains into platforms, slidings etc without causing traffic jams and the like.
The true purpose of the model train set though is to train staff on dealing with problems, and a simple flick of a switch can simulate any sort of network failure you care to imagine. It was here that we leant why it can sometimes take ages to get trains out of tunnels when things go wrong.
For example, a train is stuck at a platform – maybe someone decided that 5pm was the best time to kill themselves – and there is a train behind it in the tunnel. Not only does that train now have to reverse back down the tunnel – but do so safely.
In ye olde days (aka, 2008) the station staff at the previous station would have to manually check any points junctions were safe, but then walk down to the stranded train and hand over a paper form granting authority for the driver to drive backwards down a tunnel.
Today they can grant authority over a secure radio link, but that only became possible 18 months ago. Indeed it does seem that the Evening Standard headlines of people being stuck in tunnels for an hour or more have dried up since this was introduced.
So, a change that many people wont have even known has happened has already had a positive impact on reducing delays on the network.
Oh, and I slightly squealed when I noticed one of the stations is called Hobbs End. Sci-Fi film geeks may get the reference.
Hobbs End Tube Station
Overall, a fascinating visit and I am deeply grateful to both the staff at London Underground for taking us around (and letting us take photos!), and also to the IET for organising another excellent event.
More of my photos from the visit here.
London Reconnection were also there – you can read their reports here.
More of my blog posts you might also like:
Contact
Subscribe
