London Underground Photos
Pictures showing aspects of London Underground
including stations and trains, with some historical pictures of trains. Each photo
has a full size view with a description.
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Steps and Gaps
London Underground is obsessed with steps and
gaps, perhaps because, since they stopped having staff on platforms, the number of
reported accidents has risen. Here are some photos showing the problem.
 Fig 1: 1967 Tube Stock
step at Victoria. The step plate of the doorways on the Underground was originally
designed to cover the gap between the train and the platform. Introducing a level
step between platform and train will re-introduce a gap which wasn't there before.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 2: 1973 Tube
Stock step out at Ruislip. The platform here is higher than the train floor because the
platform has to accommodate both tube and surface stock trains. Click on the
image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 3: A Stock step
at Ruislip. This step is at the same station as shown in Fig 2 but the step is up
from the platform to the train because this is surface stock. Click on the image
for the full size view and description.
Of course, these steps mean that LU does not
comply with the new disabled passengers requirements. They won't unless a huge
amount of money is spent rebuilding tunnels and stations. The cost would be beyond
all reason to satisfy the wishes of a few unfortunate persons. In Tubeprune's view,
such expenditure defeats the purpose of a "rapid transit railway" by turning it
into a huge ambulance service. Who would wish to spend huge sums of money
straightening out all the curved platforms in London, like those shown below?
 Fig 4: C Stock step at
Monument. Because the station was built on a curve, the track is canted (raised
along the outer edge of the curve) to minimise discomfort to passengers. The cant
causes a vertical gap between the train and the platform in addition to the horizontal gap
caused by the curve.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 5: The reverse curve at
Victoria (District) with a D Stock in the station. This causes a step up at one end
of the platform and a step down at the other end.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 6: 1996 Tube Stock at Finchley
Road. Finchley Road serves tube and surface stock trains but they have their own
platforms. However, the station is on a serious curve which causes the sort of step
seen in this photo on the Jubilee Line SB platform. Click on the image for the
full size view and description.
It seems odd to Tubeprune that whilst the large
majority of Londoners say they would rather not have to use the tube, a few disabled
people are forcing others to pay for their right to use it. Strange world, isn't it?
Gaps between cars are also a source of trouble, again
because staff are no longer around to oversee platform safety. Most LU trains are
now provided with inter-car safety barriers as shown here below.
 Fig 7: C Stock barrier at
Whitechapel. The barriers are made of black canvas mounted on spring-loaded carriers
hung off 'blisters" at the corners of the cars. They are a niuisance to
maintain but now that people have to be protected from themselves, such expensive and ugly
precautions have to be provided.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 8: 1992 Tube Stock without barrier
at White City. The "blisters" are mounted ready for the barriers but they
have not been fitted. The barriers have to be removed when it is necessary to split
up trains for maintenance and then someone has to remember to put them back when the units
are coupled.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 9: 1995 Tube Stock with new
type barrier. The new barriers get over the problem of "coupling" the
barrier between units. Each car corner is fitted with a rubber tube.
The gap between the cars is reduced
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Stations in Tunnels
London Underground has some interesting
stations underground. The following photos show various places where there are some
special features.
 Fig 10: Baker Street
Circle Line platforms (5 & 6) showing the station as restored to close to its 1863
condition in 1987. The recesses in the station walls were originally open to the street
and provided light and ventilation. The brick arched roof was a common form for the cut
and cover construction used at the time. Click on the image for the full size
view and description.
 Fig 11: Great Portland Street has
also been restored. Further work is taking place now. The roof uses steel
girders to support the buildings above.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 12: Gloucester Road (District) has
had a very good restoration with the original brickwork exposed and new lighting installed
to represent the original gas lit globes. Click on the image for the full size
view and description.
 Fig 13: This is a view of
the disused Metropolitan Railway platform at Gloucester Road, which is now used to display
art at various times. In this photo, Dinosaur models are used to advertise the
Natural History Museum.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
The photos above show the original station designs of
the 1860s when the first sections of the Underground were built. Tunnels were in cut
and cover style and trains were operated by steam locomotives. In order to provide
ventilation, openings were provided at regular intervals and many of these still exist as
the photos of Notting Hill Gate (below) shows.
 Fig
14: Notting Hill Gate (Circle Line) showing the overall roof, brickwork and typical
tunnel construction used for the original Underground stations. To provide
ventilation for the steam locomotives, there were many short open sections as shown here.
Many of these have now been built over.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 15: Aldgate East
gateline with a view of the station platforms through the glass screen behind them.
Many stations have had to be altered to accommodate the automatic fare collection system.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Tube stations were deep underground and had a
characteristic design due to their circular construction. Some have survived in near
original condition. Belsize Park (below) is a typical example. Unfortunately
successive additions of cables and signs for new lighting, fire alarm systems and other
paraphernalia have spoilt the clean lines of the original design.
 Fig 16: Typical tube station
platform of the 1905-7 era, as seen at Belsize Park (Northern Line). A number of
similar stations have been restored to show the original decor, tiled rings and mosaics.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 17: Tube Station Headwall.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 18: Victoria,
Victoria Line.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 19: Oxford Circus,
Bakerloo
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 20: Westminster, Jubilee
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 21: Canary Wharf, Jubilee.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
In the photo of the station headwall (Fig 17) above,
it is interesting to see that there is a 7-car stopping mark in place on the track just
inside the tunnel. There were a number of older stations on the Northern and
Piccadilly Lines where a 7-car train was too long for the platform. The only way all
passenger doors would be opened onto the platform was if the driver stopped with his cab
in the tunnel. The rear cab was also left in the tunnel. Some locations
require a pair of doors to be switched out so that they don't open into the tunnel.
Stations Outside
The countryside around London has a number of
stations with rural or suburban features. There is a wide variety and some are shown
below.
 Fig 22: Hillingdon,
Metropolitan Line which was rebuilt in 1991as part of the A40 road improvement scheme.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig
23: Ickenham, Metropolitan Line.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 24: Sudbury Town,
Piccadilly Line dating from the 1932 expansion of the line.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 25: North Ealing,
Piccadilly Line which was built in 1903 for the District Railway extension to South
Harrow.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 26: Ealing Common,
District Line, which was rebuilt in the early 1930s.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 27: Uxbridge,
Metropolitan Line which was relocated in 1932 and given a cathedral like concrete
train shed.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Rolling Stock - Historical
Here are a few photos of London Underground rolling
stock of the past.
Beginning with tube stock, perhaps the most
non-standard "Standard" stock in the world was used on the tube lines from the
early 1920s until the mid 1960s, when the last was withdrawn. The Standard stock was
modern in the 1920s but was replaced in design excellence by the 1938 Tube Stock.
The standard stock was actually quite inflexible, since it had three types of traction
equipment and various arrangements for door and lighting control which restricted the way
it could be coupled and made up into trains. In the 1950s, the Central Line had two
types of Standard Stock which were unable to couple together because of different battery
arrangements. The stock also suffered because the control equipment was mounted in a
compartment behind the driver's cab and, as a result, on a 7-car train with three motor
cars, 15% of passenger space was lost. It was also noisy to drive, because the air
compressor was mounted immediately behind the driver's seat.
The 1938 Tube Stock was a big step forward in design for
the Underground. All the electrical equipment was placed under the car floor and
passenger capacity improved as a result. Over 1200 cars were built between 1938 and
1950 and their design was to last virtually unchanged for two generations of rolling stock
- over 60 years - being perpetuated in the 1959/62 Stocks. A new feature of the 1938
Stock was the "unit stock" formation, where several cars form a self-contained
unit which will not operate unless coupled. The older stocks were of "car
stock", where individual cars could and were often uncoupled to make up trains of any
required length. Unit stock train had fixed formations of, usually three or four
cars coupled to make 6, 7 or 8 car trains
Fig 22: Standard Tube Stock
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 23: 1938 Tube Stock
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 24: 1959 Tube Stock in original condition on the Piccadilly Line
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
One of the best colour schemes to come out of the
Underground was the early 1920s livery used on the tube lines, which appeared again in
1990 on a 1959 Stock train on the Northern Line. Tubeprune understands that at least
part of this train is still around.
Fig 25: 1959 Tube Stock (Heritage)
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 26: Metropolitan Electric Locomotive
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 27: T Stock
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
The Metropolitan Railway was independent of the other
Underground Lines until 1934. This independence showed in its rolling stock, which
was more main line in character than the other Underground lines. It used
compartment stock for locomotive haulage and some EMUs. It also used saloon stock
(not shown here) for its electric services. This all disappeared in the 1950s.
The District also had a wide variety of rolling
stock. The first electric stock was built in 1903 as a trial for the main line
electrification of 1905. The main batch of stock was the B Stock. Other types
were added over the years, examples of C and F Stocks being shown below. The
District operated three separate and incompatible types of stock from the mid 1920s until
this was reduced to two in the 1970s. It still has to operate two types of stock
because the longer trains of D Stock will not fit in the platforms between Edgware Road
and Notting Hill Gate, so C Stock has to be used.
Fig 22: District Railway A Stock, two 7-car trains built for testing in 1903.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 23: District Railway C Stock of 1910.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 24: F Stock of 1920 as running in 1963.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
The District was the pioneer for the unpainted
aluminium car bodies, first introduced in the early 1950s on the R Stock. The
various trials carried out then led to the ordering of aluminium bodies for all the new
stocks built in the 1960s to 80s. The unpainted car replaced the red car as the
symbol of London Underground train design. In 1984, graffiti began to appear in
London and attempts to clean it off the unpainted bodies were usually unsuccessful.
Cars began to look very shoddy. Since the introduction of graffiti proof finishes,
the painted car has returned and now the D Stock is the only unpainted stock left in
service.
Fig 25: Q Stock
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 26: CO Stock with C Stock
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Fig 27: R Stock
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Finally, a "new" old photo of an original
Metropolitan Railway electric locomotive as built for the original electrification of
1905. This photo was kindly supplied by "teckytony" from an orignal plate.
 Fig 28: Metropolitan Rly. British
Westinghouse electric locomotive.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Tunnel Mouth
This picture by "Tube Troll" shows what the
entrance to a tube tunnel looks like as you approach:
 Fig 28: Driver's view of the approach to
Southgate Tunnel Mouth.
Photo by Tube Troll.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
The entrance to the tunnel is actually
bell-mouthed in order to reduce the pressure change as the front of the train
enters. However, this does not stop your ears popping as the train hits the opening
at speed. The approach to Southgate is quite fast - about 45 mi/h - and an
understanding of where the station is in advance is essential to enable the driver to stop
the train in the right place. This is an example of why drivers are required to
undergo a period of "road training" for each line they work on.
Underground at Night
For an alternative view, here are some pictures
of the Underground at night
 Fig 29: The early morning line-up
of trains in Cockfosters Depot, Piccadilly Line. Photo by Tube Troll.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 30: Wimbledon in the wet. An
damp evening view of a C Stock ready to depart for Edgware Road. Photo by District
Dave.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
 Fig 31: Driver's view of the approach
to Acton Town, EB Piccadilly Line coming from Rayners Lane. Photo by Tube Troll.
Click on the image for the full size view and description.
Photos are being collected to go here. Would
you like to contribute some? Many people already have. Please e-mail Tubeprune.
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