15 May 11 Keeping Track
Today (Sunday 15th May 2011) one of the last remaining 1967 era tube trains that have served the Victoria Line is making a farewell tour around the network.
I won’t be able to get anywhere to take photographs, as I’m working this afternoon.
Boy, doesn’t time fly?
I remember coming to London from Kent as a young boy to visit an Aunt & Uncle in Greenford, and the first time, we took the Circle Line from Victoria to Notting Hill Gate, and then the Central Line; on the next visit a few months later, I got to ride on the brand new Victoria Line and changed at Oxford Circus instead.
Ten years later, I was working on the London Underground myself, on the District Line, during which time the R-Stock, and CO/CP stock gave way to the C69/77 Stock, and the D78 Stock. The C stock was basically a sub-surface version of the 1967 Tube Stock anyway.
Later on, while I was at Baker Street, the 1938 Tube stock gave way to the 1972 Tube Stock on the Bakerloo and Jubilee Lines, and also the ill-fated 1983 Tube Stock.
Recently, I was riding on the Piccadilly Line, and I wonder how many more years the 1973 Tube Stock have left in them.
Tags: baker street, c stock, circle line, farewell tour, greenford, london underground, notting hill gate, oxford circus, piccadilly line, surface version, time fly, tube stock, tube trains, victoria line
18 Nov 07 20 Years On
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the King’s Cross fire on 18 November, 1987, in which 31 people lost their lives – the highest in an Underground accident since a train crash at Moorgate in 1975 killed 43 people.
Smoking on Underground trains had been banned in July 1984. After a fire at Oxford Circus station the ban was extended to all subsurface stations but smokers often lit cigarettes on the escalators on their way out.
The blaze reportedly began at about 1930 GMT in a machine room under a wooden escalator.
The escalator connected the Piccadilly line – one of five underground train routes which run through King’s Cross – with the mainline station.
The fire started as the evening rush hour was trailing off but hundreds of commuters were still in the station which is London’s busiest.
Many passengers were trapped underground as the escalator went up in flames.
More than 150 firefighters wearing breathing apparatus tackled the blaze and searched for survivors.
But they were not able to bring the main fire under control until approximately 2150 GMT.
Tags: 20th anniversary, blaze, breathing apparatus, commuters, cross fire, escalators, firefighters, lit cigarettes, mainline station, november 1987, oxford circus station, piccadilly line, run through, rush hour, subsurface, train crash, train routes, underground train, underground trains
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