Tag Archives: London Underground

Rail Photo of the Month: July 2023

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1973 Stock 126

Arnos Grove Station, London, England
Operator of Vehicle: Transport for London
Date of Photo: May 21, 2008

This month, the London Transport Museum is celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Piccadilly Line extension to Cockfosters.  In 1932, the line was extended from Finsbury Park to Arnos Grove.  Then on March 13, 1933 the line was extended to Oakfields and again on July 31, 1933 to Cockfosters, which remains the terminal today.  To mark this occasion, the London Transport Museum is running a special fantrip using its 1938 rolling stock on Sunday, July 9.  I haven’t been in London when any of these special types of events put on my the museum have occurred, but from what I see on social media, they look to be great.  As it is, the museum itself is a must see attraction for any transit fan visiting London.  

The photo featured here is of the 1973 Stock that currently operates on the Piccadilly Line at the Arnos Grove station.  The 1973 Stock is among the oldest rolling stock in use on a transit system in Britain but TfL has plans for new deep tube stock that may begin operating as soon as 2025.

For more photos of the 1973 Stock, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: June 2022

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1996 Tube Stock 96076

Location: West Hampstead Station, London, England
Operator of Vehicle: Transport for London (TfL)
Date of Photo: May 21, 2008

Lots of attention has been given to the new Elizabeth Line in London.  Known as Crossrail for most of its planning and construction phases, the Elizabeth Line is named after Queen Elizabeth II and opened just prior to her Platinum Jubilee, being celebrated this weekend.  This isn’t the first rail line in London that has a name connected to Elizabeth’s reign.  The Jubilee Line (pictured here) was named in honor of the queen’s Silver Jubilee; originally the line was to be called the Fleet Line.  This also isn’t the first rail line that Queen Elizabeth will have opened, as she attended the opening of the Victoria Line in 1969, at which time she became the first reigning monarch to ride the London Underground.

In light of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations and the new rail line in London, there are a number of interesting articles about her ties to London and British transportation over the years that are worth checking out.

The opening of a new route in London has also resulted in the largest revamp of the famed London Underground map diagram in the past 20 years.  However, not everyone is pleased and one map expert thinks that the map needs a total refresh instead.

For more photos of London Underground 1996 Stock, please click here.

Oren’s Reading List: The Stories Behind The Subway Announcement Voices We Know So Well

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R142 6415 at East Tremont Avenue, June 20, 2009

In keeping with the recent post about a podcast episode recommendation, here comes another one that may be worth your time.  This time, we’re featuring the “Mind the Gap” episode from “Twenty Thousand Hertz“, which describes itself as “the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.”  If the episode’s title immediately conjures an image of the London Underground in your head, I think it is fair to say this podcast is achieving its goal.

This episode features the stories of the voices behind the iconic subway announcements in London by Elinor Hamilton and in New York City by Charlie Pellett and even though I had some familiarity with some aspects of their stories, there were also some parts of their careers and stories I was not familiar with, especially Elinor Hamilton’s.  If you’re really into the automated, prerecorded announcements that are commonplace on public transit today, you’ll want to give this a listen.  (Even Mrs. Oren’s Transit Page, who is not the biggest podcast fan, enjoyed listening to this one with me.)

Listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz’s “Mind the Gap” episode (or read the transcript) by clicking here, or searching wherever you prefer to download your podcasts.

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Oren’s Reading List: A Tube Themed Hotel is Now Open in London

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Planning a trip to London?  Perhaps you are traveling to ride the special steam train excursion that is coming up in June?  Consider staying at the Ibis Styles Gloucester Road, which reopened this month and has a London Underground theme throughout the hotel.  Check out what it looks like in this article from Londonist, and then make a reservation to stay there!  (For the record, I have not been a guest at this hotel pre or post renovation.)

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Oren’s Reading List: How London Tube Stations Got Their Names

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Earl\'s Court
If you’ve been to London, you may have noticed that some of the Tube stations have some, shall we call them, interesting names.  Examples include Cockfosters, East India, Marylebone, Oval, and Tooting Bec.  I’m sure someone has already compiled the origin of all these station names and posted them online somewhere (though I can say with some confidence that even I can figure out how a station like “Baker Street” gets its name), but the BBC recently posted an article highlighting ten stations and how got their names.  The ten stations are: 

  1. Covent Garden
  2. Elephant & Castle
  3. Cockfosters
  4. Tooting Bec
  5. Knightsbridge
  6. Maida Vale
  7. Aldgate
  8. Piccadilly Circus
  9. Queensway
  10. Shepherd’s Bush

You can read the article here.  

What is your favorite Tube station (or Tube Line) name?  Which station’s name origin do you wish you knew more about?  Share your responses in the comments below!

Oren’s Reading List: How the London Tube Lines Got Their Names

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If you’ve been to Washington or Chicago, you know that subway lines are named for colors.  If you’ve been to New York City or Paris, you know that trains are referred to by a number of letter.  Around the entire world, identifying subway lines by color, number, or letter is common.  But in London, all the Tube lines have names.  Did you ever wonder where those names come from?  This article from Londonist reveals all.  While some names are portmanteaus of the destinations they serve (i.e. Bakerloo), others have more complex histories.  

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

London U-Bahn Map

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Did you ever expect to see the London Underground or “The Tube” referred to as the U-Bahn?  U-Bahn is the German term for subway and is used in just about each German city that has an underground rail network.  Yesterday, I shared a 1973 London Underground map with you.  Today, I’m sharing another London Underground map, except this one is from 1975 and printed in German for the benefit of German speaking tourists.  I don’t speak or read German aside from knowing a few select words, but my guess is that the texts on this map are just straight translations from the standard English language that would be used to German.  It is certainly an interesting addition to my collection as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a London Underground map in a language other than English.

Here are the scans of the map.  You can click on each image to make it larger and see it at full size.

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Taking a Look at the 1973 London Underground Map

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As I mentioned last week, I recently inherited a number of old maps from a variety of places around the world and they are now a part of my collection of maps and other transit memorabilia.  I plan to share some of the more interesting additions from this inheritance here on The Travelogue in the coming weeks.

This is a 1973 London Underground Map.  While the London Underground map design has remained fairly constant since Harry Beck’s initial diagram in 1931, there are some notable things on this map that are not the case today.  These include:

  • The Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Airport is under construction
  • The Jubilee Line is not yet open and Bakerloo Line trains operate the branch to Stanmore
  • The Hammersmith & City Line is still depicted as part of the Metropolitan Line
  • The East London Line has a partial identity of its own, but it is depicted in Metropolitan Line purple as opposed to the orange color it would have later on
  • The Docklands Light Railway is not on the map and will not exist for another 14 years

What other differences do you see?  You can click on the images to make them larger.  I apologize for any issues with the quality as the maps were scanned, converted to JPEG, and then compressed to a size manageable for sharing here on Oren’s Transit Page.

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