Imagine living in Ongar back then and having that first stretch of track (to Epping) as your daily morning commute. What a lovely start to the day it must have been!
That seems to be the case with any rail/ transit line that is about to be abandoned. as you said, ironic, unfortunately. I read about how lines to Brill & Verney Junction were also quite crowded with riders on their last days of service during the early 1930s. And here in the States, when New York, Boston, or any of the other cities with elevated railways, have closed them, they are absolutely mobbed with riders during the last weeks and final day of service. Sad.
@@robertfeld5829 ....of course it is. What I meant was that anything that's closing or stopping will always see a huge spike in interest (and numbers of people) on its last day - whether this is a section of railway line, a type of train or locomotive, a pub, or even a particular chain store that is closing down. It's human nature. People want to be there on 'the last day' so they can talk about it for years later, with friends, and say 'I was there on the last day of service/or day of trading'.
8:45 "See you when they reopen it!" Well, they did reopen it, not as a tube station but as a heritage railway. Not much use to commuters but to the rest of us it's better than a dilapidated building and ten miles of rusting rails and gravel.
There's always a sense of sadness about the very last departure for a station about to close for the final time. It's a shame that LU disconnected North Weald and Ongar from Epping, but hopefully the EOR will ultimately be able to run into a dedicated platform conveniently close to the existing station at Epping to enable visitors to sample the route once plied by the trains shown here
I was there somewhere as a 14 year old lad. Did a return cab ride a couple of weeks before closure in the 60 stock. The 62 sandite train came in most evenings at about 9pm from memory also, believe they still use the same set but in corporate colours now and not the plain ally grey. I'm still a regular on the branch on their ale trains.
This tube stock made a welcome return on that branch 20 years later as a 20th anniversary since the branch line to ongar ended the central line service here
Yes it did., A most enjoyable day for me. I wasn't actually rostered to do this on that day and changed over with another driver who didn't want to be filmed. I used to enjoy "the Ongars" anyway you were out of the way and in the fresh air, and I amassed a large golf ball collection. Other drivers and guards had the occasional phesant, but as I was single at the time never bothered with them.
1960 Tube Stock, prototype for ATO, tested on Central Line, influenced the design of the 1967 Tube Stock which later adopted the rectangular shaped curved edged windows and similar interior design. Made by Cravens, supplied 12 DMs, 2 for each train, with additional 1 or 2 trailer/s in between, the trailers in between came from various old Tube Stocks; Standard, 1938 and 1962, this video shows the 38 Trailer in between. Now used as a TRV, it has a 1973 trailer car in the middle with LU Livery.
my mum told me once to get the Central line to Epping just in case the national rail services weren't running. thats fine but this was just two weeks ago.
This is a sad day to see services REMOVED in the modern era!! I thought this was just BEECHING'S inheritance? I worked for a time as an engineer on the Underground on the trains and we should be INCREASING the tube network NOT DESTROYING IT! I have seen this train as LU had the foresight to PRESERVE one of every class of train dating right back!
Honestly, the Ongar section might as well been closed before LT took over. It was always destined to see the expansion of London, with leafy Essex towns and villages destined to become districts. Even in the 1960s there was anticipation that Ongar was to become a New Town. Alas, they did not happen. Around 80 passengers a day had used Ongar station, compared to 1,200 daily users at Roding Valley, which is LU's current least used station.
Oh, come on. If BR had kept hold of this line, it would have closed 30 years earlier. Virtually no-one used it and keeping it open was costing a fortune. LU tried quite hard to promote it and keep it going, but to no avail. Local people just didn't use it.
So sad to see such a fantastic historical line closing typical last day of closing loads of passengers arrive why couldn't it be like on a daily basis rip epping to ongar line 😢 hello epping and ongar railway 😊
In answer to somebody's question I managed both the lastb train out of Epping to Ongar and visa-versa and to be on one of the last trains on the Aldwych Branch the same day.
I live no where near Essex or any current or past London Underground station (my nearest according to TFL is Chesham 199 miles away. However I’m always saddend by railway line closures and this one is no exception. It’s just so sad. At least this line has been preserved and you never know maybe one day proper passenger trains working full scheduled services may return.
Every trip to Ongar is difficult, get off the plane at Heathrow, get on the tube, change at Barons Court then Mile End. The the difficult bit, how to get from Epping to Ongar, buses run but when?
Always wondered what would have become of this branch of the Central Line had proposals to build a new airport at Willingale been approved in place of Stansted, its seems more or less like its future and the necessary upgrades the Ongar branch required were basically dependent to it.
A new airport?? ....what?? ...are you insane? Why is there a need for ANOTHER airport?! Stansted is just up the road, and there's also Southend airport, and London City airport. Regarding this stretch of track - it's still here today (2022), and is now a Heritage railway line - the EOR. So there was a good ending afterall! The stations have been decorated as they would have been in back in the day. Well before it became the responsibility of the London Underground.
I suspect if demand suddenly came up, the line would have been upgraded and properly integrated into the central line (rather than being a shuttle service).
A Shame it closed, but then if it hadn't, the preservation society wouldn't have had the chance to step in and acquire it. It's coming along well down there- fingers crossed there'll be trains again soon
The car in the middle is an earlier stock trailer painted to match the newer 1960 Cravens motor cars. At one time they were used to test ATO equipment which had long been taken out of use.
@Reddog785 I think you're thinking of the sleet loco 107(?) that was put on a piece of track near the signal cabin that is made out of ex 1903 stock & hasn't run in years. Q stock is surface stock guage, the sleet loco is tube stock guage. I doubt if Q stock has ever been up there due to guaging & other things.
Very so nice train services! That only one train at all folks! Probably is sad they've gone vanished and no trains is operate today. Might be plans the train's back in nearest the future.
Just curious, with this line closed on the same day as the Aldwych branch of the Picc, how many people did manage to attend both events? Hopefully not too difficult, as Holborn and Epping were directly connected?
Hi Ian - I'm making a TV documentary about the London Underground and we're featuring Ongar in one of the episodes. I wondered if it might be possible to use some of your footage in the documentary? I'd be really grateful if you'd message me back. Thank you
The line is now in the hands of a preservation society, currently worrking to restore the railway to operate with some steam and diesel services in the near future.
The line was electrified on the cheap, the power supply was only a single-end feed from Epping. 7 or 8-car trains were not permitted on the branch because the large current required on starting from Ongar would have caused too big a drop in voltage. Even when the passing loop at North Weald was in use, the two passing 4-car trains were not allowed to start at the same time as this would have tripped the circuit breakers at Epping.
I believe there is a late 80s or superearly 90s video from Fred Ivey showing 3 prototypetrains running together between Holborn and Aldwych, that would be 1992 stock train on the rest L.U. tubenetwork. Ot is somewhere here on youtube. :)
1960 Stock. They were a small class of prototype trains, which never went into production. They were used on Woodford to Hainault shuttles for many years, until spending their last few years on Ongar services.
Blake hall ws closed before rest of Line. I know it sounds stupid but i never heard of this closing down-day when i ws in north east London, otherwise, i would have tried to have gone there. !!!!!
Evan Slater an 8 car of 1992 stock was arranged to be driven in manual on the ongar branch , because there is no ATP or radio beyond Epping it went under the radar so to speak ,
Evan Slater , the stock is /was , two 1960 cravens driving motor cars with a 1938 stock trailer in the middle which had extra compressors . Originally the cravens units were silver and ran with standard stock cars from 1927 vintage , the plan was in 1960 to replace the entire central line fleet of standard stock cars with the cravens units by using refurbished standard stock cars to form complete trains , that never materialized as the 1962 silver trains took over in April 1962 having successfully completed extra orders with metro camell in Birmingham with the previous 1959 stock that went from the central line to the Piccadilly that same year , thus the cravens units were used in 1964 to try out the new ATO equipment for the then under construction Victoria line and its new automatic train system . They used the cravens 1960 units out on the Hainaut loop in 1964 onwards . The 1962 stock was the mainstay of the central line and the ongar branch . Bit of a long response ! . Richard .
4:00 onwards, you will see that the station names have all been removed, I presume stolen. A few weeks later the conductor rail power cables had also been stolen.
@@annie482000 The detonators did have a serious safety purpose in normal operation. But the 'crackers' as used here didn't mean anything but farewell. That and as they were explosive devices it was far easier to time them to the rails in front of the last train to dispose of them.
That is a simple no, because the green belt is why they never became viable. The original motive to extend the central line in the 1930s was to take over the lines, which during the interwar years would have led to swathes of suburban housing, eventually making them part of london. However, the green belt limited expansion, meaning development never came, and the line was so underutilised and unattractive to commuters (due to the shuttle service) that the line was eventually cut back to Epping (which had been lucky enough to be developed enough (as a town) before the green belt to justify its tube service) K
I was the driver of that train, a bit younger and more hair than now. That was the best day in my career on LU.
Really?
Holy cow man
Hi, May I ask you why the Ongar Station closed please
That’s fake there’s no way
@@Kevin-1969 It was used by a tiny number of people so it needed a huge subsidy, and the old trains and equipment needed replacing as well.
I was a guard/Motorman on that line back in the 70s. I loved the aboundance of wild pheasants on the line between Epping and Ongar.
Imagine living in Ongar back then and having that first stretch of track (to Epping) as your daily morning commute. What a lovely start to the day it must have been!
Ironic. The last day, and the there are more people on that train than ever in the last three years before the branch closed.
That seems to be the case with any rail/ transit line that is about to be abandoned. as you said, ironic, unfortunately. I read about how lines to Brill & Verney Junction were also quite crowded with riders on their last days of service during the early 1930s. And here in the States, when New York, Boston, or any of the other cities with elevated railways, have closed them, they are absolutely mobbed with riders during the last weeks and final day of service. Sad.
It always happens!
@@robtyman4281 It's still a shame, isn't it?
@@robertfeld5829 ....of course it is.
What I meant was that anything that's closing or stopping will always see a huge spike in interest (and numbers of people) on its last day - whether this is a section of railway line, a type of train or locomotive, a pub, or even a particular chain store that is closing down. It's human nature.
People want to be there on 'the last day' so they can talk about it for years later, with friends, and say 'I was there on the last day of service/or day of trading'.
8:45 "See you when they reopen it!" Well, they did reopen it, not as a tube station but as a heritage railway. Not much use to commuters but to the rest of us it's better than a dilapidated building and ten miles of rusting rails and gravel.
or selling the property off for real estate development.
but... but... blake hall was never reopened!
@@eduardotogashi6011 the owner of the EOR owns Blake hall
I'm still waiting at Blake Hall, been here ages. Anybody know a number for a local minicab firm, I'm getting hungry
Still there by any chance?
Are you still there?
Well Blake hall shut down anyways
Still looking for a number?
There's always a sense of sadness about the very last departure for a station about to close for the final time. It's a shame that LU disconnected North Weald and Ongar from Epping, but hopefully the EOR will ultimately be able to run into a dedicated platform conveniently close to the existing station at Epping to enable visitors to sample the route once plied by the trains shown here
Looks like everyone is tuning in to see the final central line tube train departure from ongar especially children
I was there somewhere as a 14 year old lad. Did a return cab ride a couple of weeks before closure in the 60 stock. The 62 sandite train came in most evenings at about 9pm from memory also, believe they still use the same set but in corporate colours now and not the plain ally grey. I'm still a regular on the branch on their ale trains.
This tube stock made a welcome return on that branch 20 years later as a 20th anniversary since the branch line to ongar ended the central line service here
Yes it did., A most enjoyable day for me. I wasn't actually rostered to do this on that day and changed over with another driver who didn't want to be filmed.
I used to enjoy "the Ongars" anyway you were out of the way and in the fresh air, and I amassed a large golf ball collection. Other drivers and guards had the occasional phesant, but as I was single at the time never bothered with them.
My Dad was a booking clerk at Ongar in the early 60s. he used to get pheasants from the drivers as well.
1960 Tube Stock, prototype for ATO, tested on Central Line, influenced the design of the 1967 Tube Stock which later adopted the rectangular shaped curved edged windows and similar interior design. Made by Cravens, supplied 12 DMs, 2 for each train, with additional 1 or 2 trailer/s in between, the trailers in between came from various old Tube Stocks; Standard, 1938 and 1962, this video shows the 38 Trailer in between. Now used as a TRV, it has a 1973 trailer car in the middle with LU Livery.
They now have a preserved line going from Epping to Ongar... Even though they use preserved castles and Mk 2 Coaches!!!!
my mum told me once to get the Central line to Epping just in case the national rail services weren't running. thats fine but this was just two weeks ago.
Sad they shut this down, pretty good shuttle line for those in essex
This is a sad day to see services REMOVED in the modern era!! I thought this was just BEECHING'S inheritance? I worked for a time as an engineer on the Underground on the trains and we should be INCREASING the tube network NOT DESTROYING IT! I have seen this train as LU had the foresight to PRESERVE one of every class of train dating right back!
Honestly, the Ongar section might as well been closed before LT took over. It was always destined to see the expansion of London, with leafy Essex towns and villages destined to become districts. Even in the 1960s there was anticipation that Ongar was to become a New Town. Alas, they did not happen. Around 80 passengers a day had used Ongar station, compared to 1,200 daily users at Roding Valley, which is LU's current least used station.
Oh, come on. If BR had kept hold of this line, it would have closed 30 years earlier. Virtually no-one used it and keeping it open was costing a fortune. LU tried quite hard to promote it and keep it going, but to no avail. Local people just didn't use it.
It's a shame they had to close Epping-Ongar.
It was a shame
I can hear the track denotes banging just before the tube train arrived
once again, if you dont use it you lose it
So sad to see such a fantastic historical line closing typical last day of closing loads of passengers arrive why couldn't it be like on a daily basis rip epping to ongar line 😢 hello epping and ongar railway 😊
In answer to somebody's question I managed both the lastb train out of Epping to Ongar and visa-versa and to be on one of the last trains on the Aldwych Branch the same day.
I live no where near Essex or any current or past London Underground station (my nearest according to TFL is Chesham 199 miles away.
However I’m always saddend by railway line closures and this one is no exception. It’s just so sad. At least this line has been preserved and you never know maybe one day proper passenger trains working full scheduled services may return.
Every trip to Ongar is difficult, get off the plane at Heathrow, get on the tube, change at Barons Court then Mile End.
The the difficult bit, how to get from Epping to Ongar, buses run but when?
I have created a model of this line. I love it
On what
Tell me
04:13 The signs were stripped away long before the gricers were able to get their hands on them
Best Air Chime Whistle ever on the underground
TRIPLEVALVE62 THE DEPOT ikr they are much better than the A stock and the modern ones we have today, they are just screamers
7:43 look at the crowd of audience turning up at ongar station watching the last tube train departure from ongar before the line closed
Fantastic upload
It it had been that busy the rest of the time it would not have closed.
Always wondered what would have become of this branch of the Central Line had proposals to build a new airport at Willingale been approved in place of Stansted, its seems more or less like its future and the necessary upgrades the Ongar branch required were basically dependent to it.
A new airport?? ....what?? ...are you insane? Why is there a need for ANOTHER airport?! Stansted is just up the road, and there's also Southend airport, and London City airport.
Regarding this stretch of track - it's still here today (2022), and is now a Heritage railway line - the EOR. So there was a good ending afterall!
The stations have been decorated as they would have been in back in the day. Well before it became the responsibility of the London Underground.
I suspect if demand suddenly came up, the line would have been upgraded and properly integrated into the central line (rather than being a shuttle service).
also a farewell tour of the 1960 stock :(
A Shame it closed, but then if it hadn't, the preservation society wouldn't have had the chance to step in and acquire it. It's coming along well down there- fingers crossed there'll be trains again soon
love the old color of it
I think the tube stock is a 1960 central line. Just with 1938 livery
The car in the middle is an earlier stock trailer painted to match the newer 1960 Cravens motor cars. At one time they were used to test ATO equipment which had long been taken out of use.
As of today Epping and ongar railway is now a heritage line for steam traction
and its well run . love going there
At 8:03 the last ever train departs at Ongar
...and the beer was cheap in Ongar... Did this trip in the 70th.
The 70th what?
@@EmmaPeelman Well didn't remember exactly, lets say 1975. At that time they still have 2 trains running Epping to Ongar.
I know that the Ongar Railway is now a heritage railway between North Weald and Ongar. How much further past Epping is still owned by LU?
Not much at all, the Epping Ongar Railway now gets within around 200 yards of the platforms at Epping
And the central line station of Epping is no longer a terminus it’s now a run through station
This Ian thinks its time to revive the the branch!
@Reddog785 I think you're thinking of the sleet loco 107(?) that was put on a piece of track near the signal cabin that is made out of ex 1903 stock & hasn't run in years.
Q stock is surface stock guage, the sleet loco is tube stock guage.
I doubt if Q stock has ever been up there due to guaging & other things.
Epping to Ongar line+Girls Aloud
Nice mix ;)
= We're going on a 1992 stock to find Nadine's hidden tender specs
the 1962 stock preserved at ongar were removed in 2004, there is a dmu that operates on sunday though
There was 3 kept there over the years, and some arrogant vandals ruined all of them.
Very so nice train services! That only one train at all folks! Probably is sad they've gone vanished and no trains is operate today. Might be plans the train's back in nearest the future.
Just curious, with this line closed on the same day as the Aldwych branch of the Picc, how many people did manage to attend both events? Hopefully not too difficult, as Holborn and Epping were directly connected?
I'd rather celebrated on the ongar branch
I guess for me (if I had been alive back then) I would have decided which location by coin toss.
Hi Ian - I'm making a TV documentary about the London Underground and we're featuring Ongar in one of the episodes. I wondered if it might be possible to use some of your footage in the documentary? I'd be really grateful if you'd message me back. Thank you
Well yes of course!
The line is now in the hands of a preservation society, currently worrking to restore the railway to operate with some steam and diesel services in the near future.
At least the unique Craven's power cars were preserved and not stolen!
The engineers don't wave from the trains anymore, not like they did back in 1954.
I'm wondering why they didn't run a 7 carriage train as it was bound to be crammed full 🤔
The line was electrified on the cheap, the power supply was only a single-end feed from Epping. 7 or 8-car trains were not permitted on the branch because the large current required on starting from Ongar would have caused too big a drop in voltage. Even when the passing loop at North Weald was in use, the two passing 4-car trains were not allowed to start at the same time as this would have tripped the circuit breakers at Epping.
@@NHGMitchell The electrification was such a joke that apparently you could tell a train was coming because the lights would dim
Although it was busy on that day, but probably on other days, the train was almost empty I bet. With prbably only 4 to 6 people in a carriege.
Joe Ross Yeah, Blake Hall even had just 6-17 passengers a day
yep
Do you know where I can find footage of the first ever 1992 stock?
I believe there is a late 80s or superearly 90s video from Fred Ivey showing 3 prototypetrains running together between Holborn and Aldwych, that would be 1992 stock train on the rest L.U. tubenetwork. Ot is somewhere here on youtube. :)
at 7:12 in the other video: ruclips.net/video/6T26uAQGudE/видео.html
Lack of passenger revenue, not enough usage to justify it's opening compared to the main line section of the central line.
Considering the era a better choice of music would have been 'The Jams' going underground.
What Tube stock was this? First time i've seen it! Was it extensive?
@H 001 Apparently it is 1960 - Cravens Stock, which was pretty rare..
1960 Stock. They were a small class of prototype trains, which never went into production. They were used on Woodford to Hainault shuttles for many years, until spending their last few years on Ongar services.
Always Wondered Why They Closed Blake Hall Station?
It's in the middle of nowhere and few people used it.
It was the least used station on any metro system in the world.
There is still an old tubetrain on Epping station? Do you know if it runs some times?
You talking about the red one near the signal cabin? That's Locomotive L11, and sadly no, it doesn't run anymore, but it is atleast preserved.
Blake hall ws closed before rest of Line.
I know it sounds stupid but i never heard of this closing down-day when i ws in north east London, otherwise, i would have tried to have gone there. !!!!!
what stock is that?
1960 stock.
@@profil7 Now a 10-year-old comment
What kind of train was it?
Did the 1992 stock ever run down the Epping to ongar section?
Evan Slater yes it did unofficially
Ok so I assume by “unofficially” you mean that it wasn’t in passenger service. If it is the 1962 stock I didn’t know it was ever painted
Evan Slater an 8 car of 1992 stock was arranged to be driven in manual on the ongar branch , because there is no ATP or radio beyond Epping it went under the radar so to speak ,
Ok thanks for the info. What’s the stock in the video. Thought the 62 stock was always grey
Evan Slater , the stock is /was , two 1960 cravens driving motor cars with a 1938 stock trailer in the middle which had extra compressors . Originally the cravens units were silver and ran with standard stock cars from 1927 vintage , the plan was in 1960 to replace the entire central line fleet of standard stock cars with the cravens units by using refurbished standard stock cars to form complete trains , that never materialized as the 1962 silver trains took over in April 1962 having successfully completed extra orders with metro camell in Birmingham with the previous 1959 stock that went from the central line to the Piccadilly that same year , thus the cravens units were used in 1964 to try out the new ATO equipment for the then under construction Victoria line and its new automatic train system . They used the cravens 1960 units out on the Hainaut loop in 1964 onwards . The 1962 stock was the mainstay of the central line and the ongar branch . Bit of a long response ! . Richard .
8:38 what exactly was stolen?
4:00 onwards, you will see that the station names have all been removed, I presume stolen. A few weeks later the conductor rail power cables had also been stolen.
A great video, shame about the music.
What were the detonators for?
that's what I want to know
@@annie482000 The detonators did have a serious safety purpose in normal operation. But the 'crackers' as used here didn't mean anything but farewell.
That and as they were explosive devices it was far easier to time them to the rails in front of the last train to dispose of them.
I believe that Ongar, North Weald and Blake Hall will be reopened as a result of the inevitable expansion of London
That is a simple no, because the green belt is why they never became viable. The original motive to extend the central line in the 1930s was to take over the lines, which during the interwar years would have led to swathes of suburban housing, eventually making them part of london. However, the green belt limited expansion, meaning development never came, and the line was so underutilised and unattractive to commuters (due to the shuttle service) that the line was eventually cut back to Epping (which had been lucky enough to be developed enough (as a town) before the green belt to justify its tube service)
K
Not happening, EOR is now a heritage railway.