What was it like on the first Underground trains?
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
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Going underground for the very first time.
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Why do we stand on the right-hand-side to let faster people pass on train station escalators? Why isn't it the left,.like when driving, so faster cars pass on the right?
I'm guessing that the young woman who died of the bad air, didn't have the protection of a luxuriant beard. Thereby proving the theory that they worked.
Science checks out! Same doctors also did the study for menthol cigarettes me thinks!
@@stickynorthand filter cigarettes
@@stickynorth “cool as a mountain stream”…
"You are the Metropolitan Mixture to my bronchial condition".
Healthier than an apple! ;-)
It'll put hairs on yer chest.
how about some paragoric
@@misolgit69 Probably not far off what it was. Maybe with a touch of arsenic to expedite absorption, and a little coal tar for flavouring? Yum 😋
I'm now imagining fancy victorian men in top hats walking around the stations saying "it's awfully bright in here, I have no idea what you're talking about!"
I can't imagine just how bad the lungs of the citizens of London were, with coal fires in every house and steam-hauled underground trains. There would be no escape from the smoke. Electric trains must have seemed like a gift from the gods!
I grew up in a semi rural mining community everything was coal fired or built for coal in some way.
I was constantly in and out of hospital due to asthma because of the smoke from coal and chest infections and this was the late 1970s/early 1980s.
Then we got gas central heating. No more waking up wheezing or feeling like I'd just run a marathon.
I dread to think what Victorian London was truly like...I guess I wouldn't have made it beyond childhood..
@@paintedpilgrim I lived in a home with solid-fuelled furnaces (one large one with a window powering the central heating, one small pot-bellied stove in the kitchen) for a few years, and when there was even the tiniest leak around the doors (with the not-asbestos-anymore "rope" needing replaced), my asthma got the worst it'd ever been.
I can't imagine how bad it would've been with open fireplaces, and furnaces which required much more frequent refuelling (which may have never had a seal around the door at all, expecting the flow from the chimney to handle everything). My condolences!
Though I must admit, one person sharing the house with us was _awful_ for leaving the door open for 10 minutes and absolutely cramming wood inside, so it probably could've been a fair bit less smoky if he'd had some discipline like everyone else. (His shenanigans also caused the fires to almost die, on multiple bleak winter days!)
All that said, cooking on that pot-bellied stove yielded the best bacon and eggs I've ever had. I wish I'd tried a steak on it, too.
@@paintedpilgrimprobably not considering that 30-40% of all children died before the age of 5
I remember the dirty smogs in the 50s.
I grew up in the smogs of London. There were times when you literally couldn't see across the road during the day. You were urged to wear a handkerchief around your mouth and nose and would get home to find a grubby patch across it, ranging from yellow on the outside to dark brown where your mouth was. It's a wonder any of us survived.
It does seem incredible to think that the world's very first underground railway ran on 7ft gauge.
Is that big?
@@ugiswrongThat's 2 metres and 14 centimetres in comparison to the 1 metre and 43½ centimetres standard gauge
Golden ratio
@@jay-9967 That is quite a roundabout way of saying 2140 and 1435 millimetres.
@@ugiswrong it's nearly half as wide again as UK standard gauge
Love the clarification on the word gaslighting. In 2024, that word certainly had little to do with lighting.
It's still fascinating to me that the Underground had such long operations in the 19th century with all the tech of the era. While the Americans were having a Civil War, France was under Napoleon III, and Germany was undergoing unification, the Underground was running.
Even a bit further south here in Paris our metro is old but opening in 1900 it missed being able to claim 19th century operations by only half a year. But by that point the technology was beginning to resemble what we have now with electric third rails and proper bogies on the rolling stock. London was truly breaking new ground here. Literally, too.
French enginering is like a dual sided sword.
When they do it right its serious next level mind boggeling enginering.
When they do it wrong mon Dieu it becomes utter merde.
France did improve lots of other countries inventions to a next level.
As you stated the Paris electric metro was a serious improvement to the London Underground.
All underground metro systems build after the Paris metro were build 100% electric and the existing London Underground was converted.
Other examples are:
-The internal combustion engined automobile who was birthed in Germany and came to age in France. (overhead camshafts, injection, independent suspension etc etc.)
-The most advanced steam locomotives ever were French improvements.
The 19th Century ended on 31st December 1900, so the Paris Metro was operating befiore its end. (The 2st Century was Years AD1 to AD100 inclusive, and so on)
Couple of good future video topics coming out of this one:
1. The Purpose of Brake Vans. They were more than just stopping the train, they held the chain couplings taut to prevent breakages. Thus the position of Guard needed to be almost as skilled as the Driver.
2. The Case Against Broad Gauge, and by extension A Critique of Brunel. There's been a lot of varying opinions on Brunel's broad gauge over the years; some period accounts claimed passengers preferred it for its larger carriages and smoother ride while management liked the larger freight capacity. On the other hand, the criticism you mentioned here is perfectly valid; look up Anthony Dawson's "Rail Story" video on Ajax and Brunel's bizarre misunderstanding of locomotive design to see how the Little Giant may have been brilliant in some ways, in others he may have bought a little too much into his own hype. As with many figures in history, Brunel is a man of contrasts; he was brilliant in many ways, but some of his ideas were far less practical than others; Yes, he designed the largest ship in the world for over 50 years, but it strained the technology of the time to the limit just to build it and when it was launched nobody really knew what to do with it.
And that the real engineering giant of the early railways was Robert Stephenson.
@@MrDavil43 Funnily enough, Stephenson and Brunel were archrivals but also good friends throughout their lives. While they fought bitterly over railway gauge supremacy, when Brunel's Great Eastern became stuck on her launching rails and he faced humiliation and financial ruin, Stephenson rose from his death bed to help his old friend one last time by devising a way to pull the giant ship into the Thames. The two men would die less than a month apart.
I've never thought much of Brunel's railways and locomotives, but I've always liked his bridges. I can't speak for boats. Obviously how much of it all was truly his ideas is debatable, but the bridges are very pretty.
On 1.: I seem to remember from my days reading the Revd. Awdry that Thomas often got into arguments with his brake van, because the latter would make the wagons keep banging up against his rear buffers.
@@1258-Eckhart The description in Rev. Awdry's books of the trucks going "oh - oh -oh" when being shunted describe how they bang into each other. I remember watching shunting at close hand in the early sixties and the "oh"s were very loud.
11:58 That gaslighting joke is the Creme de la Creme. Bravo
By strange coincidence as part of my PhD research, I came across this very day this report from August 1867: "The jury [at the coroners court] did not go to the length of bringing a charge of manslaughter against the directors but they certainly found the air of the Underground Railway guilty of murder, and they thereupon commended it. The deceased had travelled from King’s-cross to Bishop’s-road and before she reached the Great Western platform she suddenly expired. Yet this was no case of ordinary heart disease or apoplexy. It was a clear and undeniable instance of death by breathing the atmosphere of the Underground Railway"
."
Excellent as always. Your mention of wooden brake blocks reminded of a long-forgotten Thomas The Tank Engine story in which one of the larger engines came to grief as a result of its wooden brake blocks catching fire whilst attempting to arrest an overspeed downhill run. Funny the odd memories that can be triggered.
Ha, I had the same memory. As I recall it was James the red engine.
The original Thomas stories were based on reality, actual railway practice.
Who says it’s long forgotten? 😂what?
Actually, i think that Mr Brunel was right..just think if we had high speed rail now with a 7ft (and a quarter inch) gauge...Beyond words... The man was 150 years ahead of his time
Like making every rail line more expencif woud have slowed down the adaptation of rail let alone high speed rail.
@@stekra3159 Wider cuttings, embankments and bridges wouldn't increase the cost as much as tilting trains. Spanish railways have trains that can run on both the track gauges used in Spain. Standard and narrow, the wheels can be moved inwards and outwards by a special section of track traversed at walking speed where the two gauges meet.
@@tonys1636there is also a giant abandoned station on the french Spanish border, built if memory serves in the late 19th century , where train passengers and freight from from spain transferred to a French train ( and vice versa ) because of the incompatible rail gauges between the two countries.
There is also the entire mess of multiple rail gauges in Australia. No we do not shift wheels on axles , if pushed there are three rails on one piece of track.
@francesconicoletti2547 also I don't know about the UK, but in Australia dual gauge tracks are speed-limited to 80 kmh (50 mph).
Japan is proof that standard gauge is best suited for true high speed rail . They developed segregated HSR and had the option of choosing any gauge at all because they were starting from scratch , but chose 4' 8.5 " ( which in fact was not standard in Japan ) . It was all very well thought out and surprised many railway engineers at the time . Broad gauge is not recommended .
Jago videos always present a wealth of marvelous information. "Agreeable disappointment" is a phrase I think I can use.
It’s so British
Am I too much of a train nerd? When 'Repton' started coming into view, I said "that's a Southern Railway Schools Class", just from seeing the smoke deflector plates...
I can always trust you and Auto Shenanigans to always upload on Wednesdays and Sundays.
I can see you are a man of high taste.
Oh I love Auto Shenanigans too!
The owners of copper smelting works in Swansea made the same claims for the health giving properties of their smoke at about the same period. It was a fib, and until the last thirty years or so the bare hillsides overlooking the sites of the old works told their own story.
As do the bare hillside of Queenstown in Tasmania, another copper mining location.
Another great video. I had a quick look at some of the reports in the newspapers in Find My Past. The Morning Herald of 12 January 1863 was generally favourable and noted it was so popular passengers in the intermediate stations were told at one there were so many passengers waiting at Paddington that the next 5 trains would be full, so they had little chance of getting on. It does say that "contrary to the sanguine anticipations of the engineers", smoke and steam was a serious problem - ".... many of the passengers complained of headaches, and there was hardly a guard, pointsman or station master who did not suffer from the foul atmosphere and were obliged to be led in some instances into the fresh air. One man indeed, was conveyed to the hospital, though he was rapidly recovering last night...."
That press tour… we can _so_ imagine Geoff Marshall being there 😊
As for the gauge wars: Imagine standard containers got invented in time to minimise the cross-loading time and thus… a plethora of gauges still exist :0)
Few sounds are more wonderful to Me than a loose-coupled train starting and stopping. A wonderful sliver of the past
Given almost everyone smoked, everywhere, and coal was the principle method of heating, going underground on a steam train must have like a breath of fresh air.
When your lifespan is 45-50 years old, why not?
@@stickynorth Life _expectancy,_ not span. Expectancy is an average which was skewed by the high death rate of under-5s. You were somewhat more likely to die at any age so that a graph of ages in a census of that era looks like a triangle on a platform. More recent census data graphs as more of a column with more rounded top and a slightly flared base. Back then, a fair few people made it to 70 and a very few to 100.
Still, I think acceptance of death was more common. I recently read that children who feel they aren't allowed to talk about death at home are likely to develop anxiety over death. I think that might have something to do with it.
Aside from the use of bogies, modern trains also have air-bag suspension, rather than steel springs. This is much better at attenuating high frequency vibration, which is particularly beneficial with steel wheels on steel rail.
I was just reading "The Subterranean Railway" by Christian Wolmar and it's interesting when it goes into this. Some of the descriptions of the absolute darkness of the smoky tunnels are poetically beautiful. I recommend that book as further reading definitely.
The first “train” on the NYC subway to carry passengers was an open top handcar with a set of controls at the front. Mayor George B McClellan was supposed to ceremoniously drive from the City Hall loop to Brooklyn Bridge, then hand the controls over to a driver. That didn’t happen, the Mayor went on a joy ride all the way up to 125th Street! (The first subway route went up to Grand Central, across town to Times Square and then uptown under Broadway. These are parts of 2 separate lines and the 42nd Street Shuttle nowadays)
"Imagine two stations called Victoria" Chicago, with 5 stations named Western including two on the same line, has entered the chat
Thanks Mr Hazzard. Ive been enjoying since the Covid lockdowns and I look forward to each and every video.
What an exiting first ride on the Underground . I was born too late to be there for that .
It’s that time guys. Time to watch another brilliant video from Jago Hazzard!
Delhi has a metro line on broad gauge; underground and on viaduct. They couldn't agree on standard as Indian rail is required to be broad and they couldn't get round to changing the law before completing the first line.
Not to mention every metro in the former Soviet Union, which are also broad-guage.
Just don't let Brunel hear you describe 5'6" as Broad Gauge.
Actually Jago, the Stephenson Gauge wasn't 'Standard' until 1846 with the Gauge Act was enacted, which itself introduced two Standards: 4ft 8.5in for Great Britain and 5ft 3in for Ireland.
Also even Stephenson didn't initially start with 4ft 8.5in, but rather 4ft 8in on the Killingworth Tramway and later the Stockton and Darlington Railway. The extra half inch was later added the advent of locomotives, presumable to reduce friction in much the same way as Brunel decided to add 0.25in to his initial 7ft 'Broad' gauge. Reportedly even Robert Stephenson said that given a second chance to choose a gauge, he would have chosen a great one, albeit by only few inches.
It's also worth noting that although 4ft 8.5in is referred to as 'Standard', there were a multitude of different gauges across the UK let alone the world. For example: the Fairbourne Railway at 12.5in, the RH&DR at 15in, the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways at 1ft 11.5in, the Talyllyn Railway at 2ft 3in, the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway at 2ft 6in, the Snowdon Mountain Railway at 2ft 7.5in, the amazing Irish 3ft gauge railways (sadly mostly gone), the curious Padarn Railway at 4ft, and of course Brunel's 7ft/7ft 0.25in Broad Gauge.
Truthfully the Broad Gauge was a little too broad for the time, the technology just wasn't there to fully exploit the benefits of a wider gauge, though the Great Western Railway seemed to do remarkable well with it. Considering the first GWR trains ran in 1838 and the line between London & Bristol wasn't completed until 1841, by 1945 when the Royal Commission on Railway Gauges reported Broad Gauge was already up 1/8th of the length of the Stephenson Gauge, not bad considering the head start 4ft 8in/4ft 8.5in gauge had.
Brunel was a superb engineer, but he did like to push the envelope a little too far, always trying to go for the absolute best that was possible, but not necessarily what was entirely achievable. His ships were a case in point, his calculations showed beyond a shadow of a doubt, bigger is better, but he had to go almost one step too far, hence the SS Great Eastern, a ship easily 40 to 50 years ahead of it time. An ideal worth admiring: Why settle for the merely possible when you could reach for the almost impossible?
Paddington's not that complicated. See, he's a bear who enjoys marmalade sandwiches, he's named after the station of the same name.
In 'The Riddle of the Sands', a journey from (probably) Westminster to Aldgate was described as 'sulphurous' and taking nearly as long as the journey to Flensburg (in Germany) ...
Excellent book. Read it three times now.
Another reason for broad-gauge was that it meant that the single large driving wheels used at the time could be further apart. This allowed for larger diameter boilers & thus more power, which equals more speed as well as a smoother ride.
Well done on the gaslighting joke. Though I admit I thought you were going to cap it off with the staff saying it wasn't actually that smoggy!
My mother told me that the original C&SLR coaches were such as to be nicknamed 'padded cells'!
Jago. How on earth do you find the time to create such fascinating and well researched documentaries? Mate, I love what you do.
According to Haynes Guide to London Underground, the revenue from ticket sales on The First part of The Metropolitan Railway was very high and made it very profitable for the shareholders .
11:38 Omg this is giving “Doctors used to prescribe smoking to patients” Energy.
As an asthmatic, I got a good wheeze out of that one! What's next? Menthol cigarettes?
Oh wait... Nevermind...
This line was built to steal passengers from George Shillibeer's 'first ever' horse drawn omnibus from Paddington to Bank (started 1829) and all the other forms of horse powered transport that copied it. By 1860 any 'peak time' journey between Paddington and Farringdon would have been horse crawls over brown horse falls. The smell of a bit of brake block and coal wouldn't have been noticed before people got used to arriving 4 times quicker, and forgetting how bad things were behind a horse.
0:09 Winding your way down on baker street
Lol. Yesterday, I replied to you with the second line of the lyrics, just for fun, but I think RUclips have become such snowflakes that they even block comments with the word 'd€@d'. 🤦♂
@@SpiritmanProductionsreported
Steam engines with condensing apparatus (N2's and N7's) were still operating through the Widened Lines tunnels until the sixties. Admittedly not Underground trains (I think they were GNR from Finsbury Park to Moorgate). I travelled on quite a few of these. Inefficient and dirty maybe, but lots more fun.
I like your videos so much. Been a subscriber for years and just always enjoy them now as much as ever
How about a video on railway gauges? I’m told that our standard gauge comes from the carts used in Roman Britain because four feet eight and a half inches is the ideal width for a cart (or chariot) pulled by two horses. It would be nice to know a bit more.
Another great story. Thanks Jago ❤
Brunel's reputation - light the touch paper and stand well back... 😶
A failed engineer? Some people say so, but most assessments I've studied suggest that his worst habit was expecting production materials to meet laboratory standards. I'd have to say his failings were more (though not exclusively) materials related than anything else. The suggestion that he was truthfully ahead of his time makes more sense when considered in that light.
On the other hand, I reckon we would have to have been there with modern knowledge to truly test this. Jago, I suggest we find a nice comfy fence and sit there while this one kicks off. 😇
idk, I'd have thought it was a prime virtue in an engineer to be realistic about the quality of materials.
He was very good at some things, but his "baulk road" track wasn't good, and his designs for locomotives were rubbish, and the GWR was saved by Daniel Gooch and Robert Stephenson loco co
I think the Baker Street Circle/Metropolitan Line platform is my favourite Underground station, with its alcoves, signage and lighting you can certainly get a feel for what it was like to travel underground in London in those pioneering days.
Wind forward 160 years and imagine looking back at the Elizabeth line with 4 different signalling systems, the central new build section vs the legacy east and west. And I bet that none of the punters in the future will care (sadly)
I think the story of the Undergrounds beginnings would make for a good movie.
Love the KLF/JAMS reference 😂
The existing platforms and tunnel seem just large enough to accommodate standard gauge. How did two 7' tracks really fit?
Imagine if the GWR had taken the underground railway seriously.. Inner London's railway network would have been very different.
Thanks!
And thank you!
I can't imagine what conditions on the Metropolitan or Metropolitan District must have been like, with smoke from frequent services diving in and out of tunnels and steam from near boiling tanks discharged at either terminal. The only surprise to me is that it took 7 years between the estimable Mr Magnus Volk proving electric rail traction on the beach at Brighton and the first section of the C&SLR adopting broadly similar tech.
From personal memory, during the frequent fogs in the decade after the Clean Air Act was passed, just the smoke from omnipresent domestic coal fires was pretty damned bad. People tended to like their bonfires too. Older residents all commented that during the real "pea soupers", the safest way to get anywhere was to follow a tram ... up until July 1952 at any rate!
Quite what Woolwich, close to where I grew up, must have been like before the old Southern sparked up the Dartford lines (1926), whilst coal fired generators powered the tramways and water pumps, sewerage pumps, the Woolwich Ferry boats, every ship in and out of the London docks, every pleasure steamer, town gas generators and the heavy industry of Woolwich Arsenal were all doing their thing, I shudder to think.
Even before Fyodor Pirtosky demonstrated the effectiveness of electric traction (incidentaly, also on a resort shore, but three years ahead of Volk), there were less suffocating ways of running an underground railway. Lyon had its first underground funicular opened a year before the Metropolitan line, so cable haulage was demonstrably possible, but alas, the Metro was designed to connect the railway termini as a main line, not as a commuter service, despite it quickly becoming one.
@@F1ghteR41*Historic* cable haulage (though infinitely preferable to steam trams or even to horses crapping their way along urban highways) still shares the feature with the technologies I mentioned .... the winding engines needed driving and the options at the time were MKI muscles (human or animal), hydro mechanical (AFAIK confined to funiculars and still used on the impressive Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway) or ..... drum roll please ..... a grubby wood, peat or coal fired engine at the winding house.
It's precisely the same debate we have today concerning use of hydrocarbons to produce energy for electeo-chemical battery storage, or worse still, to produce hydrogen.
A modern company, Doppelmayr Cable Car, successfully market a cable haulage system for niche applications such as airport 'people movers'. That installed at BHX (Birmingham UK) has replaced the previous MAGLEV.
My favourite cable driven systrm remains Italy's Ascensore Castello d'Albertis-Montegalletto, which does something the San Fransico system has never attempted! If you're unfamiliar with this one, plumb the name into the YT search bar. There are several clips. It's an incredible installation, right up there with Magnus Volk's "Daddy Long Legs", but still very much in daily operation.
Believe it or not, Mr.Brunel's 'atmospheric railway' has modern successors too, powerful magnetic couplings negating the pressure seal issues which bedeviled Victorian engineers. The leader in this field is Brazilian company, Aeromovel, who market it a 'pneumatic propulsion'.
BTW ... Did you know an atmospheric carriage held the world speed record for passenger transport for many years? It was distinctly unofficial, possibly fatal and occurred on the Dalkey Atmospheric Railway (south of Dublin), when a 'piston car', with an unsuspecting Rev. Charles Elrington on board, took off sans trailing load ... and quite naturally rapidly exceeded normal running speed (claimed to have been 40mph/65kmh) and doing so quite comfortably (understatement) with it's presumably terrified occupant likely unaware he was making history. The *average* speed was worked out to have been 84mph/135kmh over what must have been a terrifying 75 sec. journey. The gentleman in question is known to have died, aged 62 in 1850, some four years before the atmospheric system was abandoned. Not knowing when the 'runaway' occurred, I can't say whether it had any bearing on his demise.
@@TheHoveHeretic Oh, I'm well aware that cable haulage was far from perfect, but I'm of the opinion that it would suit tunnels much better before suitably powerful electric traction became available. Yes, you would still need a steam engine, but, as far as I'm aware, it would be a bit more efficient due to being stationary and thus large. And, most significantly, it could be placed outside the tunnels themselves and connected via a driveshaft.
Now, these days one should have pretty solid reason to go this way, and while I'm aware of the examples you've mentioned, I'm not sure the reasons behind the Brazilian atmospheric railway are sound, not least because it's essentially a monorail, and its first implementation was replaced by a diesel train. But then again, I don't speak Portuguese and as such cannot assess the original documents that pertain to the airport systems in Brazil, so maybe I'm missing some important details.
A note I would like to add to the Dalkey story is that it wasn't Charles Elrington who was in that carriage, but his son Frank, and I'm not sure of his biography to say how it impacted him.
@@F1ghteR41Merely recounted the version of Dalkey I referenced (which I rechecked and can confirm the name referenced .... even if it is incorrect!). TBH, I misremembered, thinking the incident occurred on the South Devon.
Yes, Aeromovel's system is marketed as a monorail, but motion is imparted by pressure differential and the point I was making was that the Achilles Heel of the original 'atmospheric' system, the linear valve, does seem to have been overcome, barely a century and a half after the rail industry gave up the ghost!!
In the 70s I rode the District Line from Becontree to the West End most weekends. I was a smoker but wouldn't travel in the smoking cars, they where disgusting. The smell, foul air and almost brown ceilings.
great stuff, enjoyed the "gaslighting" joke too 👍
I just got back from a trip to London, and I was impressed by just how quick, reliable, and smooth the District and Circle lines were, which makes me surprised to hear that they are some of the oldest lines in the system! I honestly thought that the Victoria and Jubilee were older because of how noisy and bumpy the rides were lol.
Interesting video Jago, I use the section from baker Street to Liverpool Street quite a lot. Am I right in thinking that when the broad gauge was removed the platforms were extended outwards as nowadays on the section that had it there doesn't seem enough room between platforms for broad gauge any more. Euston Square seems it would if the platforms were in line with tunnel walls
On the subject of tunnels have you thought of doing a video on the disused tunnels of Kings cross ? The holel and York Road curve, plus the eastbound widened lines to York Road which featured an underground flat crossing. And the mystery tunnel on eastbound met line. Was debated at length on RM Web a few years back
Cheers Russ
The trains were only a little bit wider than standard gauge trains, Brunel's idea was that the locomotives would be much more stable if the boiler sat between the wheels.
@@stuartparks8094 there doesn't look to be room for 2 7ft tracks nowadays
@@maestromanification The platforms are at least 21ft apart, so yes there is
I love the look of those open cab 'A' Class
Listening to this, I feel blessed to have taken the S7 stock to and from Westminister: enclosed carriages, electric input, air conditioning, open gangway, and automated announcements.
Human transportation the world over has only improved over the course of recorded history, and the rails are no exception.
Don't forget to visit the Map House exhibition! I was there today and they've said they're extending the dates of the exhibition because it's been so popular.
Hi Jago. Nice bit of history. What do you know about flange squeal on the Underground? Some lines are worse than others. Is it just the tighness of the bends in the track, or something else?
The fact that British India’s first train and London’s first Underground train running within a decade or so of each other is an interesting fact.
Early reports advised travellers on the Metropolitan Railway to wear warm clothing as the tunnels were cold.
When I saw the title of this week’s video, all I could think of was “hell on wheels” 😨
The first underground railway on the North American continent still in service to this day is the Tremont Street tunnel in Boston from just south of North Station to Boylston and Charles Streets, opened in 1897. It wasn't an underground steam railroad but instead an underground tramway.
Really great video idea, thank you for this! Please keep them coming!
I love the image at 5:23
Jago, thank you for enlightening me on what the first underground trains were like.
James, 'The Red engine' knows all about wooden brake blocks..
I recently read a Broad Gauge book I got from Scotland; It's always nice to know more about it
It would be interesting to speculate that if broad gauge had become the standard for UK railways then how much easier HS2 would have been to implement?
11:59 I had to listen to that twice. Nice work!
the media disappointed by not getting a juicy story?
my, how little times have changed! they were hoping to experience something that would be used against the line and company to sell more papers, instead they got a ride with no issues
Jam's 'Going Underground' brilliant reference here ; )
'Agreeable disappointment', nothing much has changed.
Very interesting Jago 🙂🚂🚂🚂
'The engines condensed their steam, leaving the smoke to be consumed by the passengers'. Isaac Watt Boulton, tongue-in-cheek devised a system whereby the 'invigorating' atmosphere of the tube would be supplied gratis to many hospitals along the line. Officialdom paraded older employees to demonstrate how much the atmosphere had contributed to their health.
The open parts of Baker Street, you could say they are part of the very rare, cut but no cover lol 😝
11:18 You are correct there, Jago. It is extremely unlikely that a very rare condition or illness can be caused by something which is very common, otherwise the rare condition would not be rare.
That was a particularly interesting video.
Wouldn't have thought that many Pigeons or Cats would be hitching a ride back then.
Utterly terrifying I would venture . . .
Cool 🆒 ‘Tale From da Tube’ of a video, Sir. J. Hazzard.
Brilliant video sir.
Just 160yrs later we got the Liz Line Paddington - Farringdon too. What next..?
I’ve been on the London Underground so many times and I still like the tube a lot. Have you noticed that the London Overground has now gone through a major change including renaming all 6 lines. Perhaps you should do a video on the London Overground lines that have been renamed and rebranded in new colours.
Well, you have to start somewhere. Whatever you can say about riding the Tube now, chances are it's way better than it was back then - early days and all that.
Something about the air quality; I don't know how much of a problem this would have been in this instance but one of the issues with using gas for lighting was that it could starve the air of oxygen in a space due to the amount of the stuff being burnt; I do wonder if - especially on a train - that would have made things worse still.
Great video!
Fascinating story. Such a shame there's no movie footage of the first trains. I believe the daylight openings you refer to at 12:12 were primarily for ventilation. The covered stations would get pretty smoky in those days.
Thank you very much for this one: my appetite for discussions of lines that might have been is real, but not unlimited, and this is in your best social history of the Underground mode.
I guess the ride might have felt smooth to the first passengers by comparison with the alternative, which would have been what, horse-drawn omnibus?
Compulsory question on the final exam before engineers are released into the outside world: What would Robert Stephenson have thought of the relative merits and deficiencies of I.K. Brunel and Elon Musk?
You can still see the smoke on the ceiling in the opening sequence. This indicates it hasn't been cleaned in over 100 years
At least there would be no smell of horses and their offerings.
I bet those old carriages were more comfortable than a Pacer!
By the way, have you ever done a full video on the evolution of Paddington as an Underground station? As someone who has used the station fairly regularly for years, it took me ages to work out the relationship between the Praed St and Bishop's Rd platforms - in fact I hardly even knew the latter existed until Circle trains stopped just going round and round and started running to Hammersmith - spent many (un)happy times sitting at Edgware Rd!
New heights of corn! But very interesting. Thank you.
Jago comparing donors to gas lamps in oil coaches hits differently if you know about Quintishill et al
I like Baker Street tube; Are any of those light channels open to daylight any more?
If I was sure of my survival, I'd give the old trains a go. Grab some popcorn and watch the slap fight🤭
Great video! "not that type of gaslighting" 😆
8:53 This locomotive doesn't have a tender. How did it store its coal & water supply?
Artist's licence, I suspect.
Just pity the Chicagoans - they have 5 western stations, including 2 on the same Blue line!
The belief that smoke and especially coal smoke was good for your lungs was of long standing. This was the era of "miasma theory" that said that many diseases were caused by the "miasma" that hung especially over marshes and swamps and that coal smoke killed the miasma. Pollution was good for you, fresh air bad. See "Inventing Pollution" by Peter Thorsheim, Ohio University Press, 2006.