Victoria Line; Out with the old, in with the new!

It may seem an implausible tale to tell today but when the Victoria Line opened in 1968 it was the greatest thing to happen to London in a very long time and represented the cutting edge of technology! It had dramatic looking automatically controlled trains with gleaming bodies with a tapered front, no driver side doors and unpainted brushed aluminium bodies.


Victoria Line 1967 Stock with the brushed aluminium skin

Amazingly it still had the first trains, known as 1967 Stock, which operated on the original line. Now after 43 years and millions of miles later these are being replaced. The 1967 Tube Stock was designed specifically for the Victoria Line. It was the first train in the world to be specially designed for a fully automatic railway designed from scratch.



Original 67 Stock interior


The line is equipped with an Automatic Train Operation system (ATO); the train operator (driver) closes the train doors and presses a pair of "start" buttons, and if the way ahead is clear, the ATO drives the train at a safe speed to the next station and stops it there. This system has operated since the line opened in 1968, making the Victoria line the world's first full-scale automatic railway.


Trains being produced at Derby: the Class 378 Electrostar for London Overground, the S-stock MOVIA for London Underground's SubSurface Lines and the MOVIA metro for London Underground's Victoria Line.

After 43 years in service the '67 stock Victoria Line trains are being replaced. 30th June 2011 was the last scheduled serviced, for two trips between Seven Sisters and Brixton. The videos offer comparisons between the 1967 Stock (so called because it entered service in 1968!) and the replacement 2009 Stock (so called because it entered service in 2010!)

For the full story of the Victoria Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/04/onwards-to-victoria.html

Onwards to Victoria!

Victoria Line 1967 Stock with the brushed aluminium skin

It may seem an implausible tale to tell today but when the Victoria Line opened in 1968 it was the greatest thing to happen to London in a very long time and represented the cutting edge of technology! It had dramatic looking automatically controlled trains with gleaming bodies with a tapered front, no driver side doors and unpainted brushed aluminium bodies. It was the first new deep tube line to be built across Central London since 1907 and the first major investment in the Tube since the Second World War – that’s over 29 years! It is also the only truly “underground” Underground Line with only its Depot at Northumberland Park being above ground and every station (except Pimlico, which was a late addition) is an interchange station.


Original 67 Stock interior

It looks different today as the graffiti plague which began in 1984 put paid to the somewhat beautiful brushed aluminium skin on the trains, the short sighted budgetary cuts during construction compromised the utility of the line later and it is a victim of its own success with crowded trains and at Victoria the Underground’s busiest station with over 71 million passengers a year. You have to ask, where did all these people go before the Victoria Line was built? Its very success shows how much it has contributed to London’s economy since it first opened.


Victoria Line Route - Click for larger image

Amazingly it still has the first trains, known as 1967 Stock, which operated on the original line. Now after 43 years and millions of miles later these are being replaced and the London Transport Museum is organising a special Railtour on the 15th May to mark the passing of these remarkable trains. The line is equipped with an Automatic Train Operation system (ATO); the train operator (driver) closes the train doors and presses a pair of "start" buttons, and if the way ahead is clear, the ATO drives the train at a safe speed to the next station and stops it there. This system has operated since the line opened in 1968, making the Victoria line the world's first full-scale automatic railway. It is worth remembering in these days of Outsourcing (a process where a company gives its brain away and then pays double to get it back!) that the design and testing both of the trains and signalling system was done in house by London Underground with great success. These trains were also used for the new stock on the Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines.


1967 Stock - National Railway Museum, York

But more than that the trains were unique for despite the budgetary cut backs which resulted in a somewhat drab grey and blue tiled interior each station had individual tiled designs commissioned from artists in the seat recesses to represent the history of the locality.


Warren Street Motif: Warren, by Alan Fletcher.


The line's origins can be traced back to the Second World War when it was included in the 1943 County of London Plan. The constraints of the war years and the subsequent re-organisation and nationalisation of London's transport caused the plan to be postponed, and Parliamentary Powers to build the line were not obtained until 1955. Further delays in obtaining funds meant that actual construction work did not start until 1962.


Euston Motif: original Euston railway station Doric arch by Tom Eckersley.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/09/euston-arch.html

The Victoria Line runs for 13 miles from Walthamstow Central at its northern end to Brixton in the south. It was opened in sections, north terminus first, between 1968 and 1971, and so the Victoria Line sections of all these stations date from then. The first section was built between Finsbury Park and Manor House, but after testing was complete and the rest of the tunnels were completed, it was decided not to open a set of Victoria Line platforms at Manor House.


Blackhorse Road Motif: Black Horse by Hans Unger

The Victoria Line was built to relieve congestion on other lines, and so some of the interchanges were designed to minimise walking distance. This was done by either building the new tunnels next to the existing ones, or by swapping which line used which platform. The effect is that several interchanges allow you to continue a journey in the same direction, that is to say change from one northbound or southbound platform to the other, by walking about ten metres. The exception is Euston, where instead the northbound Victoria platform is intimately linked to the southbound Northern line (Bank branch) platform and vice versa. These platform-level interchanges of the Victoria line can be seen on a track layout diagram.




Refurbished 1967 Stock - Painted exterior and refurbished interior

As a theoretical rough guide, trains take two minutes to pass from each station to the next, and with 16 stations on the line it takes just over half an hour to travel from Walthamstow to Brixton. However, due to extended stops in tunnels and at stations, trains can take twice that time to make the entire journey. The Victoria Line was the world's first automatic passenger railway, and the drivers simply operate the doors and then press the start button.


Tottenham Hale Station - An interchange for the Stansted Express


Tottenham Hale Motif: Ferry across the River Lea, by Edward Bawden

The Victoria line is a deep-level London Underground line running from the south (Zone 2) to the north-east (Zone 3) of London. It is coloured light blue on the Tube map and, in terms of the average number of journeys per mile, is the busiest line on the network. It is the only line on the Underground, except for the two-station Waterloo & City line, that is operated entirely underground, the only section of track to emerge above ground being the part from Seven Sisters to the line's depot at Northumberland Park.


Seven Sisters Motif: Seven elm trees, by Hans Unger

The line has hump-backed stations which allow trains to store gravitational potential energy as they slow down and release it when they leave a station. This provides an energy saving of 5% and makes the trains run 9% faster. 183 million passengers use the Victoria line each year making it the fourth busiest line on the network. Overcrowding has been a big issue on the Victoria Line and is almost inevitable given the station interchanges on the line. If the moribund Chelsea–Hackney line were to be built it would relieve a lot of congestion on the Victoria line, offering an alternative route across Central London between Victoria and King's Cross St. Pancras.


Brixton Motif: A ton of bricks, by Hans Unger.


Victoria Line's southern terminus at Brixton

When the Victoria line was constructed, severe budget restrictions were imposed and as a result the station infrastructure standards were lower than on older lines and on later extension projects. Examples of these lower standards include narrower than usual platforms and undecorated ceilings at Walthamstow Central, Blackhorse Road and Tottenham Hale, adversely affecting lighting levels. At most stations there is still a concrete staircase between the up and down escalators, where an additional escalator could be installed. The lack of a third escalator can cause severe congestion at peak times. However in recent years an additional escalator has been installed in place of the fixed stairway at Brixton (2004) and Vauxhall (2006). The line was originally to go to Wood Street (Walthamstow) but this was dropped to reduce the budget at a late stage.


Leaf motif; Green Park

The oldest group of tube stock is the 1967/72 type. The 1967 Tube Stock was introduced for the opening of the Victoria Line with automatic train operation (ATO). Although the car body was to the same general dimensions as the earlier tube stocks, there were a number of differences in style and layout such as wrap-round cab windows, double-glazed passenger windows and the provision of all-longitudinal seats in the trailer cars. Cabs were not provided with side doors for safety reasons.


Vauxhall Motif: Old Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens by George Smith


Highbury & Islington Motif: Highbury House, by Edward Bawden

The 1972 Stocks, consisting of two versions known as MkI and MkII, were 7-car versions of the 8-car 1967 Stock. They were designed to operate on manually driven lines with a possible future conversion to automatic operation in mind. They never had this fitted but the MkII stock is now working on the Bakerloo Line under One-Person Operation with manual driving. The Mark I version has been disbanded but some cars have been used to supplement the Victoria and Bakerloo fleets following suitable conversion.


Trains being produced at Derby: the Class 378 Electrostar for London Overground, the S-stock MOVIA for London Underground's SubSurface Lines and the MOVIA metro for London Underground's Victoria Line.

The 1967 Stock is now being replaced with new 2009 Stock. The 2009 stock is a type of London Underground train built by Bombardier Transportation as part of their Movia family at their Litchurch Lane Works in Derby, England. Forty-seven 8-car units are being built for the Victoria line, replacing the original 1967 Tube Stock.


Victoria Line Northern terminus at Walthamstow Central






Walthamstow Central Motif: William Morris design, by Julia Black

Construction of the new trains is on-going and rollout will continue until 2011, when all 1967 Stock trains will have been replaced. The first 2009 Stock train entered passenger service on 21 July 2009 and a new train is now entering service every two weeks. The Victoria Line trains are now effectively in "one in, one out" mode, meaning that as soon as an 09 is dropped off at Northumberland Park depot, a 67 is sent to be scrapped by Booths from Acton Works.

The '67 stock has been running on the Victoria line for 43 years since the line opened in 1968. It will be decommissioned this summer as part of the Victoria line upgrade. To mark this historic event there will be a special offline tour on Sunday 15 May. Victoria line General Manager John Doyle said:

"The tour is an exciting and unusual event. It will be the first and last time passengers can travel by '67 stock on the District, Piccadilly and Metropolitan lines. The tour marks the end of more than 40 years of sterling service given to London by the '67 stock and any money we are able to make from the tour will be donated to the Railway Children charity."


2009 Stock at Euston

So what’s so special about the 1967 Stock Railtour? First; because it is the first time passengers have been conveyed by ’67 stock on the Piccadilly, District and Metropolitan lines. Last; because it will never happen again! This unique tour marks the end of more than 40 years of sterling service given to London by the '67 stock.

The train will leave Seven Sisters on 15th May at 10:13 and return at approximately 16:00, taking the following route:

Seven Sisters platform 4 – Northumberland Park staff platform
Northumberland Park staff platform – Uxbridge via Finsbury Park and Rayners Lane
Uxbridge – Barons Court siding via Rayners Lane and Acton Town
Barons Court siding – Ealing Broadway via Acton Town
Ealing Broadway – Seven Sisters via Acton Town and Finsbury Park

Tickets

Tickets are priced at £30, with all profits going to the Railway Children Charity. Please note that as this is a full day trip, with limited comfort breaks available, we do not recommend that children are brought on the tour. However, if you do wish to bring children on the trip, the prices are: 0-5 yrs – Free and Under 16’s - £15 (all children MUST be accompanied by an adult).


Ticket issued on 1 September 1968, the first day of service of the Victoria line

For tickets, please contact London Transport Museum bookings office on 020 7565 7298 or Book Online;

http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk


Stockwell Motif: The Swan, representing the nearby pub, by Abram Games


Victoria Motif: Blue cameo of Queen Victoria on pink background by Edward Bawden

So farewell to the unique Design Icon which is the 1967 Stock. Hopefully with the new trains, the upgraded signalling and the “new stations” due at Victoria, Euston and Oxford Circus the Victoria Line will regain some of the admiration it enjoyed on opening in 1968 as the first new tube line in London in 61 years.

For the history of the Tube see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/01/great-circle-line-journey.html

And see "TUBE BLOGS" in the Blog sidebar >>>>>>>>>>>>

Wills and Kate @ Marylebone

Imagine the shock innocent commuters got this dreary Monday morning to be greeted at Marylebone by the couple of the moment Big Willie and Kate “Party Plan” Middleton giving out chocolates for Valentines Day!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/02/st-valentine-in-dublin.html

Well they were entirely passable look a likes but the “Railway Eye” Blog (thank you for the photo) gives them the “Piss poor PR” award on the grounds that Chiltern Railways owners are German, it being run by DBahn or German State Railways to you and me. Can’t see the problem myself as in the immortal words of the late Dame Barbara Cartland “They are all Germans! That’s why the Royal Family didn’t understand Diana, because they are Germans!” The Great Pink Dame was Diana’s step-Grandmother, in itself a strange concept.



The Great Pink Dame


Wills and Kate, for real


Wills and Kate, not for real

For my part I would have been more impressed if Chiltern applied some Germanic rigour to their maintenance, particularly on the ropey 165 Stock, and I had not been delayed getting into Marylebone by “unit failure”, again!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/08/deutsche-bahn-chiltern-railways.html

No doubt there will be much more Royal Guffitis between now and Friday April 29th as the Royal Propaganda machine and its fellow travellers gets into “God Bless you Ma’am “mode with every inconsequential detail puffed up for posterity. No doubt the low point will be when the leaders of the ConDem Coalition Dave “Common Man” Cameron and Nick Clog take time off from Nation Breaking to jointly broadcast that they are sharing “The Joy of the Nation!” However now one has an invitation one will have no truck with such proletarian rabble that should be transported to the colonies without delay for one is now different. One is invited!

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/03/one-is-invited.html



This lifelike (sic) stand-up cardboard cut out can be yours for £9.95. Avoid disappointment - don't delay!

If you require an emergency injection of Royal Nausea yourself you can buy a life size Wills and Kate cut-out or even a Royal Comic Book from the site below, one of many such tasteful outfits.In deference to the sensitivities of my regular Blogistas, this will be my first and last post on the "Great Event."

http://www.theroyalweddingwilliamkate.com/

See also the story of "The Great Day"

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/04/ones-first-wedding.html

Psst! – Wanna buy a Tube station?

The disused Shoreditch station which is for sale



Wanna buy a Tube station? Just be careful who you sit next to on the Tube because there are a lot of Tube “Anoraks” out there whose dream of earthly paradise is to own a Tube station. Sad Boys – yes it is a male thing! There are 16 disused Tube stations out there and some have found alternative uses – South Kentish Town is a massage parlour, Marlborough Road was a Chinese restaurant and Aldwych is often used for movies and has hosted a recent exhibition on the 70th Anniversary of the London Blitz during which it gave distinguished service.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html

Shoreditch was always a strange station even when open for it lost much of its meaning when the line into Liverpool Street was cut, was in an area of narrow streets and was hard to find unless you knew where it was! There was a sign at the top of Pedley Street directing you to the station and at the end of its 130 year history it was only open during peak hours and catering for 1,100 passengers a day.




Looking for the Tube station Guv? The sign underneath the original street sign is in Sylethi as this area is now known as "Banglatown" with a mainly Bangladeshi population around Brick Lane

One more point which made it hard to find it was it was in Spitalfields near Brick Lane not Shoreditch! The old station has seen more spray cans than commuters over the past five years, and don’t expect to be able to wander down to the platforms looking out for ghost trains to New Cross – much of the old line has been filled in and grassed over, and the stairs removed. But what you’ll get for your money is a cosy little building which has played a big role in London railway history, which once saw steam trains from Liverpool Street to the south coast as well as Tube trains. Presumably it is for sale now as the platforms and stairs have been removed and the new embankment for the realigned East London Line has been completed. Interested? Details are here on auctioneers Andrew and Robertson’s site;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/11/blitz-on-underground.html





Shoreditch station opened in 1876 and closed in 2006, having consisted of a single platform serving a single track next to the disused Bishopsgate goods yard as well as the station building upon Brick Lane, a road notable for its wide variety of curry restaurants. The station was situated just to the south of the railway line into Liverpool Street, and the Underground line at Shoreditch used to continue onto the mainline tracks until the tube line was electrified in 1913.





While open, the station was the northernmost terminus of the line, but due to a shortage of passengers, trains only called there during rush hours and at weekends. Shoreditch belongs to the long tradition of Underground stations with misleading names (Harrow on the Hill being below the Hill, Acton Town being a half mile from Acton Town, Watford being a mile from Watford etc) as it is not really in Shoreditch but at the top of Brick Lane and behind the old Goods yards.


Map showing the two Shoreditch stations originally served from Liverpool Street. Directly north there was Shoreditch on the mainline from Broad Street (since amalgamated with Liverpool St.) which was closed after being bombed in the Blitz of 1940 and to the right Shoreditch on the East London Line

Due to plans to extend the East London line to form part of the new London Overground network, Shoreditch station is now disused. Trains will leave the original route of the line to call at a new station at Shoreditch High Street while passing along the route of the old Broad Street viaduct, the only remaining structure from the old national railway station of the same name. The fact that the disused North London line runs along most of the desired route of the extension means that Shoreditch station really had very little chance of being included in the project. The new line and station form part of the London Overground network, a suburban rail service operated by Transport for London but separate from the Tube network.





Unlike other closed stations, Transport for London provided a temporary service to Shoreditch - until the new line fully opened in 2010, a non-stop rail replacement bus connected Shoreditch with Whitechapel using the station's previous limited opening hours.


The original East London Line with Shoreditch as its northern terminus

The cutting in and around the station area has been filled in and partly reused for the line from Whitechapel (also in a cutting) to the replacement Shoreditch High Street (on an embankment). Until the late 1960s the East London Line connected with the main line railway to Liverpool Street (and Bishopsgate until 1916) just north of Shoreditch station. The site of the link is still visible from the end of the platform and from National Express East Anglia main line trains between Stratford and Liverpool Street. The station was one of only a handful on the network with a single platform and a single track layout, though it originally had two tracks and platforms.





The preceding station was Whitechapel, which was the northern terminus of the East London Line until the line closed for extension in December 2007.The station had two platforms for the twin track railway which continued westwards, joining other mainline tracks running into nearby Liverpool Street station. Services on this stretch of the line varied over the years, but eventually passenger services terminated at Shoreditch in 1913 rather than carrying through to Liverpool Street when the line was electrified, with goods traffic only continuing to Liverpool Street. In 1966, even this service was withdrawn and the junction with the mainline tracks just beyond the station was severed.



The line itself has gone through several identity changes. At times, it was seen primarily as a goods line but in 1913, the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District railways started using the line for passenger services. When the London Underground was nationalised, it fell under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Line and in 1970 became known as the Metropolitan Line - East London Section. In the 1980s, the line was given its own identity as a separate London Underground line, though in reality to this day it still has a close relationship with the Hammersmith & City (also former Metropolitan Line), even sharing rolling stock. The East London Line was a unique creature, the only Underground Line which didn’t go through Central London, the second oldest line dating from 1869 but incorporating the oldest part of London Underground – Isambard Brunel’s Wapping Tunnel dating from 1843.


Construction work on the East London Line extension, photographed from outside the former Shoreditch tube station building (looking east).


For the fascinating history of the original East London Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/12/east-london-line.html

For the story of one of London’s most important transport developments, London Overground, which incorporates the East London Line see;

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/04/east-london-line-goes-overground.html


Still got your cheque book at the ready? The sale of Shoreditch Station takes place at the Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden on 16 February. But if you want to buy the ultimate Geek’s crash pad as well as the £180k + reserve price you want to have deep pockets. The building has been boarded up for 5 years, is a monument to graffiti and has extensive asbestos throughout the structure.



Here is a video tribute to the last day of Shoreditch station. I may even have been there myself but I can’t confirm that for security reasons!



Here is TfL's promo video on the new line with excellent aerial shots which make sense of the route decisions;



For more on London Underground and its unique heritage and contribution to design see TUBEBLOGS in my Blog sidebar >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>