April 2004

Eric Cope
London's Underground
Report - Eric Cope, Mick Leak and Graham Virco

I first became acquainted with our guest speaker in the heady days of the West Yorkshire Transport Museum at Ludlam Street. We met during the monthly Sunday open days when fellow enthusiasts and constituent societies had their sales stands and we would chat about our interests. Eric’s main interests are railways and tramways and his enthusiasm shines through.

The Story of London’s Underground

London’s first underground railway was the Metropolitan Railway, opened in 1863 between Paddington... (Bishop’s Road) and Farringdon... (at that time called Farringdon Street) and eventually extended to Hammersmith in the west over the Hammersmith & City Railway - a joint venture between the Met. and the GWR. Northwards, it was extended via Willesden Green, Harrow on the Hill, Rickmansworth, Amersham, and on to Aylesbury and Verney Junction, on the LNWR Oxford — Bletchley line. Branches to Stanmore; Uxbridge; Watford (in conjunction with the LNER); Chesham and the Brill branch from Quainton Road, beyond Aylesbury.

Eastwards extensions were to Moorgate; Liverpool Street, Aldgate, Wluih’utpeI, the East London line; and Barking. Also the Met. Railway took over the e, hued GN & City line, Finsbury Park to Moorgate, in 1913. In 1933 the Met Rly system became the Metropolitan Line of London Transport. In 1937 the LNER took over the working of LPTB/Met Line trains between Rickmansworth and Aylesbury — the Metropolitan electric locomotives only worked as far as Rickmansworth. This practise continued into BR days until 1961, when LT cut back the passenger service to Amersham and introduced electric multiple-unit trains. The line from Chalfont & Latlmer.. to Chesham.. - became a branch line worked on a shuttle basis. It was electrified in 1960, with through trains at peak periods
The talk then continued with a brief history of the other lines that make up the present London Underground system - illustrated with a marvellous selection of slides originally compiled by London Transport in the ‘50’s and 60’s In conclusion, once again our thanks to Eric for providing a superbly informative slide show and we look forward to next year’s compilation,- Eric has agreed to follow the A.G.M with a programme entitled “Tracks & Wires through the Slide Box” — Trams, Trolleybuses and Buses in the UK and Europe.