please empty your brain below

Greenford has the only escalator to take people from street level up to the platforms? Though Stratford would be in the running there too?

Ah yes, Greenford used to be the only one, until a year ago, but now there's the new platform 3a at Stratford too.

The "shunt" is a bit like coming onto a motorway. There is a gap on one side for you to step off the escalator (drive off the sliproad onto the carriageway); on the other, the escalator edge (hard shoulder) gently tapers inwards so you run out of escalator (slip road) unless you move.

The staff on duty at Earl's Court are new, I think. There's recently been no interchange possible between Piccadilly and District lines there, because the escalators had become unsafe. They've now repaired them, so I believe the staff are there temporarily to make sure the repairs are working normally.

DG - you mention that the first systems "had a 'shunt' landing at the top which forced passengers to step off sideways" with the comment "No, I can't quite picture that either" - - well - - following the link embedded in your little dig at fellow blogger IanVisits "It is of course the done thing to celebrate 100th anniversaries early", I see that Ian provides a picture showing the shunt in action (although at the bottom) and being safely negotiated by a miniature Bumper Harris !

More shunt explanation here -

http://current.com/entertainment/movies/91244990_film-explains-tube-escalator-etiquette.htm

mmmmmm - the description with "Film explains Tube escalator etiquette" seems to suggest that the shunt established a "stand on right to exit right" protocol - but in the model pictured in IanVisits, the arrangement seems to be "exit left" ?

Are you sure about Bumper Harris ?
wikipedia reckons that London Transport museum can't find any reference to him...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl%27s_Court_tube_station#History


It's not available to Listen Again, but Chris Evans spoke to Bumper Harris's great-granddaughter on his Radio 2 show a couple of years back.

One thing that weirds me out about 100th anniversaries is when I think about how old fashioned everything was 100 years ago. There were still horses, kerosene lamps and all that.

But if you go back just 50 years it was when the Beatles started out... and it all seems quite modern. Jet airplanes, electricity everywhere, rock & roll.

Somehow I can't quite make total sense of it.

Wooden escalators are a real trip if you ever run across one. There are a few still in operation at the flagship Macy's here in NYC, and they're quite odd to see if you're used to the standard metal ones.

Hi there,

Quite coincidently I was researching escalators recently and also couldn't imagine having to step off sideways. Until I found this!

http://www.theelevatormuseum.org/f/f_4.htm

Scroll to the right a bit and figure f-4-1; f-4-2 should help :)

Great blog











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