please empty your brain below |
This is the content that brings the Boys to the yard!
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FoI officer at TfL may be one of the most exhausting jobs on earth.
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Sorry to be a pedant but it couldn't have been an anonymous FoI requester as FoI requests require real (or real sounding) names.
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More fascinating stuff. Not just describing these FoI answers, but giving background, and also spending time and effort going out and taking pictures to illustrate the post.
What happened in 1932 at Becontree was quadrupling rather than doubling. And though 134m can act as an upper bound for the lengths of Underground trains (as could 135, 136 etc), I think it cannot be the least upper bound. If it is, then where do such trains stop? |
Great post with loads of interesting facts. I don’t ever remember LT & S trains travelling east using the District Line platforms but do remember them using the westbound. The first of 2 trains left Upminster at 3.41 before the first District at about 5 and was the only one to stop at Upminster Bridge.
Similar to trains terminating at Plaistow were those running to Dagenham East. If you were in the final carriage you could easily miss the following Upminster train. It was better to change at Dagenham Heathway. Thanks for all your fascinating posts. |
On a trip round the Loop yesterday, I was struck by the extreme length of most of the original platforms, at 200 yards, thus comfortably designed by the GER for 10 or so of their longest (48ft) coaches. Some have been barriered off to make their usable (and thus maintainable) length shorter, eg the Edwardian (outer rail) platform at Hainault.
Not LU, but the same applied to T&FG stations now on the Overground. Doubtful if the full length of the Loop platforms was ever needed. |
I love your posts. You bring interest to stuff I'd never given a second thought to!
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Really interesting thanks, especially as I rarely go up that end of the District Line.
I'm confused what they count when they measure the lengths, as for example Colindale has a single island platform yet according to the spreadsheet, Platform 1 is 123m and Platform 2 is 165m? Similarly for Brent Cross, P1 is 148 and P2 121m. |
The spreadsheet contains at least one data entry error, and those may be two more.
However I’m just reporting what the FoI says. |
I was confused by "Watford (platform 1)". As a Croxley man yourself you'll know its a single, central concourse with tracks either side. But just now, whilst waiting 10 minutes for the next train, I walked the length of the platform and #1 ends 4-5 slabs closer to the station building than #2 and seems to have a small diagonal section sticking out at the far end - difficult to see due to the barrier and a big metal box. One of those everyday details that are hidden in plain sight.
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Staff will look at you suspiciously when you walk to the end of a long platform where trains don’t normally stop.
I once walked to the far end of the enormous platform at St Pancras Thameslink and a guy came there to question my intentions. As if it was out of bounds somehow. |
For the sub-surface lines, platform lengths are given as 'top of ramp' to 'top of ramp' or 'buffer stop' in the spreadsheet. While 'top of ramp' is - hopefully - what is says, and gives a consistent, logical point, 'buffer stop' is less clear as to where it actually means... (actual end of rail, with stop block, or ?).
While on the spreadsheet, there it refers to 'LCS', as a location code. Can anybody explain this (and provide a list of codes)? |
A further oddity from the spreadsheet - there are a number of stations on the four track sections of the Metropolitan and District/Piccadilly lines, where not all tracks have platforms (e.g. Chiswick Park, Pinner,...), but platform lengths are given for all roads; and conversely stations where there are platforms both sides of track (e.g. Uxbridge, Morden), where only one length is given for both platforms (while probably similar, exactly the same).
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Not knowing these places, I wonder whether there is any signage telling people where to wait for a train.
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At Plaistow, signs at the far end of Platform 2 say "Please pass along the platform for connecting services to Upminster."
It's not an issue at Becontree. |
I don't know if it would affect the leaderboards, but the District Line tab doesn't include the Gunnersbury/Kew Gardens/Richmond branch
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Thank you. Your reader has been up the far ends of both platforms. The small garden was spotted from the back of a train going back to Upminster. It is bizarre that it is sponsored. In fact there are such gardens or garden containers on the platforms of several stations. If you look at the garden close up, there seems to be a different and original sponsor [photo]. It was set up by the Bee Friendly Trust! Maybe eon- next contributed something - but they don't seem to have done this elsewhere. [photo].
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