please empty your brain below

Perhaps an answer to a comment someone made re. your Marks Lane article, where someone posted "And more intriguingly why are you on-line at 4:36 in the morning?"
You must be a real tube geek to get up that early in dark November. Well done.
The most famous example of such a depot service is the early morning train around the North Curve from Rickmansworth to Watford - the only time that track is in public use.
Just when I think there is nothing new to discover about the tube, you come up with posts like this! Love it!
@ Cornish Cockney - there are always things like this to discover about the Tube. Most lines have their own little oddities like departures from platforms normally used only for arrivals or trains emerging from unexpected directions.

The Victoria Line used to have (not sure if it still does) trains arriving at Walthamstow not from Blackhorse Rd but from the overrun tunnels. Always fun to see the look on peoples' faces when a train turned up from the wrong direction.

Early morning journeys do have their own characteristics as DG describes not that I have seen them very often!
A good thing about London transport is that tube lines and bus routes are not carved in stone. In other cities this would be a non-public service or would have a different name/number.
There is also an evening service around the north curve, around 9pm in the opposite direction. It leaves Watford, goes to Croxley and the next stop is then Rickmansworth.

I like the two first Bakerloo line services that head north in the morning, the trains are stabled in the tunnels to the south of Elephany & Castle station. The drivers of these services have to just jump off the platform and walk down the tracks to get to them.

Also, the last westbound Central line train of the night at White City departs from the middle platform - normally used for terminating and reversing trains only.

Similarly, there is one train on a Sunday morning only, that comes down the Central Line from West Rusilip, into the middle platform at North Acton, and reverses west to Ealing Broadway - the only public train that is scheduled to head west from that platform.

I'm sure there are more, i just can't think of them right now ...
I've been on an eastbound Circle Line train at South Ken which said it was going to Whitechapel. I'm told the reason a handful of Circle Line services use the south side of the Aldgate triangle is to turn them round, to even out the wear on the wheels. (It was also done recently to get one of the two units involved in a scrape at Hammersmith to face the other way so that the two could be coupled back-to-back to make their final journey)

More oddly, I've been on a train at Baker Street which was going to Wimbledon. I've also seen a Circle Line-stock train at Kew Gardens.
Circle Line from Barking - who knew? Nice bit of trivia there and as ever, I enjoy the people watching element of your stories DG, most entertaining.
"Someone's having crisps for breakfast. Someone's reading a copy of The Sun."

I'm trying to decide which of the two is the more heinous crime...
This was delightfully written. I wonder where the trains sleep on the western side. An enjoyable read, thank you!
@Blue Witch:

You can always slim down but you might never take Sun-like "news" from your head...
@John - I guess you're right which means that not only am I impressed that DG got up two hours early to ride this special train but that I'm even more impressed that he got up even earlier to tend to his blog first!
In a similar way to this post, you could look at Underground lines on which National Rail trains also run. For instance the north west part of the Metropolitan line also has Chiltern trains.

But possibly less well known is that South West Trains sometimes run along the Wimbledon branch of the District line from Wimbledon to East Putney where they then re-join the National Rail line into Waterloo. There are two trains scheduled to go this way each day (one very early, one very late, I can get the times). However it is sometimes used during periods of disruption so you can travel it in daylight, I've been that way a couple of times and it's rather fun to see the faces of the people expecting a tube train to be coming!
@LIsa

The main depot for the Circle and Hammermith & City line stock is at Hammersmith, but it's not big enough to take all of them so there are sidings at Barking (and Farringdon and Kensington Triangle) where Underground trains for which there's no room at the inn can rest their weary heads. The same stock is also used on the Wimbledon - Edgware Road section of the District and some of them have sleepovers at Parsons Green. In times gone by some of them lived at Neasden as well.
I've managed to catch a Circle line train from Bow Road before, around the late morning peak, unexpectedly. There'd been some disruption, I seem to remember, and I was waiting on the platform when a C stock train pulled in announcing itself as a Circle Line via Tower Hill. At each station the driver was making announcements reminding people that it was not a H&C!
When I was a driver on the Circle and H&C lines we used to stable the majority of trains at Hammersmith. Other stabling locations were Farringdon, Triangle Sidings, Barking and Edgware Road (platforms as well as sidings) and on one occasion during engineering work in the middle platforms at Aldgate.

Only on one occasion did I change the train destination from a Circle Line at Baker Street to run to Olympia on the District Line although this particular change in destination requires another driver to take over.
@Jon: There are also empty workings to Wimbledon Park depot in the late morning, and... even the odd National Rail test train!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/0causton0/8098403617/in/set-72157631794913274

There are about 4 or 5 trains running through East Putney to Wimbledon Park depot I believe, great for confusing passengers as you say!
PS: picture of a 450 running through Southfields here http://www.flickr.com/photos/0causton0/8075207971/in/set-72157631740900742/ :)










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