Secrets of the London Underground. Series 2 coming 5th May at 8PM on Yesterday

[Coppercap]

21 minutes ago, nigb55009 said:

A six wheel tank held about 3000 gallons, IIRC. So that would be seven or eight tanks daily, which sounds more likely. 

What I was thinking. 22,000 divided by 7 = 3142. So yes, something about that figure, I guess it should have been gallons, not tons. 

[nigb55009]

Sorry I miss read the OP, 3142 gallons a day would mean one or two tanks, which does seem more plausible.

[John M Upton]

Glad to see the series finally made it into King William Street, I don't think there has been any public broadcast filming done there since the Under London Expedition documentary of the early 1970's I think.

 

I am astounded that most of the old station structure is largely unaffected by the Bank works.  A shame they couldn't have gone across the river and seen the Swan Wharf shaft but I suspect that is all underwater now.

[H2O]

2 hours ago, Coppercap said:

What I was thinking. 22,000 divided by 7 = 3142. So yes, something about that figure, I guess it should have been gallons, not tons. 

That figure made me sit up too, wondering how many milk churns 22,000 tons of milk would be.  Perhaps an update to the voice over may be needed.  I'm 99% sure I've heard the odd word re-voiced on other railway programs.  When there are so many facts a figures to get right I'm not surprised if the odd error slips through.

[Coppercap]

2 hours ago, H2O said:

That figure made me sit up too, wondering how many milk churns 22,000 tons of milk would be.  Perhaps an update to the voice over may be needed.  I'm 99% sure I've heard the odd word re-voiced on other railway programs.  When there are so many facts a figures to get right I'm not surprised if the odd error slips through.

I had to replay it a couple of times as I thought I'd misheard it the first time! I too was trying to imagine 22,000-tons worth of milk churns...

After looking up the capacity of churns, I think I've worked it out somewhere near right, and it works out at approx 290,000 (41.5 thousand per day) of the old-type 17 gallon conical churns, or approx 492,000 (70.3 thousand per day) of the later straight 10 gallon churns. Cue a voice-over re-edit...    

Edited June 4, 2022 by Coppercap

[eastwestdivide]

With the latest episode I just was beginning to wonder “have I seen enough abandoned dark tunnels (with original tiling) behind secret doors?” and then they pulled it out of the hat with the Ongar line. Liked the bit about the lights going down as the train put on power leaving a station. 

[ess1uk]

New series announced 

[The Evil Bus Driver]

I love the Hidden London Hangouts series as it shows that ththere'do much more to the tube than you might see on your usual journey. So much hidden in plain sight as the team frequently say. 

[TJ52]

Rather surprised that there have been no posts regarding the new series. Do we all just take this for granted as being good viewing now?

 

Terry

[Captain Kernow]

On 13/07/2023 at 21:47, TJ52 said:

Rather surprised that there have been no posts regarding the new series. Do we all just take this for granted as being good viewing now?

 

Terry

As far as I am concerned, every episode is good 'value for money', but I do find it difficult to isolate the new series episodes when setting the recorder, so I end up with loads of recordings of the older programmes as well.

 

[melmerby]

CK how do you record the programmes?

 

In the TV programme listings (paper or on screen) an unbroadcast ie.new, programme will have "New" in front of it.

The repeats, obviously,  don't get the "New" prefix.

Once the first episode of a new series is entered you should be able to series link it to record all new episodes with no oldies.

[RedgateModels]

Watched ep1 the other night, jolly good as ever 😁

[dagrizz]

Yes, these programmes appeal to people in general, not just us anoraks. SWMBO loves every episode.

Graham

[Re6/6]

An excellent programme as ever. The enthusiasm of the lovely Siddy and Tim makes for an enjoyable watch. I view it on UKTV i-player if I can't watch it as it goes out.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Re6/6
Spelling!

[Captain Kernow]

21 hours ago, melmerby said:

CK how do you record the programmes?

 

In the TV programme listings (paper or on screen) an unbroadcast ie.new, programme will have "New" in front of it.

The repeats, obviously,  don't get the "New" prefix.

Once the first episode of a new series is entered you should be able to series link it to record all new episodes with no oldies.

You are quite right and I do try to look for the 'New' title, but I still seem to end up with all the old stuff as well (not that I really mind that much, they still bear re-watching).

 

[TJ52]

When a new series starts we just set it to record series.

 

Terry

[timdunn]

There’s still a great deal of chatter on social media sites like twitter about it, which is nice for the whole team  

to enjoy . Seems to be hitting the numbers too, which I always have one eye on.
 

During the prog someone tweeted me the track plan of the g scale / gauge 1 training school we featured as he’d built it! The fact that this  stuff is still pulling in folk who’d never give two toots about a signal box or 38 stock, and is entertaining and always finding something new for the seasoned expert enthusiast, delights me daily. There are a few who don’t like my style or whatever, but I can’t help that too much. Bit of a TV pause while I get actual other work sorted on the Big Railway, but as my mum said the other day, she sees my face on repeats more then she does in real life :-/

[Siberian Snooper]

I missed most of it when it was screened, but have spent the last couple of evenings revisiting the complete series. I'm always amazed at what's hidden in plain sight.

 

 

[Edwin_m]

6 hours ago, timdunn said:

There’s still a great deal of chatter on social media sites like twitter about it, which is nice for the whole team  

to enjoy . Seems to be hitting the numbers too, which I always have one eye on.
 

During the prog someone tweeted me the track plan of the g scale / gauge 1 training school we featured as he’d built it! The fact that this  stuff is still pulling in folk who’d never give two toots about a signal box or 38 stock, and is entertaining and always finding something new for the seasoned expert enthusiast, delights me daily. There are a few who don’t like my style or whatever, but I can’t help that too much. Bit of a TV pause while I get actual other work sorted on the Big Railway, but as my mum said the other day, she sees my face on repeats more then she does in real life :-/

This series just shows it's possible to make a programme with wide appeal, without "dumbing down".  Hearty congratulations to yourself, to Siddy, the Museum staff, and not forgetting all those behind the camera who made it happen.  

[jbqfc]

here is an interview with Tim and Siddy on the Londonist page 

Interview here

 

John 

[RJS1977]

I hope Tim doesn't mind my correcting a slight error in that interview:

 

Tim: No. I’ve left that for my old friend Mr Geoff Marshall. BUT! A secret I learned about doing it came from the artist Mark Wallinger, when I interviewed him for this series. He designed all the labyrinth tube art (the circular “mazes” you see on the wall somewhere in each station) and he numbered them 1 to 270. Turns out that if you follow them in order from 1 upwards, that is the exact route you need to take in order to do the Tube Challenge. That is the mark of an artist who loves his subject.

 

Following the labyrinth numbers was one of many ways of completing the old 270 stations network. However this particular route became impossible when TfL reduced the number of weekday services to Kensington Olympia to a handful in the early morning and two in the evening. The route taken by Andi James and Steve Wilson, who were the last people to hold the record for the 270 station network (15 hours 45 minutes) is known only to them and they're not telling!

 

 

Ironically there is a somewhat bizarre situation concerning the current record for the 272 station network. The first time to be set was by Adham Fisher in October 2021 (20 hours 4 minutes). Although Adham collected all the necessary evidence, and Guinness were happy that he had visited all the stations, they refused to recognise his time as it was much longer than Steve and Andi's time for two fewer stations. Guinness then said they would not recognise any times longer than 16:30.

 

Following that, at least half a dozen people (myself included) have set times faster than Adham's, but none of us took the necessary evidence for Guinness as we weren't aiming to beat 16:30. The fastest unofficial time is 18:23:19, just beating the previous fastest unofficial time of 18:23:46. I aimed to beat that time but just missed out, taking third place with 18:30:32, having agonisingly seen the clock tick down on the approach to Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3 with only Terminal 5 to go!

 

Guinness have since relented and decided to accept Adham's time after all, although it is now the *slowest* time anyone has completed the 272 station network in! I, and five other people have beaten the Guinness World Record, but none of us have the evidence to prove it!

 

I may well have another attempt at some point (not necessarily for the Guinness Record, maybe just to beat the fastest time). If Siddy ever changes her mind, I'd be happy for her to join me!

Edited August 9, 2023 by RJS1977
Times corrected

[Captain Kernow]

Thanks for the advice on recording the new series. I now seem to have been able to isolate the new programmes and they are now recorded separately from the re-runs (which are still worth re-watching anyway!).

 

[timdunn]

On 09/08/2023 at 00:07, RJS1977 said:

I hope Tim doesn't mind my correcting a slight error in that interview:

 

/snip/ that is the exact route you need to take in order to do the Tube Challenge. That is the mark of an artist who loves his subject.

 

Following the labyrinth numbers was one of many ways of completing the old 270 stations network. However this particular route became impossible when TfL reduced the number of weekday services to Kensington

Sorry - please do correct! I can’t remember the exact wording mark gave. Maybe it was correct when they made them 10 years ago but it’s certainly one of the fastest ways, and I love the thought behind it. There’s a lot we don’t use of the interview but he is a fascinating man who thinks about his art far more than we might think. Once the interview has aired I’ll add in other facts about the labyrinths he told us.

 

I almost forgot - I took a few snaps of some hand built models that the LTM has in its depot stores *for the specific reason of posting them on here because everyone on RMWeb has been so supportive of the team’s work*.
 

This room isn’t usually open to the public but i have permission to post these. The buildings were IIRC 4mm, majority of stock models 7mm. Various vintages, some will have been on display in years past at Covent Garden, syon park or Clapham (where the collection has partly lived previously). The brass Met tank is 3.5”.  It has never run but I cabt recall if it was built to do so. There are some details of various others on the LTM website if you search for “model” in the online collections portal. Be warned, i started looking in their archives 15 years ago, never managed to escape and now I’m only allowed out in public if it’s to talk about old railways.

 

I can recommend a trip to the depot on open days anyway to see the architectural models on display, and of course all the really big stuff and the ridiculously good bargains in the Friends’ SH Bookshop. Any money I might get paid for making telly mainly goes on books about the same subjects… 

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by timdunn

[RJS1977]

Looking on the Tube Challenge forum, it appears that the Labyrinth route was based on the 2009 record of 16:44:16. By the time I first started looking into attempting the Challenge back in 2015, the daytime Olympia service had already been withdrawn, however there are ways to modify the route to get it to work.

 

A video of the route can be found at https://youtu.be/jL4hhBnjznI

[timdunn]

Ah well - that’s the fun thing then - it represented what was correct at Tube150, and no other time. A point in time that records a changing network