whart57

The GWR timetables only show trains from Victoria to Kensington and Southall, which were probably standard gauge. However Alan Jackson's book, London's Termini, also states there were occasional services out as far as Windsor as well as a Sundays only service to Henley. I'll leave it to others to guess whether those might have involved broad gauge trains. However Jackson also mentions slip coaches from GWR expresses from Birmingham and Bristol being worked to Victoria in the early years. Surely the Bristol one would have been broad gauge.

Services on the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways are listed in the 1887 Bradshaw I have (facsimile copy). The traffic day is no longer than it is today with the first trains heading out just before 6 am and the last trains starting their last journeys just before midnight. Interestingly, when we get to 1910 and the first electrically powered tube lines are running, those tube lines start about an hour earlier and finish an hour later. The still steam operated lines of the Met and Met District have the same traffic day as they did 25 years earlier.

What would the purpose of a "Super-King" 4-8-0 be? In most of the world the 4-8-0 arrangement was for freight locos, and a lot were built for the meter and 3'6" gauges. The exception would appear to be a class of 4-8-0s designed by Chapelon for the SNCF, which were express passenger locomotives. The SNCF 240s (from the European classification for a 4-8-0) were specifically designed to take heavy trains up long gradients, and they didn't actually last that long. We could ask whether this Super-King 4-8-0 is only feasible because of the GWR's aversion to trailing pony trucks. Most other railways needing a fast eight coupled loco would build Mountain 4-8-2s which have more space for a humungous firebox.

Roll out the Barrel -- trad. drinking song

Shades of Gray -- The Monkees

Hanging on the Telephone -- Blondie

Keep your hand on your ha'penny -- Music Hall song (Sorry for posting twice in a row but I really wanted to put this fruity music hall song in)

Keep right on to the end of the road -- Harry Lauder (written in 1916)

Daydream Believer -- The Monkees

Summertime -- George Gershwin (sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, and many more Blues divas)

Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes --- Gilbert and Sullivan - The Gondoliers

Saturday's Child. - - The Monkees

I thought the Met and District kept locos in steam around the inner London network so they could react to loco failures and not snarl up the system

Little Drummer Boy -- Boney M (and many others)

Tin Pan Alley --- Lucky Peterson

Lord of the Dance -- trad., but best seen as Michael Flatley and a load of Irish pixies jigging up and down

James (Hold the Ladder Steady) -- Sue Thompson

Swing Low Sweet Chariot. 50,000 at Twickenham when England are winning

That figures, Cannon Street was closed at weekends. Electric services on the Kent Coast line started on Monday 15 June 1959

From where you are -- Josh Groban

According to the Historical Guide of Southern Sheds, New Cross Gate closed in 1948 except for stabling, which stopped in 1951. As a Central section shed it wouldn't have supplied locos for Cannon Street trains anyway, they would have come from Bricklayers Arms

Ewer St is covered in the book Historical Survey of Southern Sheds. It may have just been a servicing point but it would have been a busy one as after 1926, when Cannon Street shed closed, it handled all steam services into Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Blackfriars. I'm surprised that I've never seen it in model form.

Matthew and Son -- Cat Stevens

Drink to me only with thine eyes -- 17th century song, words by Ben Jonson

Kathy's Song -- Paul Simon (with or without Art Garfunkel)