As a kid (a very long time ago) I was on the Met Line (somewhere near the abandoned Marlborough Road station) when the train was held at a long red signal. As I was in the front carriage, I could see the driver pull down the window and attach lines to the two parallel bare wires at window height. It was only years later that I found out he was calling the signal box.
"Don't lick anything you find on the underground" needs to be a t-shirt. I expect to see it as soon as the Jago Hazzard merchandise shop opens. Make it happen!
Once, when I was a kid with my Dad on the tube, he told me the big purple pipe started in a factory in the east end and pumped curry to all the restaurants on the underground network. I still think this is the case. (RIP Dad)
As an apprentice (back in the dark ages), I knew an electrician who would check those old ceramic fuse box units, the ones with fuse wire that you plugged in, with a licked finger. There was a test spot of a brass dot on the back. He would go looking for a blown fuse with his finger and say “that’s good “ all along a row of fuses until he found the blown one. That was 240v a.c. he was touching.
@@johnmurray8428 I’m sure electricians are mad! Back in the depths of time, I remember watching a cable lineman opening up section switches with the juice on. He’d get the sack now.
@@johnmurray8428 yeah it just tickles for a fraction of a second, no chance of getting locked on. Good pragmatic approach back in the dark ages ;) [trained in 1989, so the grey ages] Edit, the 'test spot' is what made me post this, anything you can physically get hold of is no touch if live
The Severn Tunnel had a similar system in use circa 1991. Unfortunately by that time false alarms were so common that when a collision occured and a driver shorted the circuit to sound the alarm, the operator at Newport signalbox ignored it.
I remember it was once flooded during a snow winter in the early eighties and trains had to be diverted around the old back route into South Wales. I would hope the tunnel has better flood defences now. That tendance to flood, could have contributed to the technical problems.
@@julianaylor4351 And the Severn Tunnel has always been pretty damp anyway, despite the massive pumping stations that were installed during construction and run ever since, and I think I've seen it written that this did indeed cause problems with signals and cables.
W.A. Tuplin recounted how on one occasion a GWR steam-hauled passenger train got loose in the Severn Tunnel and see-sawed in the dip at the bottom. The driver broke the tell-tale wire and no accident happened, but there were some extremely red faces.
I remember hearing on a different channel how a plucky tube driver in days long past had avoided catastrophe by reaching out from his cab and causing a short by bringing wires together. Finally the story makes sense 😂
Jago, you are not just some nerd on RU-vid( 0:35), you are a very special sort of nerd. Your videos are all gems and much appreciated - you certainly had this one licked !!!
I remember watching a documentary with this. I do get the accident-pronness of this, but the idea that you just short two wires to remove the current from the rails is really really neat, because it creates a very reliable way to unpower the rails if you hace to in an emergency
The old Glasgow Underground used a similar system of two telephone wires in the tunnel where the driver could connect a telephone hand set with two crocodile clips. The system was in use till closure in 1977. The new Underground was delayed for ages and one of the stories that went about was that when the drivers testing the new trains lifted the phone in their cab, it jammed the emergency brakes on and turned the wheels into 50p pieces. This was almost certainly misrepresented media hype for the sake of a good headline but it impressed me as a kid.
This was shown on the series Secrets Of the Underground so as soon as you mentioned a couple of bare wires I knew where this was going ;) 3:10 stand back from the platform edge!
Thank you!!!! As a kid in the 1960s I had a book on the London Underground which said (among other things) that pinching the lineside wires together would cut the power. I never found another source to confirm it and had come to the conclusion that I had imagined it all! It really does do that!
One of these days I’m gonna see myself or someone I know in one of those vids and I’m gonna feel a small buzz of excitement that will put a smile on my face for a good 15-25 seconds at-least
Interestingly my father told me the function of pinching these two cables together back in the early 1960s. Why he thought I, as a under 10 year old boy, needed to know this I am not sure. 😊
As a young child I learnt "the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides" because my dad would randomly recite this on a semi-regular basis with no other context or explanation. I was amazed when it turned up in my maths lesson several years later and it turned out to be a real thing that actually meant something!
The driver would carry the handset around in an old wooden box, along with his handlamp, control keys and tea can (The latter being the most important, of course!)
This reminds me of the class 155 units... When they first entered service...and indeed it might still be the case I haven't worked for the Railway in the UK for close to 30 years. anyway it turned out that the emergency handle in the bathroom only armed itself with the door locked so... those evil among the general public could pull the handle with the door unlocked exit the bathroom the old lady that then went in locks the door and sets the brakes off. It was only the 155 and maybe the 153 that did that the other 150s didn't have that feature.
It is interesting that LT would install the Dri-Co wire telephone system in the 1940s. The Pennsylvania R.R. had installed an inductive telephone system across its network by then. This worked wirelessly. In electrified territory, there was also in-cab signaling that superseded wayside signals.
Another great video Mr Jago. I had an idea for a subject for you perhaps, would you do a video on the watertight gates installed on line which crossed the Thames, for protection against bomb damage to the tunnels during the war years?
The “Tunnel Telephone” system also had a telephone handset mounted in a box on the headwall of almost every underground station. Lifting the handset turned off the traction current & connected you to the line controller. A board would be hung on the headwall if the tunnel telephone lines where out of order between stations. As I recall it was a red board with a black T with a diagonal X denoting it being out of use. Some trains - usually early morning or late evening - where booked extra time in the timetable so they could stop & carry out a test call to the controller via the clip on handset. Interesting point - There was often a shortage of tunnel telephone handsets at Hainault Depot in the 1980's - which meant the train got cancelled for safety reasons.
You never used the handset in the box to do a pre arranged Drico test, The testing of the phone in the handset box was done before before bring a train into service at the depot and that handset stayed with the train at crew changeovers untill it went out of service and was for emergency use only , Hainault had test wires for this sole purpose of testing just outside the booking on the office wall. If you were scheduled to do a Drico test you used the pre installed Drico equipment located in the drivers cab at the time, The test went something like this, Hello control Drico test Central 65 at Newbury Park east portal, Control to Central 65 receiving you loud and clear, Central 65 receiving you loud and clear control, Control to Central 65 thank you and off clips, Once storing the clips the driver would notified the guard of a successful Drico test.
Drivers going west from Newbury Park used to refuse to go into the tunnel until a handset was collected from an Eastbound train that had just come out of the tunnel. The poor railman assigned to that task was totally exhausted at the end of his shift!
I hadn’t realised the pinch and rub wires had gone, and I certainly didn’t know about the seven minutes, that introduces an element of jeopardy into the process! I think I’m right in saying that the other outcome of shorting the wires was to switch on the tunnel lights?
In the old films one could wrap a message around a piece of coal and throw it out at a station or to a signalman...always written in the most perfect handwriting!
I hadn't realised that it had been decommissioned and was being gradually removed. I thought it might have continued as a low-tech backup system in case radio comms failed. I also didn't know that there was a defined fixed time of 7 minutes that the power was removed.
I can remember the thick grime ridden cables on the tube as a kid in the early 70s, and seing then replaced by shiny colourful cables by about 1980..but never saw shiny bare cables..you live and learn! thanks Jago!
Someone else has probably mentioned this but tunnel telephones on the head wall are still in use as a direct method of discharging traction current. Nowadays, if traction current is discharged, it’s 5 minutes before the controller recharges current, rather than 7 minutes.
When visiting London for the first time last month, I did in fact look out of the window of underground trains amazed at how little space their was between the car and the tunnel walls compared to my native Sydney and wondered what people do in the tube if a train breaks down and cannot move. I can only imagine folks would have to walk the length to either end of the train and steer well clear of the third rail all the way to the next station. Good to learn now the driver can kill power to the third rail. Now you mention it, I did notice that internet reception was not good on the tube. Of course given how far underground it usually is and what structures lie on top, I wasn't terribly surprised.
You’re exactly right. If you look at the front of the tube trains you’ll see a central door. In a tunnel emergency, passengers evacuate through that door down a set of steps. Fortunately rare.
@@tlantisall subway systems will struggle with cell reception. However most cities have installed leaky feeder cables at this point, that are essentially long phone towers. The Jubilee line extension has it, and recently part of the central line got it. Eventually the whole underground will have it, tfl say the end of this year, but there is a lot of internal fighting and delays
Some where in time and space a Jago Fan turns to his/her significant other and says: " Sorry I can`t give you a french kiss...Jago said never lick anything on the tube"...Hell will follow swiftly
Really interesting video. Small confession but I now always try to guess the closing donor and sponsor thanks message "you are the....to my". Today I was so convinced it was going to be the 'pinch to my rub'.
Interesting concept, As an Australian who happens to be a train nerd about trains in my own country and those back in the UK, I find this very interesting. Makes me wonder if someone could recreate these wires in a tube tunnel for a digital variant of the underground… but I somewhat doubt that because it’d probably lag out Trainz to the point where the build folder spontaneously deletes itself and relocates to the already cramped C: drive on my dad’s computer But I digress
One minor point (but then this is a Jago video, so minor points are rather the thing!) - low voltage doesn't necessarily mean no danger. The current is rather important too - as anyone who's ever accidentally welded a spanner to a 12v car battery terminal will confirm!
It takes about 0.11 amperes of AC current (I know that's a tautology) to kill someone, according to the MK Electrical company (makers of plugs and sockets).
A friend of mine used to work on permanent way on the Southern Region electrified lines. He told me that when dealing with corroded connections to the live rail (a common problem) it was not always possible to turn off the current because it meant too much disruption of services. So a thick rubber mat was provided and the worker had to ensure he was completely on it as he used a power tool to remove and replace the securing nut. I find this difficult to believe but he assures me it was (is?) common practice.
The Signal Telegraph system between signal boxes was still in use in 1990 on the Underground then between Harrow on the Hill and Neasden South BR , but was gone by the time I first trained there later that year.
When travelling between Finchley Road and Westminster (as part of a longer journey consisting of other tube journeys either side of this one) I stand facing the doors on the left hand side of the first carriage (it’s the most efficient place to change to the District line). The doors don’t open on the left for the entire journey - until you reach Westminster. You can’t see the roundels from that door - only adverts. However, I am able to tell when we are approaching Westminster because the extension starts just after Green Park and a new red cable appears amongst the bundle of grey cables, and thus I can be prepared to fight my way through the hordes trying to board there.
I knew this but struggled to remember where I heard it. 65 years ago Dad bought a set of Arthur Mee's The Children's Encyclopeadia.I read these for fun. The section on "Modern Technological Marvels" was fascinating then and even more fascinating now.
Maybe I’m just unobservant, but I travelled frequently on the tube for three decades and never noticed the bare wires! Looking for them will no doubt spice up my next visit to the Big Smoke.
I remember those wires when working on the Watford DC section, we told not to touch them at any cost. Thanks Jago for reminding me of something from my past.
Its now five minutes before recharge of traction current. And the netal bar is an SCD. And it makes a big bang if traction current isnt off when you lay it Ha
On the West Highland line, an oddity was that, due to the telegraph equipment not being ready in time, signal boxes were initially equipped with telephones. Needless to say, the advance into the age of telegraph was received with less than unbridled enthusiasm.
@@barrieshepherd7694 Ah, the amazing RETB system. On the Cambrian lines in Wales it was best known for dodgy conversations being carried on in Welsh (because the managers only spoke English) and it being "rather difficult" (read impossible) to exchange the radio tokens at certain locations because of the poor radio signal which meant that back in the 90s there were ... unofficial workarounds ... which were definitely not compliant with the rule book. Apparently all the problems with the Cambrian RETB were kept in mind for the East Suffolk RETB, which as a result is RETB as it should be rather than the Radio Electronic Tokenless Bodge of the Cambrian. The Cambrian was chosen as the ERTMS testbed for good reason.
@@atraindriver East suffolk RETB predated Cambrian - by an equipment generation! The Cambrian Line was the last RETB to be commissioned and did as you said become the ERTMS Test Bed. East Suffolk was Gen 1 RETB, on Mid Band VHF, and was the same as the original Dingwall to Kyle of Lochalsh & Far North Line - albeit a different equipment supplier. The Gen 1 RETBs from Dingwall were converted to Gen II RETB & Band III radio after the implementation of RETB on the WHL East Suffolk was converted to conventional signalling - the problem was that RETB was not very good at managing all the crossings on the line. RETB in Scotland has since been renewed as effectively Gen III using more modern equipment and incorporating TPWS - but, as far as I know, the operation is effectively the same -. With the need to manually change radio channel removed.
@@barrieshepherd7694 Thanks for the correction; the Cambrian crews believed that they were the second and East Suffolk the third, but obviously not! Cambrian RETB would have been fine with better radio signal (more boosters, I guess - I know nothing about radio!) but as it stood it relied too much on people making the system work by, ahem, stretching procedures somewhat. I suspect that the introduction of ERTMS was met with some sighs of relief.
@@atraindriver There are stories about the Cambrian implementation but they are best not told here. People don't understand the origins of RETB - its purpose was to enable the lines to stay open as the cost of cabling and re-signalling back in those days was horrendous. The Scottish lines are the best examples - RETB allowed the lines to remain open, apart from the block instruments and pole route being very unreliable the profile of signallers was such that most would have retired in 2-3 years and no one else wanted the very remote posts. RETB also allowed significant reduction in track maintenance costs by allowing track crews to work between train quickly - they just took up an engineering token got on the track did what they needed to do and hand the token back. Saved significant time over the usual track possession arrangements.
Glad I clicked on this video. Seeing the title, and seeing the length of the video, I legit thought it was going to be a tube train sitting stationary for seven minutes.
As the first commercial electrical telegraph system in the world was installed between Paddington and West Drayton in 1837, and was well established by 1863, that Victorian telegraph boy would not have been the nearest equivalent to broadband, especially along railway lines. There were 15,000 sets on UK railways by the end of the 19th century.
Broadband, not narrow band! Even into the 1980s and 90s, if you needed throughput rather than latency you sent a car or plane full of tapes. The boy is quite similar
@@kaitlyn__L You will find that telegram boys only carried what was sent by electrical telegraph (later by wireless as well), so that's clearly wrong. Have you ever seen a real telegram? They were charged by the letter and were very short. Also, throughput is the size of message divided by the latency. A telegram boy had very high latency, hence his throughput was also low.
@@TheEulerID I have seen a real telegram. The low character count is exactly why it’s low bandwidth but also low latency. Message boys might have carried telegrams or longer letters or even parcels full of documents. It’s not like the tube driver has a telegram machine, the boy he’d be sending down the tunnel in this scenario would carry any message on paper the driver gave him. Of course they didn’t have such boys waiting around on trains so it’s moot, and that’s why Jago’s line is what’s called a joke. And I was continuing the joke. By the way, did you know power is voltage multiplied by the current? Since we’re apparently sharing basic formulae we both already know.
@@kaitlyn__L As you didn't seem to be aware that the throughput of a telegram boy (and it was explicitly a telegram boy mentioned in the video, not a messenger boy) was actually quite low for the reason I stated, then I thought it worthy of clarification. In any event, my response wasn't just trite. It's a serious point, in that the electrical telegraph was already important on the railways when the first underground, let alone the first tube line was built.
My Grandparents told me the reason for the copper wires you use to see and when I see them it reminds me of them. But then when you take young kids on the underground before the invention you have to keep them entertained. So use to look out the windows at Whitechapel to see the front of the train on the curve. etc 🙂
I once got stuck on The Northern Line in Between Hampstead and Golders Green for about 15 minutes. I looked out of the window and it seemed to be abandoned platforms. I think it was the never opened Bull and Bush station. I could be wrong.
That to me is a good question. Perhaps it always happens on the London Underground no matter what tube line you are travelling on and where you are heading to. But very interesting video Jago.
These wires are also in use on the Merseyrail Network, for example, between Leeds Street Junction and St James 1 Tunnel - between Liverpool Central and Brunswick.
Wow, over 60,000 views. I remember back when you were getting just a few hundred or low thousands. Glad your channel is growing so well. Great content, Jago.
We still have those wires, and phones for them, on the Northern City Line... being an ex-tube line and all! I think it amused Siemens, when building the Class 717s, that these had to be installed! (And Tripcocks!)
The Northern City Line features the same system. Even the new Class 717 trains feature a clip on phone and wooden handled metal bar to short the live rail in an emergency.
They don't - Waterloo and Bank are in different branches. I think you mean Borough and Bank. The reason goes right back to the building of the City & South London Railway. Tube tunnelling was a novel and largely untested technology in the late 1880s, so the builders proceeded very cautiously. The trickiest part was that under the river, not only because of the danger of breaching the river bed (as had happened several times to the Brunels at Wapping, nearly drowning Brunel Jnr on one occasion) but also of undermining London Bridge. They were also not allowed to tunnel under buildings, so had to thread their way under the narrow streets in the City, meaning that one tunnel had to partially overlie the other. Therefore, having succesfully built the first tunnel under the Thames, just upstream of London Bridge, they took no chances with the second and built it further upstream (further from London Bridge) and at a deeper level, further from the bed of the river, so that it could underlie the first one. But that meant that, approaching the terminus at King William Street, the left hand tunnel had to climb more steeply than the right hand one. To give the puny electric locomotives the best chance of getting to the terminus, the shallower (right hand tunnel) was used uphill (northbound) and the steeper one downhill. Thus right hand running. The nearest place there was sufficient width of wayleave to roll over to left ahnd running was south of Borough. Just ten years later the line was extended on a new alignment from just north of Borough, via a new station at London Bridge main line station and new tunnels downstream of the bridge, to Bank and on to Angel (and later to Euston). Because Borough was laid out for right hand running, the extension was built the same way until the wayleave was wide enough to roll back to left hand running between Bank and Moorgate.
A great video. About 1957, I read "Railways Under London" by Marie Neurath (Max Parrish 1948). All the wonderful safety features described there made me appreciate the Underground railway in a way that I did not then with British Rail. Recently, I wondered why the two wires were absent.
For those lines it's still active on, there is no telephone connection and "if" it operates in the way intended, there is a window of 5 minutes (updated) before the traction current is requested to be switched back on. In that time - given the modern age we live in - it is thought you would be able to make alternative contact.
They used to use similar pairs of uninsulated wires along tunnels in mines to signal emergencies. I seem to remember they used bell-codes though, a kind of morse-y telegraph-y type setup. But that may have just been because of their age.
bringing it back to transport, Routemasters had a bell code. The obvious 1 ding for stop (as used by passengers). 2 dings for go (as used by conductor). 4 dings for emergency!
The Northern City Line also has (had?) this setup too, which makes sense as it also used to be a Tube line. I've always wondered though, why do Tube lines have so many thick wires running about the place, especially when compared to mainline railway lines? Or have the latter just done a better job of hiding them?
Drivers used to carry the Drico handset in a wooden box. They'd collect one as they booked on. A curious passenger asked a driver what the box was for. The reply was that it was a pigeon coffin. Given the number of pigeons at stations and elsewhere it happened on occasions that a train would hit one and it would die, the driver would have to collect it and the box was to hold it until such time as it could be properly disposed of. Another passenger satisfied with LT service. 🤣🤣
I worked on the railways 25 years .15 years on the southern ! They kept a bar in the cabs for cutting off the electric ! A short circuiting bar it was called . Didn't half make a bang and a flash when you did it ! 750 volts DC , Only did it once in training ! They said don't stand too close as it has been know to burn trousers !
JAGO: You are the short to my seven minutes!! ⚡️⏳ (…I thought “You are the lick to my underground” was a bit too fresh to mention. And “vanishing into the grime” had eloquence.👍)
i am a viewer from outside london, and i love this because i already know that pinching the tunnel telephone line would kill the traction current. Because i am a railway geek and have a playlist of LU instructional videos ... :) you are the youtuber to my geekness
As an infrequent visitor to London I look out of the window and had assumed the bare copper pair was for some kind of emergency communication pre-leaky feeders or whatever they're using for comms now. Nice to have it confirmed.
I admit I had not noticed the car in the M8 video - but I love that you managed to find the owner, and that Alan was happy to join you for today's video! 👏
There was a newspaper story a few years ago where a signalling error on the Victoria line put two trains on a collision course. One driver used this method to stop a collision. I think it was the same year that the control room was partially filled with cement (stopped from setting by using a lot of sugar).
I'm more intrigued/confused by the second bit of that. How does a control room get nearly filled with cement. And, how does sugar stop it setting, is it something in the sugar that does that?
@@jacekatalakis8316 it was an accident during the expansion of Victoria station. Contractors were filling the space under an escalator, unaware of a hole into the control room. Apparently all the sugar in nearby shops was quickly bought up to slow the setting of the cement. Victoria line was closed for 12 hours. Over 100 7 minutes intervals if you prefer!
If there's anything I've learned today, it's: - Today's broadband is comparable to a telegraph boy going like the clappers to the nearest signal box - Even with the advent of radio communications, they would have to use the most convoluted system - Whenever you mention "pinch and rub", better pray that anyone within earshot is an urban transport enthusiast. Anything else would possibly warrant a quick visit to Whitehall 1212 - Never lick anything on an Underground station, in particular the recently installed roundels that were featured in Geoff's most recent video
Remember ‘R.E.M’ once wrote a song 🎶 called “SHINY ✨ HAPPY 😃 PEOPLE”? Well, I must proclaim, *Sir. J. Hazzard* , that this is a *SHINY ✨ HAPPY 😃 **_TALE FROM DA TUBE._*
Yep nearly always look out of the windows. I'm (still) nerdy enough to want to know how stuff works (or worked). And heres a video about it. Thanks Jago.
On an entirely different subject, of all the deep level stock, the Bakerloo and Piccadilly cars feel the most spacious. The Central 3:25 feels claustrophobic with its low ceiling that bends over at quite a shallow angle. The tinted windows are just a single pane, with a lot of 'wall' either side. Victoria and Northern have small single windows too. The Central windows restrict visibility with their dark tint, and the curve creates a freaky hall of mirrors effect to your reflection. The line diagrams high up in the peak of the ceiling are horrid. Compare this to the glassy bigness of the Bakerloo 4:31 . A nice flowing curved ceiling, and large twin windows along the sides. Also it has the minimum amount of internal cladding. Hope the new stock keeps these design principles.
