1988 I was a signalman at Neasden North signal box in Neasden depot where those prototypes were kept. The 2 car blue came in from Wembley via the Dip and stalled at the exit being gapped, so I had to pop out to the front of the box, get the jumper cables and help plug them in and jump-start the unit, ...fun times.
I always did wonder what that red bridge at Waterloo was for. Now I know - thanks! I had just assumed it was a walkway for passengers which had been superseded by the modern construction above it. Now I know better....
I have had the pleasure of watching both parts of London's Quirkiest Railways and send a heartfelt thank you for a very entertaining hour or so. You have obviously put in much time, effort and research into their production and you are to be congrtatulated. Bravo!! Here's to the next time!
Rob this really made me smile, as well as bringing back memories, because as a 6 year-old I was taken to London and the 1951 Festival of Britain where I enjoyed a trip on the Battersea railway, walked on the super tree walk, was amazed by the Emmet and Searle cartoon edifices, was sick on mayonnaise and most memorable was the chance to wiggle into the fire box of a mighty A3 Pacific - thankfully with no fire! As usual, I really enjoyed the whole quirky video which bore all the usual hallmarks of your meticulous research and friendly presentation. I am lucky to have been called a friend. This was the first of viewings in no order whatsoever - they just keep popping up on my laptop. So I'll trot on! Rob
I enjoyed this wee mini-series Rob, something a wee bit different. Some interesting nuggets in there; some I knew, some I didn't, but all good stuff. Looking forward to, hopefully, more railway stuff.👍👌😁 Cheers for now, Dougie.
Brilliant. Thank you. Got to your channel by way of Glasgow ... kinda ... Big Clive recently dismantled a disposable paper ticket for the Glasgow Subway that, incredibly, had an RFID chip embedded in it (Clive's channel is mostly about things electronic ... and often flammable) and he talked a bit about the subway ... which piqued my curiosity ... which lead me to your wonderful 3-parter on that system. Love it. Yes, I hit subscribe. :-)
Well now, number 9 Wee Tram certainly got my attention -- as soon as you mentioned him setting up on Lancaster Rd New Barnet. I grew up in New Barnet. Then the coincidences got even stronger -- "Lancaster Electrical Company, 77-79 Brookhill Rd, BAR0226". Our house was half of a semi-detached, 81 and 83 Brookhill Rd (we lived at 83, BAR8236). I was quite young, but there was an industrial building, a couple of storeys high, next door to 81. Beyond that was a market garden (behind fences) owned by the people who ran the local greengrocers. That garden must have earlier been the land where the Wee Tram ran. Less than 20metres from my childhood home. VERY interesting.
the NLA (National Library of Australia) still has (and sometimes uses) its pneumatic tubes (although this is mostly because they can't remove them without demolishing half the building)
Enjoyed both parts - thanks. Related to the Coliseum oddity - I believe there was a spur to the railway nearest Alexandra Palace that took a carriage straight into the building for use of VIPs.
To me the quirkiest was the Neverstop with its spiral tube drive system. Unlike most of the others, I think it had promise as a sort of horizontal paternoster. But I think people have worked out that nobody needs to sit down on such a system, so get rid of the carriages leaving just the moving subframes, making a travolator or moving walkway. Any weather protection doesn't need to move with it. Once more, a very informative video, thanks.
Thanks for an excellent view of some of London's more quirky trains. It's a hard one to call for what would be my top entry but it is a tie between the Wee tram because what started a one man small project, grew and grew into a public service masterpiece. Second has to be the Emett trains. All three locomotives were totally whacky and different making the experience more pleasurable. With today's more sanitised and uniform approach I feel a lot of the yesteryear creations will be sorely missed. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Living not too far from Battersea Park at the time, I well remember the minature railway that ran alongside the park road past the boating lake & circular cafeteria up to the station near Chelsea Bridge. I also remember the disaster on the old wooden Big Dipper, tragic.
The famous Flying Scotsman came to Australia in the late 1980s. When I was lucky enough to see it, I was only 5 years old. It came up to my home town of Seymour, an hour's drive from the Australian city of Melbourne with the company of two other steam locomotives
Brilliant Rob. Some really well researched ones there and a fun interesting top 20 you put together. I was born and bred in Southend on Sea and didnt know about that trial railway. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for all your efforts on these.
London’s first monorail was definitely quirky. The Panarmonion Gardens Railway was built in Kings Cross around the 1830s by one H. Thorrington, and was a suspended monorail with ornate, boat-like carriages. Motive power was provided by a man operating a rudimentary hand cycle device. A ride cost a shilling, which seems rather a lot.
Make that the second,- I forgot Palmer’s monorail (a saddlebag type - Lartigue wasn’t first), built at the navy yard in Deptford in 1823, as a public demonstration (perhaps) in Westminster a year later, and Cheshunt a year after that. Some drawings show it being propelled by sails, but in reality it was horse-drawn.
Shunting horses survived into the 1960s on British Railways, though only one horse was used. (I had to make do with a solid tyred small fork lift and rope, though unofficially and out of sight as nothing was provided for us to move the wagons once the Type 2 diesel had delivered them. I won't say where!).
Interesting indeed. For some reason, this sounds like something that would happen on the Western Region, especially with the forklift being a "hydraulic".👍👌😁
What a fantastic collection of oddities. I was only three at the time of the Festival of Britain. How I would have loved to travel on the Emmet Railway. Might have known that Heath Robinson was involved. My Aunt and Uncle lived next door the Heath Robinson's widow in Emerson Park, Essex in the 1970s. The ridiculous King's carriage at the London Coliseum just goes to show how snooty and full of their own undeserved self-importance the aristocrats of the time were. From a technical point of view, I did like the look of the spiral drive railway, Another well researched and humorously presented half hour. Thank you Rob.
I started on BR in 1987 when the Waterloo & City still had Southern stock. At the end of each carriage were two ventilation grilles each side of the door at the top which said 'Southern Railway'. I always regretted not unscrewing a couple of those for souvenirs. The signal box was still there on the approach to Waterloo and had L&SWR on the wall in front of it. I always thought it was a shame they didn't preserve that section when they built the Eurostar terminal.
A few years back parts of the kings train from the Coliseum turned up in a salvage yard. ENO managed to buy them and have them back the Coliseum now, We are deciding what to do with them... I suggested they be used in part of a box office redesign. Alas that hasn't happened yet.
You're joking?! That's incredible! Made my day to hear about this; thank you so much! I'm intrigued now, would love to see them! Incorporating them into a box office design is a wonderful idea... even though nothing has happened yet, is that concept still on the table? Thanks again for the info; put a big smile on my face :-) Stay well.
This is all really good to watch, and bugger: number 5, here I am about to come in with ooh yes and NZ's southland railway bladebla but you'd already got that covered. Like wow, you are good... great channel matey :) love the perfect combination of background music at just the right volume, really well made. You should do this for a living.
The Kings car is fascinating. The only consolation that we dont have it now, is that it was probably gutted before going to the Stole theatre, so any restoration would be an estimation. Id still have loved to the exterior work though.
It is legitimate to include a tramway in this because at least one tramway, that built by Barking Town Urban District Council , was built under the Light Railways Act of 1896.
Impulsioria! Are you sure you have not had enough water with it? You are not making this up? Look forward to your next outing (with or without the water)
The Seaton tramway is actually the Eastbourne tramway. Eastbourne never had proper trams (they were considered too downmarket for "the Empress of Watering Places"!), but the miniature tramway, which was a tourist attraction in the area east of the town, was later moved to Seaton.
Yes, the miniature trams used to run at 'The Crumbles' in Eastbourne near Princes Park. Eastbourne by the way had the first Municiple Motor Bus Service in the world, ie a motor bus service owned and operated by the local council. Also there used to be a big sign outside Victoria Station advertising the boat train service. It read... DOVER FOR THE CONTINENT. The story goes that someone had added underneath... AND EASTBOURNE FOR THE INCONTINENT !!! A reference to Eastbourne's famous elderly population.
@@trevordance5181 I thought it was Harwich for the Continent, Frinton for the incontinent! Eastbourne certainly has a very mixed population now (although one small part - Meads - contains, I believe, the highest average age in the country), and I'm told that it has the largest primary school in Europe.
@@Robslondon Once the Eastbourne Heritage Centre re-opens (26 June, but check the website for actual opening days / times), you should take a trip down here if you can drag yourself away from London! There should still be the exhibition on how the coming of the railway, combined with (and probably as a result of) the efforts of the 7th Duke of Devonshire, turned Eastbourne into the high-class 19th century south coast resort (intended to rival Brighton, which at the time was very high class); and also a little about the trams and the municipal bus service. I'm a volunteer steward there, so if you let me know when you're coming I'll make sure I'm on duty!
The Never-Stop was basically the prototype for the Peoplemover at Walt Disney World. I would be eager to go to work every day if I could ride the Peoplemover. I could board the Peoplemover, set my phone alarm for 15 minutes, then meditate for 15 minutes while the Peoplemover took me to work. Win/win.
Hi Cossie, those are great ideas. I have been thinking covering prisons- particularly the now long-lost Millbank Penitentiary. I'll see what I can do. Thanks and stay well.
@@Robslondon you too fella. I’m just working my way through your previous offerings, so I’m looking forward to your next piece, regardless of the subject.
Thought of some more: Goods Trains on the Metropolitan and District Lines, Pullman Cars on the Met, Trains to Southend on the District, An engine powered by hot bricks on the Met, a gasworks railway in SE London where the flanges were on the outside of the rails, Private hospital railways in Esher and Dartford, The Surrey Iron Railway planned to go to Portsmouth and a giant station proposal right in the middle of London.
Two shillings per horse per day? What kind of care did he propose for those animals? Surely nothing like that three story horse emporium in that other video!
I would´ve put that weird rollercoaster monorrail that they have planned to built below edgware road to cricklewwod, it would´ve been faster in theory and impossible to derail, altough it was never built
Fascinating so much detail, this has been copied and sent on to another train follower. The Festival of Britain, would you believe I remember it well and the three trains with strange names . Check out Chitty Chitty Bang Bang ? R. Emett ring any bells
That's why the past was better. Oddities are expected and appreciated. But these days oddities are just a sign of incompetence. Companies design a funny looking car that's dangerous, well it isn't funny and they should know better. Using computers you can practically simulate a completed project and the public reaction to it. Companies don't have the privilege of chance, excluding amateur and beginner companies of course.
