My great grandfather was killed on this line in July 1904, he was on watch between Sloane square and Victoria in the middle of the night , his name was Arthur Townsend , he left behind a widow and 6 children
Lots to see and many differences from present times. Roads without cars, no great runs of cables at the side of the tracks, lots of homes with (probably) no mains electric, no tv and not even radios, and in the days before powered hedge cutters lots of grown out hedgerows that didn't actually need to be trimmed and ,with only hand saws, lots of trees that didn't need to be cut down. Pity we can't hear the silence of the countryside or see the summer flocks of birds and clouds of butterflies before the farmers had the chemicals to get rid of them. Contemporary fashions and dress on the people are very interesting Wonderful glimpse into a world lost to silence.
This is a time before safety was a major priority. In modern times the power rail swaps sides when in a station. Anyone who slipped down the side of the platform in those days was toast.
What a complete joy to watch! And all filmed on what looks like a hot mid-summers day. Lovely to see all the sidings and goods sheds in as built condition, and not a TV ariel in site! Really tastefully filmed with the side views, soundtrack is great too, really adds to it. Many thanks for uploading this.
Noted! One of the Metropolitan Railway Pullmans sitting in the sidings just before Aylesbury. Also, lovely GCR 'Atlantic' rushes through. Very nice film!
superb, great stuff, it's nostalgia like this that keeps us humans alive, my father in law was station manager at Hillingdon,..obviously it didn't exist when this was filmed, Uxbridge,...that's changed a bit,.lol...as i guess it all has,..my only complaint is the complainers,...don't like the sound,...turn the speakers off, great upload thanks, so glad i stumbled on this.
I Think they moved the Uxbridge station down to its present location in the 30's. I think thats Belmont road houses in the background so where that station was, is now a Sainsbury's!
Hillingdon station was re-sighted in 1989 to allow for a widened A40. As a result, the Met line had to be permanently re-routed and follow a new course. So for anyone wondering why the present Hillingdon station looks abit modern - now you know! It's not in the same place that the original Edwardian style station was located at, as that's now occupied by the A40.
Notice the general haze in the air, the result of the wide-spread use of coal. In the shot of Pinner at 6:50, for example, every house has one or more chimneys, and you can see smoke drifting from a number of them. Between the houses, factories, locomotives, and ships, there was a phenomenal amount of smoke being emitted every day. London's famous fog was as much coal smoke as water vapor.
@@jasonfelix7438Why, no regulation and with wood and coal being used for literally for everything it was a problem. Why do you think parts of China have air quality problems today….
Amazing to see the first three stations in the tunnel (After Baker Street) now long gone and all the locations that have changed very little in over 100 years!
Wonderful video. Looks so much like part of the NYC elevated subway system. Background sounds add much to the viewing. Thank you forsharing this delightul little movie.
Little did the cameraman know in 1910 that we'd watching this wonderful film jaws agape with wonderment and joy. My heart leapt at every station name, every herd of cows ambling on where shopping centres are now, and saw Willesden crowded as usual. Many thank for this wonderful upload!
In these times of Corvid-19 lockdown this is a wonderful and relaxing view of a vanished world, how I would love to have lingered at the stations. Some of the footage was also used in the 1973 BBC documentary film written and narrated by the then Poet Laureate , Sir John Betjeman.
Nice to see this video again, it had been removed for copyright reasons so I was informed! My recollection of this line doesn t go back as far as 1910, though my late grandmother remembered the Great Central being built in the1890s at Missenden. Change engines at Ricky I remember and seeing that G C express at Aylesury was fun!!
Great video - interesting how rural it all was beyond Harrow, and how little vegetation there was in places compared to now. Also nice to see the milk churns on the platform at Willesden Green and Northwood
Great piece of footage. I can't imagine why there are dislikes - they probably think it should be in colour and HD with a genuine hi-fi stereo soundtrack !
Fantastic! Who would think there would be a "cab view" from 1910! Thanks to whoever filmed it, to you for uploading it, and to RU-vid for making it available to millions. BTW is there someone wandering around on the lines at Wembley Park?
So gratifying that this excellent footage has survived and made available by your goodself. Reality of the Past preserved. Thanks so much! Pity J Betjeman isn't with us to see it.
I agree with the nonsense of adding film projector noise- but also dislike added sound intensely especially when it is not even of the correct form of traction as here This was filmed from a steam loco propelled flat wagon.
I was hoping to see an up GC express and right at the end came what appeared to be a Jersey Lilly-a Robinson Atlantic. Still remember the Colwick class fives at 'Ricky' and seeing an up and a down GC Nottingham train passing each other at Chorleywood in '66. The rural fastness of the Uxbridge branch-before the arrival of the tube-a huge area rural for so long owing to the lack of rail transport in that part of Middx.
wow sandy lodge station. that was my stop for 15 years! all changed there now mind. people back when used to walk. now they get picked up / dropped off.
The alignment of the track, signs of excellent weed control and freedom from litter is better than anything seen today and all done manually. I like the soundtrack by the way whatever others may think, after they can always mute the sound.
I wonder how long it took before the 'fourth rail' was moved away from the platform edge in stations, by placing them in the central space between the tracks?
It's cool to see the stations between Finchley Road and Wembley Park, before they had to accommodate the Jubilee Line. Also interesting to see the now A406 at Neasden station before. Wish the film got closer though
Great video. What are the ‘boxes’ along side the tracks from about 11.15? Where was the camera situated for the footage from the steam locomotive (no steam box can be seen)?
Arthur Townsend was a night watch man for a gang of track maintenance workers and a train ran into him ,but at the inquest the railway company denied the train had ever been there , he lost his feet and was hurt across the middle , I have been trying to find his grave but to no avail , anyone can help me ?
from my information, the parts that were electified , that happened a few years earlier . im trying to figure out the actual track arrangement. so is the rail outside the positive rail and is the 1 in the middle a return rail for the current.? thanks
Great video. The Metropolitan line is my favourite on the network, and Chesham is a beautiful station (shame it's not featured here). Is it true that Watford station will soon be extinct?
Great and authentic sounding sound effects. Obviously a special train with no stops and that station signage looked a bit too clean snd contrived up on bridges and whatnot where it's unlikely any passenger would see them. I am sure all that farm land has long been developed and it's no doubt electrified all the way and beyond by now.
I can remember when the engines had to be changed from steam to electric and vice-versa at Rickmansworth. I can’t remember when the line was electrified to Amersham, I was only a schoolboy when that happened.
Yes. I did that once behind a 2P and we could not get the engine to run round at Rickmansworth as the coaches were fouling the return crossing-can't remember how they managed it now.
A great film, but I'm disappointed I didn't get to see Preston Road Halt For Uxendon and Kenton (200 yards or so south of the current Preston Road and where I grew up)
No Wembley stadium back in 1910!! So that huge Wembley Park station in this footage puzzles me? London's main stadium would have been the one at White City at that time. (having hosted the Olympics two years earlier). Fascinating footage - all the stations look really neat and well kept. And obviously not being as built up as now, it didn't take as long to get into countryside. Alot of the current stations wouldn't have existed back then, as the expansion of the line - 'Metroland', didn't take place til the 1920's and 30's.
Aside from the inappropriate added soundtrack- this was a silent film shot for the Metropolitan Railway filmed by a cameraman on a flat wagon being propelled by a steam loco, this has much of interest. A rarity is a shot of one of the two compartment single cars- used later on the Watford-Rickmansworth and Wembley Park- Stanmore shuttles- leading a three car train. it can be seen as the filming train climbs to cross the canal outside Baker Street and where the Met and GC briefly paralleled each each. Shame the quality suffers in this copy later on and a shame that there are no outtakes, extra scenes for us to drool over (unless the BFI has some hidden in their archives.)
I wonder how many people commuted into central London on this line then? Most workers when this was filmed would only travel short distances to work. Whereas today travel from Chorleywoo is or was quite normal.
There are poles along the road, but no electrical wiring....and the lamps do not have electrical wiring between them...another technology far beyond today's time....
