Secrets of the Hainault Shuttle 

Geoff - in 1979, myself and two friends (all aged 11) once went to Grange Hill station and spent hours looking for Grange Hill school. We ended up getting a really friendly driver to take us to the depot and he showed us around some of it before getting us put back on a train home. Epic day. We wrote to the BBC and we got autographs from Tucker, Benny and Alan.

I assume those 4 steps are still the equivalent of 15 floors though?

Love how you consider 20 minutes a bit of a wait. I'd love to live somewhere where that's a long time.

Walked through that underpass hundreds of times… never once thought it was lovely 😂

Geoff, got lots to say about this loop. When I was a teen in the early 1970's I went to what was then Loughton College (actually in Debden) and is now called New City College. I chose to use the tube train to get me from Barkingside station around the loop to Woodford and then up to Debden and then back again in the evening. I had two very powerful reasons for going the long (aka, SLOWER) way round the loop and going to Leytonstone and then taking the Epping line was a lot quicker. First, the journey itself was charming, easy and not at all crowded. I was going against the direction of the commuters, after all, and secondly, I had girl friends who lived close to both Woodford and Loughton stations. Ah!!! the memories of ones youth. Thanks for this video.

Hainault... a great inspiration to Crowded House - "Hainault, Hainault, don't dream it's over..." :-)

Geoff Marshall - The only person who could describe an underpass as "lovely".

Excellent use of the Grange Hill sausage and fork....

Loved the Grange Hill sausage on a fork flying into shot just like the original series, nice touch that Geoff.

Can't be Grange Hill without a flying sausage

It’s like I’m watching Londonist again

That took me back. I lived in Chigwell for eighteen years, traveling on the central line to get to work at Tower Hill. It was nice to see the old sights again. Thanks

2:30 Also at Grange Hill, if you exit the station, go left a bit and look through, you can see a siding. Sometimes, trains are stabled there when terminating at Grange Hill and heading to the depot.

🎶 Hainault, Hainault, don't dream it's over🎵

Fun Fact: The original theme for Grange Hill is called Chicken Man, and was also used for the first series of Give Us A Clue on ITV.

The Hainault Shuttle sounds like a dance craze from the very late 1970s which lasted only six months

Proper job Geoff. I really find it interesting as a Yankee all these different lines that have callbacks to the old days but yet modern equipment still runs on them!

There is another impressive viaduct over Debden brook, just north of Debden Tube station. Grange Hill, Chigwell and Roding Valley are not just in Essex, they are in the Essex District of Epping Forest where they join the 5 Epping line stations Buckhurst Hill, Loughton, Debden, Theydon Bois and Epping to make up the district's 8 tube stations, down from the 11 it has until 1994 (it lost Blake Hall, North Weald and Ongar on 30/9/1994). The district has just one National Rail station at Roydon. It would be interesting to see a league table of non-Greater-London districts with the most tube stations, I imagine Epping Forest would be near the top (albeit below the City of London)

Every time I think of Grange Hill, The station actually appears in my head along with the 1978 BBC TV series

Loved the sausage nod to Grange Hill. I was even expecting the intro theme when the train doors opened 😆.

Geoff! I am gutted tohave missed you, I live very close to the station and am there most days!

Excellent video. Good to see you wearing a red shirt to match the line's colour.

Watching this brought smiles! Went through Woodford station many times.

He's even wearing a red shirt. Brilliant.

Please, if you’re gonna keep with this series, make the ruislip branch and the uxbridge branch. Would make me happier to see that you’re still making these

I believe Newbury Park had an identical station building to Chigwell before it was demolished to enable the widening of the Eastern Avenue, and the building of the famous bus shelter that has become such an iconic landmark.

I am a regular user of this end of the central line, getting on at Newbury Park ( fabulous bus station roof ) then travelling to Hainault down the steps ( more than 18 inches) then back up to wait for the shuttle. Never busy a great antidote to a busy working day, brilliant video thank you

1:36 "As the shuttle is every twenty minutes, if you've just missed the train you've got a bit of a wait." Me, a Northerner, with four hours between trains: *wut* Edit: Also, having checked the figures, the idea that even the last used station on the Underground could have 190,000 passengers per year, even during Covid, is astounding - the least used station on my line had just 400 passengers in 2020.

Back in't 70's I was at West Hatch Tech about 3/4mile down the High Road from Chigwell Station. I lived in Loughton and my primary way of getting to school should of been bus, the 254 to Buckhurst Hill Station and change onto the 235 (both London Transport) direct to school door to door, easy. But no, I would walk just under a mile to Loughton Station, change at Woodford, wait for the four coaches to snake out of the siding whilst I read (looked at the pictures in) The Sun, get off at Chigwell and walk the rest. My mate used to beat me home by some margin on his bike which he took down Luxborough Lane under that viaduct and across the fields. That's two options quicker than the train, no wonder I didn't do well at school.

Superb and really enjoyable. I generally watch these videos twice over as there is so much detail and interest packed into a few minutes, that I don't absorb it all first time around. Well researched and presented, with a bit of fun thrown in for good measure. Thanks!

Can't wait. Love his videos. Keep up the good work.

Thank you Geoff for all your lovely work for us tube lovers! Chris in Sweden!

Superb video, fantastic flow of information! Thank you for sharing!

I love watching these videos. I can see why most of these places are least used or haven’t been seen too much by other folks passing through.

I’m very happy to see this series again! Secrets of London Underground is my fav.

We are living in Gants Hill from 30 years and Now Grange Hill but some of this intresting information did not knew. Excellent video , loved it. Looking forward for future videos

Thanks for the Grange Hill banger. Got a genuine LOL from me. I used to visit my friend who lived in Chigwell in the 80s as a young teenager. It was always a lovely start to a day of travelcard roving for under a fiver!

Thank you Geoff for this great Video. I really enjoy these videos about the tube, like in the oldern times of your channel. I always have a smile on my face when a new one comes out, hopefully this will continue. Also the video frequency was really high in the last weeks, which makes me happy. (pls dont overwork). Looking forward for more videos of this kind, so thank you and greetings from Berlin.

Inspiring! I might follow in your footsteps one day.

Just became very excited about the tiny lift and I realized how much of a hopeless nerd I really am.

This is a very good and a very enthusiastic video. Thanks to this I can learn more about the shuttle in Hainault.

Always enjoyable, and with such great quality content

I was born just up the road from Grange Hill and my earliest memory was when the 1960 Stock ATO started their tests in April 1964, when we could only ride in the Standard Stock trailers and the windows of the motor cars were painted over. I also remember riding the “red train”, which I believe was the last 1935 Stock in service. The drivers of the STO trains were a miserable lot and never waved to us at they passed under the footbridge at the other end of Grange Hill tunnel, where I waited every evening to see the ‘62 Stock through train for Grange Hill at 1857… it almost always had to stop at the signal before the tunnel and the drivers always did a wave and a toot! Happy memories of much gentler times. I have a unique enamel sign from platform 1 at Hainault… “Subway to platform 2 for trains to Grange Hill, Chigwell, Roding Valley and Woodford”. 🤓😆

Loved that Geoff... Thanks for the subtle Grange Hill title sequence reference 😁

Always a joy when one of these videos pops up!

Awesome video, I grew up in Woodford and loved the Hainaut shuttle

Great memories. Thanks Geoff 👍

Thanks Geoff I love learning about the history of the trains. 👍

Excellent film. Thanks 😊

What a great video. Reminds me of the old video's ie ...secret of the underground love them too. Good work.

Fantastic video Geoff! Really enjoyed it 👍🏻😀

Cheers, Geoff - from a vintage Grange Hill fan👌

How fab Geoff - really enjoyed this one - great stuff part of the Central line I've never travelled.

That was a trip down memory lane, I was born at Grange Hill. The line and the far end of the Hainault sidings were over our back fence. In the late fifties there was a steam crane, which 'fell' over and my dad when over to help rescue the driver. I remember when the shuttle was a very dark maroon with small windows and the motorcar had big louvered vents.

So enjoyable, informative, and the camera shots were a good substitute for my being there. Aarre Peltomaa of Mississauga, Ontario

I never use the Hainault loop, and the Central Line just takes me to work. Still absolutely fascinating. Thanks.

Another brilliant video Geoff! 👏🏻

The old Great Eastern service lived on into BR days. After the Central Line service packed up for the night there was a service out of Liverpool Street which ran, so far as I can recall, to Epping.

Thanks for giving the info of where the series was filmed, I guessed it would not have been in the real Grange Hill district on the Central Line

Love the sausage, I always think of that cartoon strip intro when I drive past the station. As soon as you said Grange Hill I thought of it, it made my day to see it appear!

Absolutely brilliant video, full of amazing facts 👍

Great job Geoff,,,,,, love all the vids 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Great to see Geoff finally made a new secrets of video!

Very useful information indeed Sir! Thank You Indeed!!

Wow, that brought back memories, Geoff. I was born and brought up right next to Hainault station. Our garden backed on to the Embankment on which the station is built. Moreover, I used the loop everyday from age 11 to 18 to get to school. I remember the test trains well, and the occasional 1938 stock red train that ran in the evening and at weekends. As a kid, we used to play in the depot. Probably shouldn't admit it (I reckon the statute of limitations protects me), but we used to shunt trains back and forward on the sidings :-)

Another excellent video Geoff! 👍

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. 👍👍

I'm so glad this video was published. I needed to know about the Hainualt to Woodford branch. Two lines on the Underground, no, three, no, four, four lines, four Underground lines with branches in their route maps.

Very interesting to see you visit chigwell station. One I use every day!

I'm a subway train driver from Brazil and I just found out about your channel! Great videos! Greetings!

Thanks Geoff for another interesting video. The first "secrets of" for a long time I think.

I liked when you were talking about 'Grange Hill' @2:27, you put the Fork with the sausage in the top right hand corner - just like in the original Grange Hill opening Titles!!! 😀🚂🚂🚂

What an excellent video!

Hi Geoff another Great video, I have never ever seen a lift before where it only goes up slightly, I look ditto your best video! 😊

"as a shuttle is every 20 mins, if you missed a train you've got a bit of a wait" Say's everything about the transport system in London and outside, we'd love just a 20minute wait between services!

Another great video Geoff

Well done Geoff 🎉

This is documentary standard, excellent, making such interest from that short piece of tube line most Londoners know nothing about!

ive missed many trains having lived in Hainault almost all my life. nothing worse than missing your train by seconds to then have to wait 20 mins for the next one haha

“I only want to help you, Roland” Great video - all the way from New North Road to Snakes Lane!

Thanks for sharing this 🙌

Great video, this is all very local to me so was interesting to see.

Great upload, Gosh a mention of Grange Hill TV series,I remember the first series being filmed at my school Kinngsbury High school,we never saw much of the filming but one day I saw a filming lorry and actors at the school cricket nets which backed onto stag lane,I wonder if that's on one of the episodes or if it didn't get included,best wishes to everyone.

As much as I enjoyed this, this vlog felt like a Londonist one, still loved it

Living in Grange Hill this was a useful insight. One other thing, there are no car parks at the 3 stations and since moved to zone 4 and before COVID had attracted an increase in commuters,

I am constantly amazed how you - young Mr. Marshall - manage to make such a potentially boring subject as underground trains "quite interesting". It must be your presentation and enthusiasm that dies it.... Nurse, nurse....

I swear to god I'm not a Londoner, or even a Briton at that. But I love watching British rail videos because it's so complex and has a rich history to them

Geoff, I’m admittedly a very inept researcher, but I’m blown away by all of the detailed information in your videos. Both historical and current. What resources do you use to find all of this out?

Love the nod to the original Grange Hill series at 2:27 👍

Loved it!

7:01 "Farewell bin bag in the breeze" - except there's no breeze. Fascinating to see and learn about all these little known facts about different parts of the Underground.

Very enjoyable - remarkably quiet - I can see why they only need a shuttle, especially at the moment!

finaly! an update virsion to the secrets of the central line (but only the hainault suttle)

How do you know you're watching a Geoff Marshall video? You've hit the like button before the video has started!

Fascinating.

Nice countryside near there. The London LOOP walk passes near Chigwell station, which is the only reason I've ever needed to use the Hainault Loop!

Some lovely secrets in this video, do like the tunnel just after Grange Hill Station. worth a few shots of the trains passing

Amazing to se you back with the secrets of the tube Also, I believe that it was the 67 stock that was preserved Plus, love how high quality and how long it takes to film/produce them.

Thank you for the video. I was at South Woodford when I was at Queen Mary, University of London.

All this on my doorstep. Almost take it for granted.