Personally I don't think enough stations are called "Acton". Park Royal can become "North West Acton", Old Oak Common on HS2 can become "Acton High Speed", Harlesden can become "Very North Acton"...
@@highpath4776: surely you buy a ticket based on the zone to which you are travelling and not a particular station? However, I haven't had to buy network rail tickets since being issued a 60+ Oystercard. I can go pretty much anywhere within the 1 to 9 travel zones.
@@eattherich9215 National Rail covers the whole of Britain, not just the London zones, so as High Path rightly says in many areas there are "X Stations" tickets covering a group of stations. Buy an open ticket from London to Birmingham and the ticket will say "Birmingham Stations"; to Manchester it will say "Manchester Stations" and so on. Although @High Path is confusing Network Rail and National Rail. ;-)
@@atraindriver The exception being Glasgow, where tickets used to say "Glasgow Stations" but people using them to go to Charing Cross - which many people regard as a City Centre station - would sometimes find themselves being surcharged. This led to complaints made by companies at a high level, as the fare from Charing Cross to Edinburgh (for example) was exactly the same as that from Queen Street, so why the surcharge? At the time companies were able to buy discounted books of tickets valid between Glasgow Stations and Edinburgh for employees' business travel. So ScotRail got round this by getting "Glasgow Stations" altered to "Glasgow Central/QueenSt". I know this because I worked at Charing Cross for many years, and used these vouchers to get to meetings in Edinburgh before ScotRail clamped down. To put Glasgow Central/Queen St on all tickets is slightly illogical as in order to get from my local station (Stepps) to Glasgow Central (rather than Queen Street), I would have to go via Greenfaulds and Motherwell, which would take most of the morning, and probably get me a surcharge too! Although, when Queen Street was closed for reconstruction for 6 weeks, trains from Aberdeen/Inverness etc. did in fact run into Central via a circuituous route through Carmyle - at no extra cost to the passenger!
Finally, a video that tells me the answer to a question I have been asking for ages - "why are there so many stations in Acton?" Now I know! Gives me something to act on.
At least they're all called something different, unlike West Hamsptead. We need more West Hampstead's IMO too. Like Finchley Road. "You can see West Hampstead from here" station. You actually can if you walk to the far end of the platform...either station.
There was an episode of Hancock's Half Hour where an unexploded German bomb was uncovered in East Cheam. The Teutonic wording on the bomb included the word "Achtung" which Hancock assumed was German for Acton. He commented that "they weren't that far out!"
The different railway companies probably built a station every time they crossed the area as part of some promise... plus, Acton speaks louder than words!
My understanding of the BR WR policy was that a halt was an unstaffed "station" with no ticket office, usually no proper barrier, but where the guard collected tickets from departing passengers and later sold tickets on the train to passengers who had joined. My earliest such experience was at South Greenford Halt; served by a push & pull tank engine service running between Ealing Broadway and Greenford. The halt was since upgraded to the status of a station but without the addition of staff or ticket office, showing the power of appatent upgrading simply by giving a more pretentious label. That was back in the day when all stations were, by definition almost, staffed and when those travelling were referred to as passengers. Tell youngsters that today and they call you a boomer.
Chiswick and South Acton- known as 'Soapsud Island' due to the fact there were over 600 laundries in the area. My Gran worked in one from the age of 14 until she retired.
It was indeed. And the reason so many commercial laundries established themselves in the area back then was the profusion of natural water wells in the area. There's a very good reason why the name Acton Wells came by it's name!
6:04 One definition for the difference between a halt and a station I once heard was; A "halt" is a just stopping point along a line. A "station" also requires switches for shunting / changing track / reversing (this was ofcourse expecially relevant when all trains were still locomotive-hauled and shunting was required when changing direction).
Is a halt the same as what we used to call a Rail Motor Stopping Place down here in Victoria, Australia? They were just short platforms with no facilities but a tin shed to shelter from the rain. Trains didn't stop at RMSPs unless a traveller on a platform waved at them. Of course they have all been abolished now in the name of speeding up services by a few seconds.
We see this definition today in Dutch, where for example a 'bus halte' is just a bus stop along a route (and thus buses will only stop by request), while a 'bus station' is a larger area, usually containing several bus stops, where people can change onto different lines.
Also, quite often, "halts" would either only have some of the trains stop there, or would even be request or flag stops. Did the Underground ever officially have any stop on request stops (I heard that after it officially closed, for some time on the Epping-to-Ongar branch people could get a stop requested at Blake Hall, until London Transport told them to knock it off)
The Nine Stations of Acton sounds more like a Fantasy Novel series. I can imagine them being at war with the Five Stations of Ruislip or the Five Stations of Watford for control of the throne or at the very least control of Zones 3 to 7 of the London Underground Map and the rights for a Freedom Pass
Underrated comment. Don’t forget the 3-member Clapham Clan… They control a good chunk of Souff London turf and mandem ought not to be taken lightly, fam
I used to work at North Acton as a ticket collector come cleaner back in the 80s. Used to talk and have fun with some of the Celebs of the day as there was maybe still is a BBC rehearsal rooms not far from station. I also had to cover if needed West Acton & East Acton. North Acton got very busy in the early mornings as the Elizabeth Arden perfume factory workers used to clock on at the crack of dawn.
Unfortunately, the entire area surrounding North Acton station has been completely redeveloped (some of which is still ongoing). I doubt you'd recognise it now. The BBC Rehearsal Studios were demolished some years ago. Among those in the profession, it was colloquially known as 'The Acton Hilton'. And the pub opposite the station (The Castle), regularly frequented by visiting actors, was closed down largely as a result of the national Covid restrictions and was finally knocked down late last year.
Have you thought about starting a mini-series on 'short working' stations (both current and past), those places that allow trains to turn around enabling higher frequencies in the central areas? One example that comes to mind (from the past) is Colindale on the Northern where back in the 70's, 1 in 3 of the off peak services terminated.
Nothing to do with your Acton, but for a very long time my uncle sold cars at a dealership called Acton Toyota in OUR Acton, Mass. In the early 2000s they built a new upgraded modern dealership in the neighboring town of Littleton, although they continue to call themselves Acton Toyota albeit now with the suffix "of Littleton". It's a nice place and this reminds me that my truck is overdue for service. Maybe they'll have those complimentary donuts I like. Mmmm.
and Acton is STILL missing a station at the most important place -- DOWNTOWN ACTON. Where all the shops are, like the Morrison's. God knows how many bus routes go thru. Acton Central is like calling Regents Pk station (Bakerloo) Oxford Circus. "It's only a short walk."
Years ago I lived in Acton, and my then-girlfriend referred to me as Acton Man. I worked in The City, and used to get there via the North London Line and the Navarino Road curve that they built so they could close Broad Street. So.much more civilised than using the Tube in rush hour!
There used to be a Halt not far from me many moons ago, the train halted and they put the milk churns on, then it chugged off sometimes leaving parcels.
There used to be a dock line off the line between Willesden and Shepherds Bush that brushed the low parts of Acton if memory serves me right as it was a bit of a pickle to get stuff into Willesden yards as it branched off the Clapham to Willesden link and I imagine all trace of has long long gone.
Loved the views of three trains at North Acton (7:30). I remember the shuttle to South Acton and used it many times in the 1950's as a lad living in South Harrow when my friend and I would buy a Twin Rover ticket and travel the Underground and Red buses all day just for fun! Excellent video and narrative as usual, Jago, which brings back many memories.
Thanks for showing the inside of Chiswick Park. It was the nearest station to my Uni flat for 3 years but I never used it because it was just in zone 3 and so too expensive. I'd always walk from Turnham Green instead :)
Jago - I was about to say how attractive I found the mauve-grey twilight-hour shade on the platform at the end of the video but I encountered Acton-packed and, subsequently, Acton stations. Anyway, thank you for this nine-fold accolade.
I don't know if the definitions match, but in Germany at least, a station is a place for trains to begin, end, or reverse with at least one switch. A halt is just a place for trains to stop and load/unload passengers.
No, they don't. One of the things about railways is that terminology doesn't usually transfer well between different railways; the German (and German-influenced) railways developed in a noticeably different way to British railways, with the German(ic) basic railway being a single track with loops (and therefore points/switches) only at stations whereas the British basic railway was a single track with loops (and points) wherever they were felt necessary and stations wherever they were felt necessary, which wasn't necessarily the same place! Partly it comes down to the Germanic railway deciding to give the movement control authority to the station master (leaving the points operators as subordinates) whereas the British railway gave that authority to the points operators (making them signalmen and elevating their responsibility), which in turn meant that the station wasn't as important an operational location on the British railway as it was on the Germanic railways. There have always been full-stations on the British railways where there are no points or signals, or those signals are only there to break up signalling sections to increase capacity.
Harrow has a similar amount. North Harrow, West Harrow, South Harrow, Harrow on the Hill and Harrow & Wealdstone. However the actual borough of Harrow possibly has some the most underground stations in the entire city. It's served by the Metropolitan, Piccadilly, Jubilee, Bakerloo, Central and Overground lines.
Another masterpiece from the Railway Bard: As You Like It, a comedy in Nine Actons 🎭 Great to see a bit about the South Acton branch. I went to Acton purely to see the abandoned platform and find the remaining abutments of the raised section a few years ago when in the capital with not a lot to do 🤷🏻♂️ It seems an odd thing to say but, it was kind of…cute…Yeah, I never thought I’d say that about an underground station and I feel a bit silly now 🙄 Thanks as ever Jago 👍🍀🍻
I actually travelled on the branch line as a child shortly before it closed - we used to use it to cross from the District Line to the old Broad Street to Richmond line (ex North London Railway now London Overgrond) to visit my mother's friends. Even mentioning Broad Street dates me now!
I'd agree with you that that curve looks wrong as the Central line only curves away from the GWML east of the bridge where they both cross under the District and Piccadilly.
In Germany, the difference beween a station and a halt is as follows: A station is a piece of railway related piece of infrastructure with at least one set of points, where trains may turn around, start, end, overtake, cross and stop. An halt is an railway related piece of infrastructure without any points where trains may stop, start and end. Hope that helps
Spent six years going to school from Acton Town to Ravenscourt Park. Just outside Acton Town there was a factory which proudly proclaimed the company as Tony Brothers of (Acton) - brackets exactly thus. I have always wondered what they did, and why they didn't sack their signwriter.
MOAR MAPS PLS! Also, a "halt" was once a place where a train stopped, that often had little or no supporting structures like a platform or a station house. It was generally for occasional passengers to get on and off the train, back when trains were slower and safety concerns were less of an issue. Now that trains are faster, bigger, more frequent, and thanks to electrified rail systems, the use of "halts" has fallen out of use, so the names are mainly historical now...
In Germany this is - of course - clearly regulated. A halt is a passenger platform where trains can only stop and proceed in the same direction. A station involves at least one turnout for a siding or a bay platform. Special case is a single track no turnout station with signals for changing direction and therefore terminate trains. This leads to the sometimes odd situations. Hamburg Dammtor has 400 m long platforms, Intercity and ICE trains stopping and a S-Bahn station served every few minutes, a ticket hall and a large roof over all tracks, looking like a city station which it is in terms of passenger demand (number 3 in the city). However, technically it is a 4 track halt between Hamburg Central Station and Holstenstraße Junction. Fair to say it used to be a station but turnouts were later removed. On the other hand you may find a stop in the wilderness with a 2 coaches long gravel platform but either a goods branch going off to some large industry close by or it used to be a halt and now serves as a terminus of a branch line cut off there and beacuse of this is technically a station.
Several years ago, when I looked into the differences between a halt and a station due to trying to understand a story about a railways in England I learned a halt was an unmanned very short platform (usually only five to fifteen feet in length) with no facilities beyond a platform to allow getting onto the train and the train only stopped when someone set the flag for train service, a different flag for each direction. While a station was a lot larger and was manned as well as having trains stopping there on a regular basis of some sort - a weekly train counted.
I live about five miles away from this "Acton" of which you speak. I even have a favourite Chinese restaurant which purports to be there...but I still don't know where it is! If anyone finds it, please get in touch. Thanks.
Not only does East Acton have a station it has a morris dance named after it called ‘The East Acton Stick Dance’ which is now performed by morris sides all over the country, it’s origins are a bit obscure but it is thought that it was written for a Tony Hancock or Goons show in the 1950s.
Interestingly The World Famous Hammersmith Morris Men, though clearly the nearest to Acton, do not perform the East Acton Stick Dance. We do, however, have a dance called Hammersmith Flyover which was performed on the flyover itself when it was closed for repairs about ten years ago. That's a road though, so of no interest to train enthusiasts.
@@luxford60 Doesn't look anything like the flyover dance though I've often heard it attributed to Hammersmith MM. It's danced mainly by border sides and its great attraction is that it can be danced by 3 dancers or any multiple of 3 dancers.
I read somewhere that the Great Eastern Railway defined a 'halt', as opposed to a 'Station' as one where staff had no toilet facilities. Roding Valley, now on the Central Line, started off as Roding Valley Holt and toilets were only added when the Underground made it a 'station'. (It also was so quiet that the solitary member of staff, right up to the 1980's, would issue tickets with a Gibson Bus Conductors machine!)
We’re missing these! Acton Green (edit: Oh, it’s Chiswick Park!) Acton Common Acton Park Acton Junction Acton High Speed Acton Thameslink Let’s have more Acton’s!!!!
I was really looking forward to a line at the end, which I can _completely_ hear in Jago's voice, saying "There's also Acton Bridge, but that's in Cheshire so it doesn't count."
oh acton! i had the dubious pleasure of visiting it for the first time this week. Had to get out unexpectedly at Acton South because it turns out the North London overground line is about the only bloody line on the network that requires oyster cards/tickets but debit cards don't count of course I only find this out when the train was already in transit would it kill them to put a sign up at Richmond station? So I think there must be a tube station near near so I walk thru an endless beige 70s/80s council estate for what feels like three hours. No tube station! It is a vision of hell! I finally get to the high street I walk up and down for what seems like an hour! No Tube station! I know that Acton has more than one of them but I cannot find one of the bastards! In the end I catch a bus to kensington (and the journey takes forever) so I can join the piccadilly line at Hyde Park Corner. I hope that will be my first and last visit to Acton. I hate it.
A station is the immediate area around a block post (usually a signal box, but doesn't have to be). A station does not have to have platforms etc, it's an operations device, not 'retail' so to speak, but in general parlance most think of platforms etc. Access in and out, is controlled by signals (or other working arrangements) thus controlling the trains. 'Station' comes from 'station limits', which is the area (absolute block/semaphore signalling) controlled by a signal box between the outermost home signal and the outermost starter signal, aka section, signal, in which trains can be moved around without interacting with adjacent signal boxes (there's the clearing point too, but lets ignore that here, it just adds complication) . A halt is just a platform; no signals, no block post, no signal box, no points - just the platform. Trains stopping there are still 'in the section' between signal boxes (block posts), a train stopping there is one of the few non-emergency reasons to stop in the section. Under MAS (TCB if you prefer,) the difference is essentially the same - stations will have signals etc, halts will have none (that specifically relate to them). This difference between station and halt is the same throughout Europe, maybe world-wide.
There is technical language and there is colloquial language. If they don't match, neither one is wrong. The traveller doesn't care for the difference of halts and stations. The railway guy does. It's the same with doctors, they talk one language with patients, and another with their colleagues.
