Chronoyster - 1 October 1868

On 1 October 1868, a new branch of the Metropolitan District Railway opened between Edgware Road and Gloucester Road

Route map of London Underground as it was 1 October 1868

Paddington (Praed Street)

Bayswater

Bayswater gave me an opportunity to visit the "houses" at 23 and 24 Leinster Gardens. When this branch of the MDR was built using cut-and-cover, an open gap was required so that the steam locomotives could "vent off". Rather than leave a gap in the terrace of houses, fake facades were used at numbers 23 and 24 to match those of the properties on either side. Complete with fake doors and black painted "windows".

Leinster Gardens was mentioned in the season 3 episode "His Last Vow" of "Sherlock", although I doubt there is even space for the narrow corridor they show.

When I visited it was raining hard and I didn't stay any longer than necessary. The street cleaner in my photo is sheltering in front of one of the fake doors. He obviously knew there were no residents that would mind.

Notting Hill Gate

Still raining, so I was rushing to find anything to represent Notting Hill Gate, and settled on this wiry elephant.

High Street Kensington

Have you ever looked up at these motifs? "MR" for Metropolitan Railway, "DR" for District Railway and "AD 1906" for the year when the original station was replaced by the shopping arcade.

Gloucester Road

Next: 16 December 1868

Chronoyster - 1 February 1866

On 1 February 1866, a new station opened.

Route map of London Underground as it was 1 February 1866

Westbourne Park

 

Exits only used for extra capacity during the Notting Hill Carnival.

Next: 1 October 1868

Catching up with Labyrinths

There are some Labyrinths I've been able to catch up on since I first blogged.

55. Paddington (Bakerloo / Circle / District)

65. Lambeth North

128. Earl's Court

147. Leytonstone

163. Epping

170. Finsbury Park

Temple to Temple

On my way home from France, I decided to make it a journey between Temple and Temple, the only stations with EXACTLY the same name on the London Underground and the Paris Metro.

21 May 2017
Start at Temple
Line 3 to République, dep. 11:40:14, arr. 11:41:09
Line 5 to Gare du Nord, dep. 11:44:52, arr. 11:48:57
Eurostar to London St. Pancras International, dep. 12:52:29 CET, arr. 14:20:48 BST
Victoria line to Victoria, dep. 14:38:00, arr. 14:46:57
District line to Temple, dep. 14:48:28, arr. 14:55:21

Elapsed time = 4 hr 15 min 7 sec

Lyon Metro line C

Line C of the Lyon Metro is quite interesting. The section between Croix Paquet and Croix Rousse was opened in 1891 as a funicular railway, i.e. trains were hauled up and down by cable. In the 1970s, it was renovated and converted to a rack railway, i.e. a cog wheel underneath the train engages with a rack between the rails to help it up the steep slope. When the first two regular metro lines opened in 1978, it became line C and was extended (with rack) to Hotel de Ville. Leaving Hotel de Ville, there is a noticeable downward slope before it heads uphill. Finally in 1984 the northern end, up the hill, was extended (without rack) to Cuire.

The lower station of the original section, Croix Paquet, is claimed to be the steepest Metro station in the world (which I can believe) with an incline of 17%. Also, it's opening in 1891 makes it some of the oldest Metro infrastructure in the world, predating Budapest and Paris.

Lyon metro

Completing the whole Lyon metro system is more of a challenge. It has 40 stations on 4 lines. There are not a lot of connections between termini, so I did a lot of doubling back. Apart from the ends of line C, there are no terminating platforms - in each case I had to get off the train and change platforms while the train disappeared into the tunnels to re-emerge on the other platform.

Refer to this plan.

17 May 2017
Start at Gare d'Oullins
Line B to Charpennes (Charles Hernu), dep. 09:22:28, arr. 09:37:34
Line A to Vaulx-en-Velin (La Soie), dep. 09:40:11, arr. 09:48:54
Reverse line A to Hotel de Ville (Louis Pradel), dep. 09:52:54, arr. 10:06:49
Line C to Cuire, dep. 10:09:15, arr. 10:17:13
Reverse line C to Hotel de Ville (Louis Pradel), dep. 10:18:25, arr. 10:28:01
Line A to Perrache, dep. 10:32:03, arr. 10:37:02
Reverse line A to Bellecour, dep. 10:40:51, arr. 10:42:54
Line D to Gare de Vaise, dep. 10:45:18, arr. 10:52:28
Reverse line D to Gare de Venissieux, dep. 10:54:50, arr. 11:19:18

Elapsed time = 1 hr 56 min 50 sec

Marseille metro

Last month, I went on holiday to France, working my way from Nice, via Monaco, Marseille and Lyon to Paris.

On the way, I managed to visit the whole Metro system of two cities, starting with Marseille.

The Marseille Metro is just under 40 years old and there are two lines which cross each other in two places. My route was to start at one end of line 2, go the other end, back to the nearest interchange station, go to the nearest end of line 1, then reverse and do the rest of line 1.


15 May 2017
Start at Bougainville
M2 to Sainte Marguerite Dromel, dep. 15:05:05 arr. 15:20:20
M2 to Castellane dep. 15:21:59 arr. 15:26:12
M1 to La Fourragere dep. 15:31:01 arr. 15:38:29
M1 to La Rose dep. 15:43:44 arr. 16:08:58

Elapsed time = 1 hr 3 min 53 sec