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<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">John</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">Interesting story about the Queen Mary which I
did not know. Don't recall that it was related during my tour of it in
Long Beach years ago, but it should have been.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">Boat trains were still running in 1983. I
took one from London to Foulkestone Harbor. Quite an incline going from
the main line down to the port!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Century Gothic">Dwight</FONT></DIV>
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style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=j_swindler@hotmail.com href="mailto:j_swindler@hotmail.com">John
Swindler</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org
href="mailto:pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org">Western PA Trolley
discussion</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, November 12, 2013 12:45
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [PRCo] More of London
(2)</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BR> <BR>Went over on the Queen Mary in 1954, and returned
on the Queen Elizabeth. Was only 7 at the time, and memories are almost
non-existent. Sort of like West Penn memories. It's
frustrating. I envy those with memories from their early
years.<BR> <BR>As you know, Cunard used names ending in 'ia' for their
ships. Like Lusitania. When a new passenger liner was to be named
in the mid-1930s, the Cunard chairman met with King George V to ask permission
to name the ship after a famous British Queen. Before the chairman could
say that it would be the kings' grandmother, 'Victoria', the king replied "my
wife would be delighted". And that's the legend why it was named the
Queen Mary, and not the Queen Victoria. <BR> <BR>Cunard is now part of
the Carnival family of cruise lines, and still offers trans-Atlantic
service. I've seen one-way prices around $700 between New York and
Southampton.<BR> <BR>As for boat trains, they still existed in
1970. Took the "advance" boat train (separate train about ten minutes
ahead of regular train) from Liverpool St. to Harwich for overnight ferry boat
to Hook of Holland. Had seen advertisement posted in the Brighton train
station. Round trip train and ferry boat London to Holland, two nights
in Rotterdam hotel, and three-day pass on the Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam
transit plus pass on Dutch Rys. Price was 15 pounds - or around
$40. If it had not been for a summer job driving buses in Chicago, and
Point Park College (to provide a Pittsburgh connection) moving fall semester
to end before Christmas, this European vacation would have been
impossible. But looking back today, it was a far - far different
world. Likewise, Pittsburgh in the 1960s is also a far different
world. <BR> <BR>And just for the record, mom's cousins are
scattered around the world. <BR> <BR><BR> <BR>> From: <A
href="mailto:fwschneider@comcast.net">fwschneider@comcast.net</A><BR>>
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 22:40:05 -0500<BR>> To: <A
href="mailto:pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org">pittsburgh-railways@mailman.dementix.org</A><BR>>
Subject: [PRCo] More of London (2)<BR>> <BR>> This is only for
those who care. The others may delete it. <BR>> <BR>>
One knows only who really loves the same thing he or she does and also who
despises the subject. Those who like it might tell
you. Those who violently disagree generally make sure you
know. Those who waver to either side
you sometimes know while the
masses in the middle will never say anything. This is for
those who might care. <BR>> <BR>> There are two guys on his
list whom I know to be Anglophiles. I once told Derrick that I had
done something so crazy as having dashed off to London, England, with my wife
merely to attend the theater on Saturday night. Mr. Brashear advised me
that he had once done the same. The other one I know would be John
Swindler, whose Mum followed his Dad home from England at the end of World War
II. John still has cousins in Britain. Dwight Long has
been there a few times. And I've been there so many times
(18 at last count) that when I looked at a travel video of one town two weeks
ago, I got that same feeling we all get when we come home from vacation
the
"it's great to be home" feeling. By the way, I get that I'm home
feeling in many places ranging from where I live to Pittsburgh or Los Angeles
or some English or German or Swiss towns. It comes from
wandering. <BR>> <BR>> Beside John and Derrick, some of the
rest of you might enjoy some of these videos and the attached narrative and
this is for you.<BR>> <BR>> My first visit to Great Britain occurred in
August 1959 when I had a one day escape from an army troop ship docked at
Southampton.<BR>> Because I knew from an American railfan friend that
London Underground was still running steam locomotives on the Metropolitan
Division northwest of Rickmansworth, I escaped from the tour and went
searching for these 1896 teakettles. Back then the we could ride
behind one of the electric engines in this video from Baker St. out to
Rickmansworth and behind steam beyond. I sniffed soft coal smoke
all afternoon. (To put it into perspective, a few weeks before I had
been to the opening of the Riverside line in Boston.) <BR>> <BR>>
The original Circle Line tube was opened by the Metropolitan as a steam
underground railway. Can you imagine all that dirt
underground? Well, if you look at the stations today, all the air
vents that allowed the smoke to escape have been bricked up. But early
in 2013 they ran some steam excursions with Metropolitan number 1 and one of
those electric engines (the Sarah Siddons) which I rode behind in 1959
the
electric was doing most of the work.<BR>> <BR>> But there were not
options when it opened. In 1868 steam was modern. We would not
have successful electric technology for another 22 years and MU operation for
another 30 years. In fact it was extend under steam multiple times
until 1884 and was not electrified until 1905. (See for
history: <A
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_line_(London_Underground">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_line_(London_Underground</A>)<BR>>
<BR>> And here is the first video
.<BR>>
<BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg4GY9aKfRE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg4GY9aKfRE</A><BR>>
<BR>> Now the punch line
I was standing at Baker Street the following
year (1960) when a Metropolitan guard came up and started to chat. When
it came time for him to leave, he grabbed me by the arm and pushed me up into
the cab of one of those old electric engines like Sarah Siddons and I had a
free ride out to Rickmansworth and back. Then I spent the rest of
the evening with him chatting in a local pub and trying to make like I enjoyed
warm ale. Turns out I think he was attracted to how I had
mounted two cameras side-by-side to take both slides and negatives. He had
been trained as a photographer in New York City but could not find job
when he returned to London so he wound up working for London
Transport. <BR>> <BR>> And another nice flick of the Tube in
London. Unlike New York, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia, London
has had a zone fare system for as long as I've going over there and that goes
back to the pounds, shillings and pence days. Can you imagine
looking at the change in your hand and telling if its correct
12 pence to
the shillings, 20 shillings to the pound? They also
had half pence. (A quarter pence was called a farthing so that a
haypenny was two farthings.) They actually had some children's tickets
on the tube that ended in half pence back then. It only took
a few weeks before that came naturally but I was 20 then. It probably
wouldn't be that easy at 73. <BR>>
<BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_olfhN3elog">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_olfhN3elog</A><BR>>
<BR>> In case you are confused by the multiple rails, LT has separate
positive and negative power rails in addition to the two running
rails. I think they have the ability to switch polarity so do not
assume either one is the hot rail. You might have a standard but
if the insulation fails on one, you could easily reverse polarity.
The national railroad network, on the other hand, uses only one power
rail.<BR>> <BR>> My next thought was to remind people of what it was
like in World War II, when the tubes were used as bomb shelters. I
started looking to see what might have been on line. Here is a
great 1941 educational film on keeping the system running in war time.
You say, 1941 and wartime? Yes, they were at war long before we
were
England and Germany were at war since Sept., 1939.
Much of the equipment in this film was still running when I first got there in
1959. By the way
you see buses in the heart of the
city. London never had trams in the heart of the city.
They came only to the perimeter. All the northern tram routes were
gone by the time this film was made in 1941. <BR>>
<BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH2ZC9rbxSw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH2ZC9rbxSw</A><BR>>
<BR>> Perhaps the best tram film I ever saw from London was this commercial
film made in the last week of service in 1952. It was once pulled
for copyright infringement and now I found it again buried under the heading
"British Transport Films." Before it gets yanked again, enjoy, if you
will, "The Elephant Never Forgets." It's a reference to an intersection
in the south of London
think Elephant and Castle. I love
the older couple riding the top deck, maybe because I have fond memories of
viewing downtown Glasgow from the top deck of a tram. And John
Krish, the man who photographed this, was fired for taking it
he was
told only to photograph the chairman of London Transport shaking hands with
the last tram driver. He was told not to make a 10 minute film. <BR>>
<BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc9gtJndKE4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc9gtJndKE4</A><BR>>
<BR>> Unfortunately, there is no easy way to find videos that show people
camped in the underground stations to avoid the Blitzkrieg in 1940 or
1941. We didn't have high speed movie films or digital cameras
then. There are still pictures out there. Can you
imagine thousands upon thousands of people who survived because the slept on
the concrete station platforms underground? There are many films
of the bombing of London on YouTube under keywords like Blitzkrieg or Blitz of
London or Battle of London but nothing that really shows how the transit
system was damaged. (Now, a lot of the items out there are
copyrighted
someone puts it on YouTube illegally and it disappears a few
months later when it is discovered
the good stuff might have been there and
is gone.) <BR>> <BR>> How many of us even know today that
the song lyrics, "and Jimmy will go to sleep in his own little room again"
referred to all the English kids who were sent to the country or even to other
nations to get away from the bombs during the war? By the way, the
"Forces Sweetheart," Vera Lynn, is still alive at age 96.<BR>>
<BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwtW2Lx5Vwc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwtW2Lx5Vwc</A>
<BR>> <BR>> Southwest of "The City" is a place called Clapham Junction
where two railroads, the one that built Victoria Station and the one whose
home was Waterloo Station crossed. It is still one of those places where
you can commonly photograph two or three or four trains all moving at the same
time. This should give you some idea what I meant in the previous
e-mail that the Underground isn't important south of the Thames; instead its
the national network rail that fills the void. I've
been to both places and Clapham actually makes Jamaica on the Long Island dull
by comparison. <BR>> <BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjgoL0TryA8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjgoL0TryA8</A><BR>>
<BR>> And, as of 2012, there is a second circle line called the London
Overground
sort of like we might have a second Beltway around a
city. The London Overground is made up of national railroad
network lines:<BR>> <BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YqsdXXbwOI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YqsdXXbwOI</A><BR>>
<BR>> This link is specifically for John Swindler, who did sail with his
Mum on the Queen Elizabeth (or maybe it was the Queen Mary) to see
Grandmum. It has a great picture of a boat train leaving the dock
at Southampton with a "Battle of Britain" class Pacific up front and the Queen
sitting at anchor. That particular locomotive was erected in
December 1948 and ran until 1967; RMS Queen Mary made its final crossing the
following year. <BR>> <BR>> <A
href="http://cruiselinehistory.com/boat-trains-to-southampton-from-cunard-lines-to-the-rms-titanic-and-the-ss-united-states/">http://cruiselinehistory.com/boat-trains-to-southampton-from-cunard-lines-to-the-rms-titanic-and-the-ss-united-states/</A><BR>>
<BR>> Most of you remember Chicago as a city with almost more mainline
train stations than you could count
Union, Central, LaSalle, Dearborn,
Northwestern, Grand Central. Well, London was the same kind of
place but with even more stations. The railroads were not unified
into British Railways until 1948 and some of them were merged
earlier. But most of the stations remain today.
Paddington was Great Western's station in 1854 and Isambard Kingdom Brunnel's
statue is still prominent there. Euston dates back to 1837 and
served the London and Birmingham Railway originally and eventually the London,
Midland and Scottish. St. Pancras, right next to King's Cross, was
built in 1866 and served trains to the Midlands. Today it also
handles the Eurostar services to Paris and Brussels which circle the city on
new track. King's Cross goes back to 1852 and is home today to the
East Coast mainline to Scotland. Victoria opened in 1860 and
served four companies on the south. Waterloo dates to 1848 for
trains to the southwest. Charing Cross opened in the financial district
in 1864 and allowed trains ending at London Bridge to cross the river into the
City. Liverpool Street in the east handles trains going out
into the Fen country
if you take a boat train to Holland, you use it and it
goes back to 1875. And all these places are still open. And there
are a few minor places like Marylebone. There are five
terminals in about two miles along Euston St / Marylebone Road across the
north side of the city! <BR>> <BR>> And when Mr. Swindler
and I were first there, the southern ones were mostly third rail or steam and
the northern stations were almost all steam. Great
memories. <BR>> <BR>> My arrival in London in 1959 was a
Waterloo Station. Here is a stop motion film of Waterloo Station
in the rush hour 40 years ago. What's happened since then?
The traffic has gotten heavier and the old compartmented stock is
gone. You want that last phrase in American English?
British Railways had a lot of rolling stock with ten seat compartments, each
with doors on both sides. It has all been scrapped due to the
inherent hazards of being mugged or robbed or assaulted (sexually or
otherwise) if you wound up in a compartment with the wrong person.<BR>>
<BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPIaG644jsI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPIaG644jsI</A><BR>>
<BR>> And a cluster of high definition scenes in King's Cross, Euston, St.
Pancras and Paddington<BR>> <BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFuaDntIbw">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnFuaDntIbw</A><BR>>
<BR>> And if anyone has the time waste, here is an hour-long film of steam
in Britain, remastered from 8 mm films taken in the early 1960s
the time I
remember. The last steam engines were delivered in 1958, a year
before I first went there. The last fires were dropped about eight
years later (maybe nine) except for more tourist railroads than you will
anywhere else. Yes, it was a different world from here
vacuum
brakes back then. Most trains were so light that very few engines
had stokers. A fitted freight had brakes on all
cars. They had compartmented carriages (not coaches).
The engines didn't need headlights because, except for one grade crossing, the
entire network was fenced and gated. But the steam engines still sounded
like steam engines.<BR>> <BR>> <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXw_cQbr6Do">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXw_cQbr6Do</A><BR>>
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