The Journal of U the London Underground Railway
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THE JOURNAL OF U THE LONDON UNDERGROUND RAILWAY SOCIETY I ssue No 104 Volume 9 No 8 August 1970 N EVEN GREATER POWER FAILURE CHAOS At 17.1 5 on Monday 6t h July 1970, at the height of the evening r ush hour, a pr otective relay operating a D circuit breaker t r i pped t oo soon and effectively cut off t he power supply t o a very l arge section of the central part of the Undergr ound. The only secti ons not affected at all were the Met r opo l i t an north of Bake r Street E (which is s upplied from the Nat i onal Grid) and the Victoria Line (which i s fed by a direct cabl e from Lots Road). Some sections were back in service fairly soon, but others, notably he eastern part of the Central R Line were out of action for a l ong time. It seems that most services were interrupted for about fifty minutes, and that all services were running normally again by 19.000 G The circuit breaker concerned was at Greenwich Power Station, and its failure broke the link between Greenwich and Lots Road, and me ant effectively that power generated at both these s tations could not be f ed to the system. R There are two extremely disqui eting features of this failure; communications with staff and passengers broke down compl etely, resul ting in numerous stations becoming dangerously overcrowded and, much more serious, o almost a quarter of a million passengers being trapped in s tationary trains in the tunnels at a time when the temperature outside was 77°F - no-one seems t o know what U the temperature rose t o in the trains. Then there is the fact that the breakdown coul d happen at all, coupled with the very l ong time i t took to trace the fault responsible: At an early s t age in the engineers' investigation LT N announced that the f ault waS not at either of the power stations, and therefore must be in one of the cables and might take several days t o trace. When the fault ~ traced , t he defective rel ay ~ found D 113 14 at the Greenwich station after all. Taken together, these reports give little cause for comfort. Why should any THE 8arH COMP: fault which can lead to such disastrous results take more AND THE ?OrR than a few minutes .t.o. find?' Is it likely to happen again? If so, what steps are being taken to minimise the discomfort· (Written I -and anxiety of trapped passengers? Are any steps being taken Undergro' to provide a completely independent communications system to both trains and passengers for use in similar circumstances? These are just a few of the questions, but no-one, as yet, Introduction knows the answers. It is time they did- for it must not be 1. The ye forgotten that as recently as last September there was ~ London I s syst similar failure on the Central Line which resulted in some score" years unfortunate passengers being trapped in darkness for over Railway that five hours (of UndergrounD, Volume 8 No 11 pp162/3). It My recent pap does not seem that mUch progress has been made since then. (now an octog LT have stated that there will be no danger of thitp originating i trouble recurring after the modernisation of Greenwiph Power Second Histor Station has been completed in 1972 -.which is small comfort 2. Hardly to thepas~engers of 1970 and 1971, and leads to the the "three-se suspicion (if nothing more) that the power station at Neasden ~ ,... openny unif should have been kept in service until all the new equipment the West End had been installed at Greenwich. Was it perhaps something point 65 feet of a gamble to put Neasden out of use, done to economise the Mansion E at the expense of reliability of supply? diameter l,ine A number of questions have been, asked already in Greathead, tl: Parliament, and it is to be hoped that the members who have built the Ci1 taken an interest in the problem will maintain their concern, Railway, and which is one sure wCJ3 of seeing that proper steps are taken to the same 1 to prevent a recurrence. was about haJ never lived 1 J • P. THOMAS of these gre~ The Journal is honoured this month :i,.n being able to ; Thus "the fo] print another paper by Mr. J.P. Thomas, the oldest member of 3. In itE the Society, one of the first Honorary Members to be elected, 600 D.C. geaJ -and a former General Man~er of London Transport RailwCJ3 intervals, SE the culmination of a career connected· with the transport of equipment, t( London since 1900 and with the Underground since 1901. This ran loaded ai paper, just written by Mr. Thomas, who is now in his 93rd At that time year, follows immediately and takes most of the rest of Shepherds Bm this issue. Consequently, regular features are held over. surprised L01 mil; ion - pel City Imperia: the Mansion I nese 115 THE 80rH COMPLETED YEAR OF THE FIRST TUBULAR RAILWAY IN LONDON Dre ,AND THE 70rH YEAR OF THE ARRIVAL OF THE CHICAGO YERKES GROUP ain? :>mfort (Written especially for the Members and Studems of the g taken Underground Railway Society by John Pattinson Thomas) tem to :moes? May, 1970. ret, Introduction It be 1. The year 1970 records four historic peaks in the era of <It London I s system of Underground travel. For instance, the "four-: 30me score" years celebration next November of the City & South London iTer Railway that heralded tubular syst.6ms into London and the world. [t My recent paper to you dealt with this wonde:rful "little line" len. (now an octogenarian) of some 4 route miles of clay-bound tunnels i~ originating in November, 1890. ' Power Second Historic Peak - Central London RailwsY' nfort 2. Hardly less noteworthy is the vintage record next July of the "three-score and ten" years service of the Central London ~easden ~,,'vopenny uniform fare line that proceeds through the very core of ipment the West End beneath Oxford Street from Shepherds Bush and to a ling point 65 feet below the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and 3e the Mansion House - a brainwave to have named this famous 11'Bt" diameter l,ine "Central London Railway". Deeply regrettable that Greathead, the father of the tubular system, who had already have built the City & South London Railway and the Waterloo & City mcern, Railway, and was connected with the Wapping tunnel and appointed jaken to the same task upon the Central London, Line, died when the line was about half completed. It is, alas, not uncommon that geniuses never lived to see the consummation of their life'S work: neither of these great men saw a wheel turned in their last invaluable works. ;0 Thus "the form remains, the function never dies". ~r of 3. In its first three years the Central Line, serviced by 45-ton .ected, 600 D.C. gearless electric locO haulage of 7-car trains at 2i-minute t3 intervals, set a fine record of immunity from any failure of ,t of equipment, to which the public were not slow to respond since trains This ,rd ran loaded at full length during their 19-hour day. At that time the line was exactly 6 miles from buffer stop at 'ere Shepherds Bush to buffer stop at Bank. This service somewhat surprised Londoners, conveying as it did 200,000 - a flfth of a million - people to the City upon the day that the famous and valiant City Imperial Volunteers returned from the Boer Wa~' and marched to the Mansion House to be received by the Lord Mayor, May 1902. 116 The conveyance of this vast crowd raised the Central London the mare stock of popularity in the public mind and also upon the Stock Both part Exchange, -as in that and the following year the line paid 4% Contracto upon its Ordinary Shares, which it failed to do when the motor tunnel be bus and car at the turn of the century heavily invaded thorough Company w fares. The internal combustion engine strangulation of surface Park and traffic is now forcing upon the public the realisation that the Underground Railwqy offers the one escape from near standstill. and the i For instance, a bus absorbs half an hour from Bond Street to Finsbury Tottenham Court Road - about I mile - during the af,ternoon shopping Northern traffic. It is at long last, and nearly too late, dawning upon 7 cars. Parliament that London cannot afford ~ to proceed with more, It almost tubular lines, costly though they are. We mqy hope that the to functi Greater London Council will stir up this fact and concentrate 6. Th more upon Underground railwqys and less upon surface traffic. Railway b Whatever is done and spent on surface transport merely results Again in in return~o a position of strangulated status quo. work at F 4. The Bank station is the site of 3 connected Underground changed t Railwqy exchange stations. There are 11 such instances of triple 7. Ho Underground Railwqy stations. At another point no less than 5 to the We Underground lines come together. Perhaps the students of the direct se Underground Railwqy Society will sqy where this location is of by a dire "quintet" lines and give the total user.