Roughly equivalent to 16,000,000 in 2016. [93] Two contracts to build joint lines were placed, from Mansion House to the Tower in 1882 and from the circle north of Aldgate to Whitechapel with a curve onto the ELR in 1883. The MS&LR wished these trains to also use the GWR route from Aylesbury via Princes Risborough into London, whereas the Met considered this was not covered by the agreement. [184] The dream promoted was of a modern home in beautiful countryside with a fast railway service to central London. For a short time, while the Met's station was being built, services ran into the GER station via a 3.5-chain (70m) curve. [74], East of Westminster, the next section of the District's line ran in the new Victoria Embankment built by the Metropolitan Board of Works along the north bank of the River Thames. 465 Keighley 27/06/08. The District suggested a separate entrance for the fish, but nothing was done. [145] From 1 January 1907, the exchange took place at Wembley Park. [226], In 1909, the Met opened Vine Street goods depot near Farringdon with two sidings each seven wagons long and a regular service from West Hampstead. At times, a train started at Great Missenden or Wendover. Both companies promoted and obtained an Act of Parliament in 1879 for the extension and link to the ELR, the Act also ensuring future co-operation by allowing both companies access to the whole circle. The Met responded with station boards with a red diamond and a blue bar. (Including Plates at Back of Volume)", "The City Lines and Extensions. Full electric service started on 24 September, reducing the travel time around the circle from 70 to 50 minutes. In 1801, approximately one million people lived in the area that is now, The route was to run from the south end of Westbourne Terrace, under Grand Junction Road (now Sussex Gardens), Southampton Road (now Old Marylebone Road) and New Road (now. [260] After some derailments in 1887, a new design of 27feet 6inches (8.38m) long rigid-wheelbase four-wheelers known as Jubilee Stock was built by the Cravens Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. for the extension line. To make the land more marketable, the brothers formed the Metropolitan Railway Company, with stock of $200,000, later increased to $400,000. [11] After successful lobbying, the company secured parliamentary approval under the name of the "North Metropolitan Railway" in mid-1853. London's Metropolitan Railway (MR) amalgamated with other underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators on 1 July 1933, to form the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB); the MR became the Board's Metropolitan line.. These passenger coaches were originally owned by the Metropolitan Railway. [220] The suburbia of Metro-land is one locale of Julian Barnes' Bildungsroman novel Metroland, first published in 1980. In 1894, the Met and GWR joint station at Aylesbury opened. [217] The branch transferred to the Jubilee line when that line opened in 1979. [9][13] Royal assent was granted to the North Metropolitan Railway Act on 7 August 1854. [43], With connections to the GWR and GNR under construction and connections to the Midland Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR) planned, the Met obtained permission in 1861 and 1864[note 14] for two additional tracks from King's Cross to Farringdon Street and a four-track eastward extension to Moorgate. [207][note 38], Construction started in 1929 on a branch from Wembley Park to Stanmore to serve a new housing development at Canons Park,[191] with stations at Kingsbury and Canons Park (Edgware) (renamed Canons Park in 1933). [32][126], From Quainton Road, the Duke of Buckingham had built a 6.5-mile (10.5km) branch railway, the Brill Tramway. [141], At the start of the 20th century, the District and the Met saw increased competition in central London from the new electric deep-level tube lines. The directors turned to negotiating compensation for its shareholders;[214] by then passenger numbers had fallen due to competition from buses and the depression. [106][107] In 1873, the M&SJWR was given authority to reach the Middlesex countryside at Neasden,[108][note 25] but as the nearest inhabited place to Neasden was Harrow it was decided to build the line 3.5 miles (5.6km) further to Harrow[109] and permission was granted in 1874. The rest of the motor cars had the same motor equipment but used vacuum brakes, and worked with converted 1920/23 Dreadnought carriages to form 'MV' units. [52] The extension to Aldersgate Street and Moorgate Street (now Barbican and Moorgate) had opened on 23 December 1865[53] and all four tracks were open on 1 March 1866. Stations between Hammersmith and Richmond served by the Met were. In 1885, the colour changed to a dark red known as Midcared, and this was to remain the standard colour, taken up as the colour for the Metropolitan line by London Transport in 1933. In 1871, two additional tracks parallel to the GWR between Westbourne Park and Paddington were brought into use for the H&CR and in 1878 the flat crossing at Westbourne Park was replaced by a diveunder. [181] World War I delayed these plans and it was 1919, with expectation of a housing boom,[182] before Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited (MRCE) was formed. Permission was sought to connect to the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) at Euston and to the Great Northern Railway (GNR) at King's Cross, the latter by hoists and lifts. A train scheduled to use the GWR route was not allowed access to the Met lines at Quainton Road in the early hours of 30 July 1898 and returned north. The Metropolitan and District railways both used carriages exclusively until they electrified in the early 20th century. [79] At the other end of the line, the District part of South Kensington station opened on 10 July 1871 [80][note 21] and Earl's Court station opened on the West Brompton extension on 30 October 1871. [101] This appeared on some maps. According to the Metropolitan Railway, the cost of constructing the line on an elevated viaduct would have been four times the cost of constructing it in tunnel. The bill submitted by the City Terminus Company was rejected by Parliament, which meant that the North Metropolitan Railway would not be able to reach the City: to overcome this obstacle, the company took over the City Terminus Company and submitted a new bill in November 1853. The Dreadnought Stock; The Pullman Cars; Metropolitan Railway Saloon Coaches; Electrification & Rolling Stock Development; The 1905-7 Stock; . There was local opposition to the embankment and the line was cut back to a station with goods facilities just short of the park. The report recommended more openings be authorised but the line was electrified before these were built. [145] [238][237] In 1894, two D Class locomotives were bought to run between Aylesbury and Verney Junction. This was made up of 7.2 million of 4.5% 'A' stock, 2 million of 5% 'A' stock, 5.3 million of 5% 'B' stock and 5.1 million in 'C' stock. [32], The District also had parliamentary permission to extend westward from Brompton and, on 12 April 1869, it opened a single-track line to West Brompton on the WLR. 427) owned by the Vintage Carriages Trust and a 1950s BR suburban coach from the North Norfolk Railway. [278], The first order for electric multiple units was placed with Metropolitan Amalgamated in 1902 for 50 trailers and 20 motor cars with Westinghouse equipment, which ran as 6-car trains. [114][note 27], In 1868, the Duke of Buckingham opened the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway (A&BR), a 12.75-mile (20.5km) single track from Aylesbury to a new station at Verney Junction on the Buckinghamshire Railway's Bletchley to Oxford line. After the war, the Trade Facilities Act 1921 offered government financial guarantees for capital projects that promoted employment, and taking advantage of this construction started in 1922. In the 1926 Metro-land edition, the Met boasted that that had carried 152,000 passengers to Wembley Park on that day. The GNR, the GWR and the Midland opened goods depots in the Farringdon area, accessed from the city widened lines. [71], The first section of the Met extension opened to Brompton (Gloucester Road) (now Gloucester Road) on 1 October 1868,[68] with stations at Paddington (Praed Street) (now Paddington), Bayswater, Notting Hill Gate, and Kensington (High Street) (now High Street Kensington). [15][note 8] In 1858, Pearson arranged a deal between the Met and the City of London Corporation whereby the Met bought land it needed around the new Farringdon Road from the City for 179,000 and the City purchased 200,000 worth of shares. First class were obviously better illuminated, as their tanks were 24" diameter, as against only 20" for the third class passengers. [235] Originally they were painted bright olive green lined in black and yellow, chimneys copper capped with the locomotive number in brass figures at the front and domes of polished brass. [34], The original timetable allowed 18 minutes for the journey. 5, "John Hampden", 1922", "Metropolitan Railway electric stock trailer carriage, 1904", "The Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways. In the early 1870s, passenger numbers were low and the M&SJWR was looking to extend the line to generate new traffic. [113] A locomotive works was opened in 1883 and a gas works in 1884. The LPTB cut back services to Aylesbury, closing the Brill and Vern The GNR eventually opposed the scheme, and the line opened in 1904 with the northern terminus in tunnels underneath GNR Finsbury Park station. [169], After the Met and the District had withdrawn from the ELR in 1906, services were provided by the South Eastern Railway, the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the Great Eastern Railway. [152][153], The GWR built a 6 MW power station at Park Royal and electrified the line between Paddington and Hammersmith and the branch from Latimer Road to Kensington (Addison Road). The revised kit is to increase realism and make the kit a lot easier to build. 5 "John Hampden" is preserved as a static display at the London Transport Museum[277] and No. [231] Initially private contractors were used for road delivery, but from 1919 the Met employed its own hauliers. [147] In 1899, the District had problems raising the finance and the Met offered a rescue package whereby it would build a branch from Harrow to Rayners Lane and take over the line to Uxbridge, with the District retaining running rights for up to three trains an hour. [112], In 1882, the Met moved its carriage works from Edgware Road to Neasden. [12][note 6] In July 1855, an Act to make a direct connection to the GNR at King's Cross received royal assent. In Leinster Gardens, Bayswater, a faade of two five-storey houses was built at Nos. [23] The tunnels were wider at stations to accommodate the platforms. It was considered unreliable and not approved for full installation. Unclassified by the Met, these were generally used for shunting at Neasden and Harrow. [182][183], The term Metro-land was coined by the Met's marketing department in 1915 when the Guide to the Extension Line became the Metro-land guide, priced at 1d. They also prevented unused permissions acting as an indefinite block to other proposals. [16] Signalling was on the absolute block method, using electric Spagnoletti block instruments and fixed signals. [35], Initially the railway was worked by GWR broad-gauge Metropolitan Class steam locomotives and rolling stock. [209] The early accounts are untrustworthy, but by the late 19th century it was paying a dividend of about 5 per cent. 176.jpg 4,032 3,024; 1.89 MB Museum rollingstock, Oxenhope (geograph 5905729).jpg 4,245 2,706; 2.33 MB NER 1661 Clerestory Saloon built 1904.jpg 2,288 1,712; 1.21 MB Most of the excavation work was carried out manually by navvies; a primitive earth-moving conveyor was used to remove excavated soil from the trench. The Met provided the management and the GCR the accounts for the first five years before the companies switched functions, then alternating every five years until 1926. From 1 October 1884, the District and the Met began working trains from St Mary's via this curve onto the ELR to the SER's New Cross station. During the night of 5 July 1870 the District secretly built the disputed Cromwell curve connecting Brompton and Kensington (High Street). Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. "Suburbia that inspired Sir John Betjeman to get heritage protection", "Metropolitan Railway A class 4-4-0T steam locomotive No. [230][231] Milk was conveyed from Vale of Aylesbury to the London suburbs and foodstuffs from Vine Street to Uxbridge for Alfred Button & Son, wholesale grocers. The shares were later sold by the corporation for a profit. [256][257] This was replaced in 1869 by a chain that operated brakes on all carriages. The District's level of debt meant that the merger was no longer attractive to the Met and did not proceed, so the Met's directors resigned from the District's board. [146], Meanwhile, the District had been building a line from Ealing to South Harrow and had authority for an extension to Uxbridge. [42] With the problem continuing after the 1880s, conflict arose between the Met, who wished to make more openings in the tunnels, and the local authorities, who argued that these would frighten horses and reduce property values. After the London Passenger Transport Bill, aimed primarily at co-ordinating the small independent bus services,[212] was published on 13 March 1931, the Met spent 11,000 opposing it. Nearly one hundred "Dreadnoughts" were built between 1910 and 1923. 465", "Metropolitan Railway electric locomotive No. [191][208], Unlike the UERL, the Met profited directly from development of Metro-land housing estates near its lines;[182] the Met had always paid a dividend to its shareholders. This dropped the City terminus and extended the route south from Farringdon to the General Post Office in St. Martin's Le Grand. [43] This led to an 1897 Board of Trade report,[note 13] which reported that a pharmacist was treating people in distress after having travelled on the railway with his 'Metropolitan Mixture'. A total of 92 of these wooden compartment carriages were built. [54], The new tracks from King's Cross to Farringdon were first used by a GNR freight train on 27 January 1868. This was one of the first electric railroads in the country, and the first in Portland. The first trip over the whole line was in May 1862 with William Gladstone among the guests. Metropolitan Railway Dreadnought Coaches and MV/MW/T electric stock Competition with the Great Central Railway on outer suburban services on the extension line saw the introduction of more comfortable Dreadnought Stock carriages from 1910. The line opened from Westminster to Blackfriars on 30 May 1870[72] with stations at Charing Cross (now Embankment), The Temple (now Temple) and Blackfriars. Nearly one hundred Dreadnoughts were built between 1910 and 1923. [129][130], In 1893, a new station at Wembley Park was opened, initially used by the Old Westminsters Football Club, but primarily to serve a planned sports, leisure and exhibition centre. It opened to the public on 10 January 1863 with gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives, the world's first passenger-carrying designated underground railway.[2]. This report noted that between Edgware Road and King's Cross there were 528 passenger and 14 freight trains every weekday and during the peak hour there were 19 trains each way between Baker Street and King's Cross, 15longcwt (760kg) of coal was burnt and 1,650impgal (7,500L) water was used, half of which was condensed, the rest evaporating. A number of these coaches were preserved by the Bluebell Railway . The Metropolitan Railway Dreadnought coaches introduced for longer journeys proved very successful. Double track and a full service to Willesden Green started on 24 November 1879 with a station at Kilburn & Brondesbury (now Kilburn). [97][98] There were intermediate stations at St John's Wood Road and Marlborough Road, both with crossing loops, and the line was worked by the Met with a train every 20 minutes. [95] Initially, the service was eight trains an hour, completing the 13 miles (21 kilometres) circle in 8184 minutes, but this proved impossible to maintain and was reduced to six trains an hour with a 70-minute timing in 1885. During construction the Railways Act 1921 meant that in 1923 the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) replaced the GCR. [166], In 1924 and 1925, the British Empire Exhibition was held on the Wembley Park Estate and the adjacent Wembley Park station was rebuilt with a new island platform with a covered bridge linking to the exhibition. It had been planned to convert all Dreadnought coaches to electric stock, but plans to electrify complete . [198] Another attempt was made in 1927 to extend the Watford branch across Cassiobury Park to the town centre, the Met purchasing a property on Watford High Street with the intention of converting it to a station. [37] Eighteen were ordered in 1864, initially carrying names,[234] and by 1870 40 had been built. Off-peak, stations north of Moor Park were generally served by Marylebone trains. A short steam train was used for off-peak services from the end of March while some trailers were modified to add a driving cab, entering service from 1 June. The operation of the chain brake could be abrupt, leading to some passenger injuries, and it was replaced by a non-automatic vacuum brake by 1876. [185], From about 1914 the company promoted itself as "The Met", but after 1920 the commercial manager, John Wardle, ensured that timetables and other publicity material used "Metro" instead. [225] The arrival of the GCR gave connections to the north at Quainton Road and south via Neasden, Acton and Kew. [136] The MS&LR had the necessary authority to connect to the Circle at Marylebone, but the Met suggested onerous terms. [105] Money was not found for this scheme and the Met had to return to Parliament in 1880 and 1881 to obtain permission for a railway from Harrow to Aylesbury. [77] From this date, the two companies operated a joint Inner Circle service between Mansion House and Moorgate Street via South Kensington and Edgware Road every ten minutes,[note 20] supplemented by a District service every ten minutes between Mansion House and West Brompton and H&CR and GWR suburban services between Edgware Road and Moorgate Street. To improve its finances, the District gave the Met notice to terminate the operating agreement. [248], Two locomotives survive: A Class No. [232], Concern about smoke and steam in the tunnels led to new designs of steam locomotive. In 1941 six of these coaches were converted back to steam haulage, made up into two three-coach "push pull" sets, for use on the Chalfont to Chesham branch. [196] The Met also ran a shuttle service between Watford and Rickmansworth. They approached again in 1904, this time jointly with the local District Council, to discuss a new plan for a shorter branch from Rickmansworth. Following discussions between the Duke and Watkin it was agreed that this line would be extended south to meet the Met at Harrow and permission for this extension was granted in 1874[108][note 29] and Watkin joined the board of the A&BR in 1875. Does this [150], On 1 July 1905, the Met and the District both introduced electric units on the inner circle until later that day a Met multiple unit overturned the positive current rail on the District and the Met service was withdrawn. [239] Four more were delivered in 1895 with condensing equipment; these were prohibited working south of Finchley Road. The line was electrified with automatic colour light signals controlled from a signal box at Wembley Park and opened on 9 December 1932. The Met opened the line to Uxbridge on 30 June 1904 with one intermediate station at Ruislip, initially worked by steam. The District continued to provide four trains on Sundays to keep crews familiar with the route. The following Monday, Mansion House opened and the District began running its own trains. [247] To run longer, faster and less frequent freight services in 1925 six K Class (2-6-4) locomotives arrived, rebuilt from 2-6-0 locomotives manufactured at Woolwich Arsenal after World War I. London's Metropolitan Railway (MR) amalgamated with other underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators on 1 July 1933, to form the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB); the MR became the Board's Metropolitan line. It was soon found that A and B Classes could manage trains without difficulty and the 0-6-0Ts were sold to the Taff Vale Railway in 1873 and 1875. [note 40] Trains were electrically hauled with a maximum length of 14 wagons and restricted to 250 long tons (254t) inwards and 225 long tons (229t) on the return. [171], Concerned that the GNR would divert its Moorgate services over the City Widened Lines to run via the GN&CR, the Met sought to take over the GN&CR. Other railway's goods depots had already opened near Farringdon on the Widened Lines. An incompatibility was found between the way the shoe-gear was mounted on Met trains and the District track and Met trains were withdrawn from the District and modified. [155] The H&CR service stopped running to Richmond over the L&SWR on 31 December 1906; GWR steam rail motors ran from Ladbroke Grove to Richmond until 31 December 1910. [262] A Jubilee Stock first class carriage was restored to carry passengers during the Met's 150th anniversary celebrations.