What a ledge!

Excuse me, but I did this exact same trip on Wednesday and also felt sentimental :D You underestimate how nerdy we trainspotters are!

@@20so I wasn’t knocking him, or I wouldn’t have called him a legend. I’m a train nerd up to a point.

only geoff? [sniffles] i'll miss you old southbound northern Bank platform 😭😭😭

@@ideuni touché.

I seem to be the only who has found this comment so far… :D. That makes me happy :p

I agree! Hilarious

Thanks KZfaq, very cool

why on earth is KZfaq here?

I'm so glad YT shouted this bit out 😂😂

youtube?

@@geofftech2 how do you have a check mark?

@@TheMasterPlayzOfficial When you have 100,000 Subscribers, you can apply for verification, which gives you a tick like many other social media sites

Agree. Best explanation of what's happening I've heard.

@@Redblock Oh ok

the quantity is as high as a 15 storey building

I got three,,, !!

Ye

Was thinking the exact same.

I guess the difference is that the T4 loop is unidirectional - it's not possible for trains to go round it the other way. Quite right, though.

I think the main difference is that the Heathrow T4 layout is the "normal" arrangement (when the station/terminal is open, of course!), whereas the Northern Line one-way operation during the rebuild of London Bridge in the 90's was a special temporary set-up for the duration of the works. Such an arrangement is unlikely to occur again, for two reasons, firstly it was only the existence of the Charing Cross Branch that enabled them to "balance" the overall service, by routing all the through southbound trains to Kennington and beyond that way, and secondly, at London Bridge, where the work was taking place, they were able to "seal off" the southbound side, despite its close proximity to the northbound, and complete the work. The passageways leading directly from the escalators onto the northbound platform was probably a factor in the decision to run one way northbound as well. The layout at Bank no doubt prevents this.

I was on a ship which had a much more youthful David Attenborough on it, back in the early eighties. They had a shot of Attenborough looking at Bird Island from the rail of the ship. And the shot of the ship leaving as seen from the island. Wait! Bird Island has no people... who took that shot. Well the camera crew of course. One of the ship's boats was then sent back to get them. They didn't film that bit... ((RRS Bransfield, S. Atlantic, 1980))

Timestamp?

2:00 that guy who just looked is myself.

The 7xx series used to be for Green Line coaches, back in the day!

Interesting usage of the 7xx prefix… Here in Lisbon there was a recent-ish revamp (by my age, because it’s been around 10 years now) of the bus route numbering scheme, and ALL routes became 7xx. ALL of them, no exceptions. 😂 Because Lisbon also has seven hills, yadda yadda. :P Actually, that’s not 100% accurate; Carris, the local public bus and tram company, did leave the nightly 2xx services’ numbering scheme untouched, and would never ever consider messing with the trams either (those had the “E” suffix - for “eléctrico” - for decades now, and still kept it even after the revamp, even though it’s now completely redundant as there are no longer buses with similar numbers, because they are basically a very popular attraction and brand with tourists - namely the 28E -, plastered all over guides and souvenirs and whatnot). I am, however, very curious to see what the upcoming Carris Metropolitana’s numbering scheme will look like, and how it might affect the original, urban “7xx” services. You see, we finally got in with the program and got around to emulate TfL’s buses and their successful metro-wide, privately-owned and operated but livery-, ticketing- and numbering-consistent system; the urban “branch”, so to speak, will still be called just “Carris” and be owned and operated by the city council, but all the other private/PPP suburban operators will be “dissolved” (or at least their public-facing branding and networks will) and reconverted into a homogeneous and much cheaper network for passengers. Only their logos, now in tiny, monochrome versions will survive at the front entrances of their - mostly renovated - fleets, much like in London. Except they (along with trams and funiculars alike, that’s where they originally took it from) are all canary-yellow. ;)

@@Mainyehc Most recent temp route I think was the 718 at Morden, One Bus running a service along a road the 118 could not serve due to a road overbridge failure, the 718 actually provided an additional useful direct link for the residents of that road which is now not possible without a change of bus - or a walk from the main road.

@@grahamwhitworth9454 With, strangley the 726 now being the X26 in TfL franchised operation (cut back to Croydon Though). I think a few of the commuter coaches are numbered at stops in the 700 series When was the last numbered TfL tube or rail replacement bus service ?

I remember when the London Bridge works were carried out, extra buses on the 133 were run and the route temporarily extended up to King's Cross at weekends (as there was no Camden Town to Moorgate service at weekends either during the closure then). I remember the Green Line Network well, with 700 series numbers being used virtually throughout, the only exceptions being the 290/291 routes in City of Oxford's numbering system, as the former was a joint operation with them. The old "733" was used for Hitchin to Watford (later extended to Reading), and the 718 was Windsor to Harlow, later cut back to just Windsor - London.

The DLR concourse works are part of the same improvements, so when it's all done the DLR will have much better connectivity with the rest of the complex.

Ugh, Im not a fan of Bank. I tried the Walbrook entrance and thought I was never going to get down to the platform. I suspect it will be an equally long walk from the Cannon Street concourse.

ha ha, yes! it also looks like "warning!" tape that you get at the edge of doorframes, etc ...

Yep, we can call it the bumblebee line but it won't be buzzing !!

There are still two island platforms on the Northern Line. Those things are death traps.

Bank is an absolutely horrendous station.

@@nativenewlondoner good thing some serious bank is being spent on it.

I do feel bad for you. The work though has to be done. It's to dangerous at the moment.

It will still be crowded though. That being said, I like the walbrook entrance and never found it that crowded. What they need to do is during peak evening run two empty services starting at Bank. Just the northern line. Central and circle don't seem to have this problem. Then tackle the Clapham island stations. Those are dangerous

someone called dark stole your comment

thank you Tim ... hope you enjoy it!

Track 2 (former southbound express track) was removed in 1918 to make room for the track 3 platforms at both ends of the shuttle. This did not change after the 1964 Grand Central fire which destroyed a train parked on track 3 and caused the station to be rebuilt along with the structure that supports the street above. Track 1 also has a connection to the Lexington Avenue southbound local track just north of the 33rd Street station to allow train sets to be swapped out. There is no connection between the two tracks of the shuttle at all.

lovely Stefan, thanks - great info!

That's a relatively recent addition too, as part of the upgrade works at Bank.

That's what I was thinking, too. Will it make Manument/Bonk any easier to navigate? 🤔 Bigger, safer platforms and a wide concourse are a big plus, too, in any case