Jump to content

Bakerloo line

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by EdGl (talk | contribs) at 23:45, 22 September 2006 (→‎History: disambig). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Infobox TfL line

The Bakerloo Line is a line of the London Underground and coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep-level, running from the south-east to the north-west of London.

History

Originally called the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway, the line was constructed by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited and opened in 1906. Prior to this, it had been financed by the mining entrepreneur and company promoter Whitaker Wright, who fell foul of the law over the financial proceedings involved and dramatically committed suicide at the Royal Courts of Justice after being convicted in 1904. The contraction of the name to "Bakerloo" rapidly caught on, and the official name was changed to match.

By 1913, the Bakerloo line had been extended from its original northern terminus at Baker Street to the west with interchange stations with the Great Central Railway at Marylebone and the Great Western Railway at Paddington and a new station at Edgware Road.

In 1915 the line was extended further to Queens Park, where it joined the DC lines of the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) that ran alongside the LNWR's main line (now the West Coast Main Line) as far as Watford Junction. Bakerloo services to Watford were cut back in the 1960s and eventually withdrawn in 1982 with Stonebridge Park serving as the new terminus.

Services to Harrow & Wealdstone were gradually restored from 1984 and in 1989 the present all-day service was instituted. Trains still share the tracks with local Silverlink services from Euston to Harrow & Wealdstone.

In 1939 a new section of line was opened between Baker Street and Finchley Road, allowing the Bakerloo to take over the branch of the Metropolitan Line to Stanmore. The Stanmore branch remained part of the Bakerloo until 1979, when it became part of the newly constructed Jubilee Line.

An extension to the southern end of the line to Camberwell was proposed in 1949 but has never been built. The extension has been proposed again, as part of the Mayor's South London Tube Plan. There are options to extend the Victoria Line to Sutton and Wimbledon, the Bakerloo Line to Lewisham, with the possibillity to continue to Bexley and the Northern Line to Croydon.

The line celebrated its centenary on March 10 2006, when various events were organised on the line to publicise the event [1]. Over the next few years the northern section of the line may again see changes following the decision in February 2006 to transfer responsibility for Euston-Watford suburban services (the DC lines) from the Department for Transport to Transport for London.

One oddity in the lines history is that almost from its opening until 1917, it was operated with the polarity of the conductor rails reversed (i.e. the outside rail negative and the centre rail positive). This came about because the Bakerloo shared a power source with the District Railway. On the Bakerloo, the outside conductor rail tended to leak to the tunnel wall, whereas on the District Railway, the centre rail shared a similar problem. The solution was to reverse the polarity on the Bakerloo line, so that the negative rail leaked on both systems. In 1917, the two systems were isolated when the LNWR commenced its 'New Line' service between Euston and Watford Junction, which the Bakerloo would share north of Queens Park. Asa result, normal operation was restored.

On the 1992 The Great Bear litography, the Bakerloo line is marked as the Engineers Line, running between Orville and Wilbur Wright (Harrow & Wealdstone) and Barnes Wallis (Elephant & Castle).

Former rolling stock

When opened in 1906, the Bakerloo Line was operated by Gate Stock trains. These were built in the USA by the American Car and Foundry Company for final completion in the UK at Trafford Park, Manchester. To cope with the extension to Queens Park, 14 extra motor cars were ordered - 10 from Brush of Loughborough and 4 from the Leeds Forge Company.

To operate services north of Queen's Park, 72 additional carriages were built by the Metropolitan Carriage, Waggon and Finance Company of Birmingham. These trains, known as the Watford Extension Stock, were partly owned by the Underground and partly by the London and North Western Railway (later LMS). They were initially all painted in LNWR livery. They were not equipped with air operated doors and proved slow and unreliable, thus they were replaced by new trains of Standard Stock in 1930 (although a few were retained by the LMS). Watford trains were, for some years in the 1930s, painted with a distinctive blue stripe at window level.

In 1932, some carriages that had been built for the Piccadilly Line by Cammell Laird in Nottingham in 1919 were transferred to the Bakerloo Line. When built, these had been the first Tube trains to be equipped with air operated doors. These (and other trains) were later replaced by more trains of Standard Stock, in turn being replaced by 1938 Stock and 1949 Stock.

Prior to the opening of the Jubilee Line in 1979, the Bakerloo Line was worked by both 1938 Stock and 1972 Stock. The 1972 Stock was intended for the Jubilee Line, so from 1979 the Bakerloo Line (now minus the Stanmore branch) was again entirely operated by 1938 Stock. From 1983 the 1938 Stock began to be replaced by trains of 1959 Stock, but this was a temporary measure until 1972 Stock became available. The last 1938 Stock train was withdrawn on 20th November 1985. From 1986 the 1959 Stock was transferred to the Northern Line.

- Reference: M.A.C. Horne, "The Bakerloo Line", Capital Transport, 2001. ISBN 1854142488

Current trains

The Bakerloo Line is now entirely operated by 1972 Stock (displaced from the Jubilee Line by 1983 Stock and subsequently 1996 Stock). The stock is maintained at Stonebridge Park depot.

All Bakerloo line trains are painted in the distinctive London Underground livery of red, white and blue and are the smaller size of the two sizes used on the network, since trains travel deep underground in small tunnels.

The interiors of these trains have recently been 'deep cleaned' and the seating has been replaced by a more appealing blue. The seating layouts are longitudinal and transverse, with some cars having longitudinal seating only.

Map

Geographically accurate path of the Bakerloo Line

Stations

Bakerloo Line depot at London Road

in order from north to south

Note: For the former Stanmore branch of the Bakerloo line, see the Jubilee Line article.

Surface section

The section of the line between Harrow & Wealdstone and Queen's Park utilises the mainline track and stations (owned by Network Rail and operated by Silverlink). National Rail fares, as well as TfL fares, apply to journeys on this section. These stations are unique in that they use Silverlink signage and branding, with only a small London Underground roundel appearing on station signs; however it is expected that the stations will be restored with full TfL branding when the Silverlink Metro franchise is replaced by the London Overground in 2007.

Tunnelled section

The southbound Bakerloo Line platform in Paddington Station

Former northern extension

Between 1917 and 1982, Bakerloo line trains ran from Harrow & Wealdstone to Watford Junction, serving stations belonging to the London and North Western Railway and subsequently British Rail. Although this section is now operated by Silverlink, it is no longer served by the Tube. Services were withdrawn on the grounds of duplication with British Rail mainline service, having already been run down significantly prior to withdrawal, with Tube trains only calling there at peak periods. It has been proposed that the service should be restored with the Tube taking over this stretch of the mainline (see the external links for more details).

Stanmore branch

The Stanmore branch was transferred to the Jubilee Line after April 30, 1979. It joined the main line at Baker Street.

See also

  • Leslie Green - architect of the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway's early stations
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bakerloo_line&oldid=77268402"