In article ,
Ian Jelf wrote:
In message , Paul Terry
writes
In message , Ian Jelf
writes

Did you ever ride on the pre-rebuilt Glasgow Subway?! :-)

Oh, what memories! Mainly the smell (a combination of sewage and
concentrated tobacco smoke - even though the carriages were tiny,
smoking was allowed) and the fact that some of the 1896 carriages were
still in use in the 1970s.

Apparently, children with chest problems were taken down there as it was
believed it would cure them!

Not the first underground railway of which that was said: either the
Metropolitan or the District (I forget which, and CBA to go hunt the
reference right now..) cultivated that reputation for the Circle line
in pre-electrification days.

District, I suspect. There's the genuine sulphurous whiff of Forbes to
that one: Ahrons, IIRC, suggested to him that he build sealed
anatoria over the ventilation shafts and charge for the vapours
emerging. THe joke was taken, which sounds more like Forbes than
Watkins.

When
I took my wife for her only Subway ride a few years ago [1] she
came out with a corker while we were waiting on the platform for our
first ride. Pointing at the tunnel portal she asked, quite seriously,
"What's that hole for?" She couldn't believe how diminutive the trains
were.

A Glasgow friend, years back, always referred to the (new) subway
trains as "worms". She did have a point.

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting
money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair)

On 29 Apr, 21:23, (Andrew Robert Breen) wrote:
In article ,
Ian Jelf wrote:

In message , Paul Terry
writes
In message , Ian Jelf
writes

Did you ever ride on the pre-rebuilt Glasgow Subway?! * :-)

Oh, what memories! Mainly the smell (a combination of sewage and
concentrated tobacco smoke - even though the carriages were tiny,
smoking was allowed) and the fact that some of the 1896 carriages were
still in use in the 1970s.

Apparently, children with chest problems were taken down there as it was
believed it would cure them!

Not the first underground railway of which that was said: either the
Metropolitan or the District (I forget which, and CBA to go hunt the
reference right now..) cultivated that reputation for the Circle line
in pre-electrification days.

District, I suspect. There's the genuine sulphurous whiff of Forbes to
that one: Ahrons, IIRC, suggested to him *that he build sealed
anatoria over the ventilation shafts and charge for the vapours
emerging. THe joke was taken, which sounds more like Forbes than
Watkins.

When

I took my wife for her only Subway ride a few years ago [1] she

came out with a corker while we were waiting on the platform for our
first ride. Pointing at the tunnel portal she asked, quite seriously,
"What's that hole for?" She couldn't believe how diminutive the trains
were.

A Glasgow friend, years back, always referred to the (new) subway
trains as "worms". She did have a point.

--
Andy Breen ~ * *Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
* * * * * * * * Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting
* * * * * * * * *money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair)

Metro-Cammell was building the new trains for the Hong Kong Mass
Transit Railway at the same time as the 'clockwork oranges'. It was
reckoned that a Glasgow car would fit inside a Hong Kong vehicle.

While Margaret Thatcher is supposed not to have ridden in trains, the
HKMTR is once exception to the myth. Not a lot of people know that
(or care).

Roger

Roger