TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

I don't know if this programme is new to UK TV or a repeat, and even
if it is new, whether any of the content will be new to denizens of
this group, but Channel 5 has a documentary entitled "Building The
London Underground" at 8pm this Wednesday. It's described as, "A
fascinating look at the great engineering leaps that built the London
Underground, the biggest metro system in the world." The picture used
is certainly up-to-date:
http://www.channel5.com/shows/big-bi...on-underground

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

On Mon, 09 Jul 2012 23:34:04 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On Mon, 09 Jul 2012 21:26:31 +0100, Recliner
wrote:

I don't know if this programme is new to UK TV or a repeat, and even
if it is new, whether any of the content will be new to denizens of
this group, but Channel 5 has a documentary entitled "Building The
London Underground" at 8pm this Wednesday. It's described as, "A
fascinating look at the great engineering leaps that built the London
Underground, the biggest metro system in the world." The picture used
is certainly up-to-date:
http://www.channel5.com/shows/big-bi...on-underground

It's not possible to tell from the blurb about this programme but I
have a sneaking suspicion that is actually a Discovery channel show.
It does have some recent footage if it is the programme I think it is.
I'll say no more to avoid spoiling it for others.

Yes, that's what I suspected. Channel 5 doesn't make its own
programmes, and this isn't the sort of thing it's likely to commission
under Desmond's ownership, so a second-hand Discovery programme seems
the likely origin. Anyway, I've not seen it before, so will watch it
and hope for the best.

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

On Wed, 11 Jul 2012 20:38:22 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:17:04 +0100, Recliner
wrote:

On Mon, 09 Jul 2012 23:34:04 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On Mon, 09 Jul 2012 21:26:31 +0100, Recliner
wrote:

I don't know if this programme is new to UK TV or a repeat, and even
if it is new, whether any of the content will be new to denizens of
this group, but Channel 5 has a documentary entitled "Building The
London Underground" at 8pm this Wednesday. It's described as, "A
fascinating look at the great engineering leaps that built the London
Underground, the biggest metro system in the world." The picture used
is certainly up-to-date:
http://www.channel5.com/shows/big-bi...on-underground

It's not possible to tell from the blurb about this programme but I
have a sneaking suspicion that is actually a Discovery channel show.
It does have some recent footage if it is the programme I think it is.
I'll say no more to avoid spoiling it for others.

Yes, that's what I suspected. Channel 5 doesn't make its own
programmes, and this isn't the sort of thing it's likely to commission
under Desmond's ownership, so a second-hand Discovery programme seems
the likely origin. Anyway, I've not seen it before, so will watch it
and hope for the best.

It is the programme I expected. Watching it again I was reminded of
the interesting "stock transfer" continuity problem in the programme!

Yes, indeed, but I suppose it made for much better graphics showing
the 1992 W&C stock being carefully craned in at Waterloo, rather than
the 2009 stock we'd seen being built simply arriving on the surface at
Northumberland Park Depot. I also noticed they described the JLE
tunnels as sprayed concrete, but then showed the usual tunnel segments
(some of the stations might be sprayed concrete, however). The early
cut and cover tunnels were shown as being built under Victorian London
streets with horse-drawn traffic running on the right (obviously the
computer graphics were created in the US and therefore tended to
include US cars, etc). They also seemed to suggest that the complex
body panels of the 2009 stock were fabricated from aluminium sheets,
rather than extruded, but perhaps I'm being too picky here.

Nevertheless, overall it was better than I expected, and was made for
Channel 5 in conjunction with National Geographic, rather than just
being a US import. Over-simplified, yes, but not rubbish, and I did
learn stuff about the Paris Metro. Was it previously shown on the
Discovery Channel on Sky?

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

Interesting to watch, yes, but had I known nothing about tube
beforehand I would have learned:-

1. There were no underground railways in London before the City and
South London Tube
2. This line was build using cut and cover methods
3. It was steam powered.

Yes, the Paris section was interesting, and new to me, but given the
above I am not sure how complete a picture it is.

Peter

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

On Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:47:21 -0700 (PDT)
peter wrote:
Interesting to watch, yes, but had I known nothing about tube
beforehand I would have learned:-

1. There were no underground railways in London before the City and
South London Tube
2. This line was build using cut and cover methods
3. It was steam powered.

Yes, the Paris section was interesting, and new to me, but given the
above I am not sure how complete a picture it is.

Or how much of it was true given the howlers in the parts about LU.

Was the NYC the first to use electric traction (I doubt that) or the first
to use EMUs (which I might believe)?

B2003

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

"peter" wrote in message
...
Interesting to watch, yes, but had I known nothing about tube
beforehand I would have learned:-

1. There were no underground railways in London before the City and
South London Tube
2. This line was build using cut and cover methods

You must have watched a different program to me, because the one that I
watched clearly said that CSL was tunnelled (by hand)

tim

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

On Thu, 12 Jul 2012 08:48:38 +0000 (UTC), d
wrote:

On Thu, 12 Jul 2012 00:47:21 -0700 (PDT)
peter wrote:
Interesting to watch, yes, but had I known nothing about tube
beforehand I would have learned:-

1. There were no underground railways in London before the City and
South London Tube
2. This line was build using cut and cover methods
3. It was steam powered.

Yes, the Paris section was interesting, and new to me, but given the
above I am not sure how complete a picture it is.

Or how much of it was true given the howlers in the parts about LU.

Was the NYC the first to use electric traction (I doubt that) or the first
to use EMUs (which I might believe)?

The C&SLR was electric loco-hauled from its inception in 1890, as was
the CLR from 1900. Both switched to EMUs in due course, and I think
the NY Subway was a pioneer of those (certainly the London sub-surface
lines adopted US technology for their EMUs).

One other mistake in the programme was to suggest that the early EMUs
had all axles powered; in fact, most were unpowered. It's only
recently (starting with the 1992 stock, and now with the 2009 and S
stocks) that LU has had trains with all axles powered. I don't know
about US practice, but would doubt that their early electric trains
had even a majority of axles powered.

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

On Thu, 12 Jul 2012 10:22:50 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


"peter" wrote in message
...
Interesting to watch, yes, but had I known nothing about tube
beforehand I would have learned:-

1. There were no underground railways in London before the City and
South London Tube
2. This line was build using cut and cover methods

You must have watched a different program to me, because the one that I
watched clearly said that CSL was tunnelled (by hand)

Indeed, that segment was all about the Greathead shield.

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

"peter" wrote in message
...
Interesting to watch, yes, but had I known nothing about tube
beforehand I would have learned:-

1. There were no underground railways in London before the City and
South London Tube
2. This line was build using cut and cover methods

....

Indeed. By far the best method when tunnelling beneath the Thames.

....


3. It was steam powered.

Yes, the Paris section was interesting, and new to me, but given the
above I am not sure how complete a picture it is.

Peter


michael adams

....

TV Alert: Building The London Underground
 

In message , at 11:17:04 on
Tue, 10 Jul 2012, Recliner remarked:

I don't know if this programme is new to UK TV or a repeat, and even
if it is new, whether any of the content will be new to denizens of
this group, but Channel 5 has a documentary entitled "Building The
London Underground" at 8pm this Wednesday. It's described as, "A
fascinating look at the great engineering leaps that built the London
Underground, the biggest metro system in the world." The picture used
is certainly up-to-date:
http://www.channel5.com/shows/big-bi...on-underground

It's not possible to tell from the blurb about this programme but I
have a sneaking suspicion that is actually a Discovery channel show.
It does have some recent footage if it is the programme I think it is.
I'll say no more to avoid spoiling it for others.

Yes, that's what I suspected. Channel 5 doesn't make its own
programmes, and this isn't the sort of thing it's likely to commission
under Desmond's ownership, so a second-hand Discovery programme seems
the likely origin. Anyway, I've not seen it before, so will watch it
and hope for the best.

That's number 3 in a series. Number 6 is about TGVs (others are about
non-rail projects). Is C5 showing he whole series?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big,_Bi...s_3_.282011.29
http://www.windfallfilms.com/show/19...-Series-3.aspx

ps I haven't watched it yet - what is the $26bn expansion, 30 new
stations etc?
--
Roland Perry