The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

Edwin Bock

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:12:55 -0000, wrote:

The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

The Island Line on The Isle of Wight has a beach at each end and uses old
LU stock. Not sure what colour they are today but believe they were red at
one time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Line,_Isle_of_Wight

--
Fig

On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:12:55 GMT, wrote:

The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

There used to be some District services which ran through to Southend
(between 1910 and 1939). I have no idea what colour the trains were,
though, and they would have been steam-hauled surface stock rather
than electric "tube" trains.

"Fig" wrote in message newsp.tl0ot7nhm4iaeb@dell...
On Fri, 12 Jan 2007 01:12:55 -0000, wrote:

The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

The Island Line on The Isle of Wight has a beach at each end and uses old
LU stock. Not sure what colour they are today but believe they were red at
one time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Line,_Isle_of_Wight

Most of them are in blue and yellow "dinosaur" livery, but some are in
"heritage" LT red.
--
David Biddulph

There used to be some District services which ran through to Southend
(between 1910 and 1939). I have no idea what colour the trains were,
though, and they would have been steam-hauled surface stock rather
than electric "tube" trains.

More precisely, they were hauled by electric locomotives from
Ealing Broadway to Barking, then by steam to Southend. The District
conveniently had some locomotives that they'd bought for the Outer
Circle service (see under http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/circle.html),
so they were now available for the Southend trains.

The LT&SR supplied the rolling stock (new trains from 1912, with
retention toilets), so it presumably would've been in their livery.

[Sources: London's Underground, 7th edition; The Age of the Electric Train]
--
Mark Brader | "[Your orders are] to figure out what I would have ordered
| you to do, if I really understood the situation ... [and]
Toronto | to follow those orders I hypothetically would have given."
-- Shan (John Barnes, "Earth Made of Glass")

wrote:
The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

Edwin Bock

I wish people wouldn't call tube trains "tubes". Tubes are the tunnels
the trains run in.

wrote:
The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

Edwin Bock


Isle of Wight perhaps?

Albert wrote:
wrote:
The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

Edwin Bock


Isle of Wight perhaps?

If it was that "heritage" 1959 stock, it needn't be the IOW. A lot can
be accomplished in the cutting room.

wrote:

wrote:
The new Peter O'Toole film, 'Venus',
has a scene that suggests he takes
a red, presumably London, tube to
a coastal beach.

Is this possible today? On which
'red electric train' to use John
Betjeman's term, to which beach?

Edwin Bock

I wish people wouldn't call tube trains "tubes". Tubes are the tunnels
the trains run in.

You are fighting a completely and hopelessly losing battle on that
front Mike!

I do demur from using the term "tube" when I'm specifically talking
about the sub-surface lines (District, Met etc) as the line neither
uses a tube tunnel nor are the trains tube shaped. LU/TfL freely uses
the term "Tube", with a capital 'T', as a shorthand way of describing
the whole Underground system - a convention that I follow when posting
here.

Of course an Underground train that would have travelled from London to
Southend wouldn't have spent a lot of the journey underground, so even
the usage of that term can be criticised.

Anyway, point being that you can wish as much as you want the people
wouldn't call the trains "tubes", but they will certainly continue to
do so - it is absolutely ingrained in the language!

Mizter T wrote:

I do demur from using the term "tube" when I'm specifically talking
about the sub-surface lines (District, Met etc) as the line neither
uses a tube tunnel nor are the trains tube shaped. LU/TfL freely uses
the term "Tube", with a capital 'T', as a shorthand way of describing
the whole Underground system - a convention that I follow when posting
here.



Of course an Underground train that would have travelled from London to
Southend wouldn't have spent a lot of the journey underground, so even
the usage of that term can be criticised.


The Metropolitan District Railway may not have been very much
underground (small u) but was definitely Underground with a capital U,
since it was a company belonging to the Underground Electric Railways
Company of London Limited, having been purchased by that company in
1903.

Those Southend trains were composed of full sized slam-door compartment
stock hauled by two electric locos as far as Barking, and stopped
before World War 2. They were as much "underground" trains as the
similar Metropolitan trains of the era. The District also had the
Underground's only named train: in the 1910s a morning express from
South Harrow to Barking was officially "The Harrovarian" Through City
Express.

Anyway, point being that you can wish as much as you want the people
wouldn't call the trains "tubes", but they will certainly continue to
do so - it is absolutely ingrained in the language!

Only since the 1980s or so.