I Think, Therefore I Amersham

A Metropolitan station that’s a long way from the metropolis.
Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/jagohazzard
Patreon: / jagohazzard

[@MrFantasnick]

There are many maps in this episode ! One might say….Des cartes 😉

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

Edward Watkin: British rail should go all the way to Paris. Brits then: Ha, that's a funny joke, Edward! Channel Tunnel: is completed in 1994 Edward Watkin's ghost: *Who's laughing now?* Watkin very much DID want a Channel tunnel to be built early on. He was on the board of Chemins de fer du Nord which was a railway based in Calais, and he even dug a 2,020 yard-pilot tunnel between 1880 and 1881 at Shakespeare Cliff near Dover (the entrance to said tunnel still exists but is closed). Despite his attempts, Queen Victoria (who called it "objectionable") and Parliament were against it because they feared it would weaken national defense. They thought France would use it to invade them.

[@SynchroScore]

I've also heard of the fear that a cross-Channel tunnel could be used by the French to invade. I always thought that was ridiculous. It would be just like many major railway bridges on the Continent, built so that it could be blasted in the event of trouble. A few-hundred pounds of dynamite would stop any army coming through.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

If it wasn't for Watkin, Wembley wouldn't be so famous. I assure you, Watkin was definitely obsessed with Paris. He wanted to build a tower like the Eiffel Tower that could beat its height called the "Great Tower of London" at Wembley Park. The tower began construction in 1892 but it was never completed and was demolished in 1907. The site of the tower is now occupied by Wembley Stadium. Watkin purchased a tract of land adjacent to the route of the Metropolitan Railway at Wembley with the goal of building an amusement park laid out with boating lakes, a waterfall, ornamental gardens (the park land had previously been landscaped by Humphry Repton and known as Wembley Park in the 18th century), and cricket and football pitches. The crowning icon of this park would've been the tower. Without Watkin's pleasure gardens and station, it is unlikely that the British Empire Exhibition would have been held at Wembley, which in turn would have prevented Wembley becoming either synonymous with English football or a successful popular music venue. Without Watkin, it is likely that the district would have simply become inter-war semi-detached suburbia like the rest of west London.

[@abigailbarfoot3846]

Jago did a video on Watkin and his tower during the lock down

[@benhawkins4245]

@@abigailbarfoot3846 i was literally about to comment the same thing lol

[@deeznuts3186]

glad to see my local station finally getting the attention it deserves

[@highpath4776]

Geoff Marshall will feature you too in time

[@sihollett]

@@highpath4776 He already did - it was the first 'End of the Line' video he did.

[@hb1338]

I was born in Amersham and went to school there. Very nice to be reminded of carefree days.

[@s0muchforsubtlety]

I'll add myself to the list of people that use(d) this lovely little station. 😁

[@PokhrajRoy.]

You deserve a standing ovation for the title of this video! 👏🏽 #RenéGadeThinking

[@john1703]

So Jago's new name is "Eersham".

[@petertooth2831]

Rambling on in a Renee Descartes manner.

[@ianthomson9363]

@@petertooth2831 Or alternatively, admitting that he makes all this stuff up - am a sham. Either way it scores very highly on the Groanometer, which is what we expect from this channel.

[@NickyMitchell85]

I agree ☝️.

[@nirgunapa56]

Amershamed to say I've never been there, but now I have...

[@highvoltageswitcher6256]

👍 I remember watching a documentary, I think it was called “Metroland”. It stared Sir John Betjeman waxing lyrical, as only he could, about the possible expansion of the much maligned suburbs.

[@markiangooley]

Some of Evelyn Waugh’s novels became associated with the name Metroland but I don’t know if it has quite the same meaning for that. Betjeman and Waugh had a somewhat tempestuous friendship…

[@thomasburke2683]

A most enjoyable programme, I had it on VHS.

[@TheGoldenDuckie111]

Love Metroland!

[@ShedTV]

I saw Metroland for the first time last month. Absolutely joyous!

[@Tevildo]

"The Croxley Green Revels, a tradition dating back to 1952."

[@gwenever7286]

I love Amersham Station, my Aunt worked in the ticket office for 40 years before she retired.

[@paulusthegrey]

Glad to see the Jago pun machine is in good working order.

[@MrMontage4]

If any of you happen to end up here early morning, please visit the sandwich shop when you turn left out the main doors - they serve a full English breakfast in a bap the size of a dinner plate

[@phaasch]

" In those wet fields, the railway didn't pay- the Metro stops at Amersham today".

[@zitzong]

Amersham the station which is only for the bold, valiant souls with enough money for the fare, amongst our society, who dare to travel out to the mysterious area of the tube map of Zone 9.

[@highpath4776]

if you start from Z2 or higher and avoid Z1 off peak it is not too pricey

[@simonpowell9975]

In the 90s I remember having to persuade central London ticket staff that there was in fact a Zone D! www.clarksbury.com/cdl/maps/tube99.jpg

[@tomwilmott3426]

My grandparents always referred to the MSL as "Mucky, Slow, and Late". fun times in north lincolnshire

[@alejandrayalanbowman367]

Hi Jago from Spain. My first encounters with the Metropolitan were back in 1957 when I used to travel from Preston Road to Stanmore and back daily, changing at Wembley Park. The Metropolitan carriages, then, were slam-door stock hauled by a loco - many memories.

[@avenuefriends3565]

Love it…. Standard Jago brilliance

[@michaelwright2986]

That clock face at 7:12 is very elegant--Swiss railways, eat your modernist heart out.

[@Mgameing123]

Amazing video! I used to live in Amersham Old Town and I can tell you. Amersham-On-The-Hill (where the station is) feels seperate from Amersham Old Town still to this day. I used to always catch the route 1 to get to the train station. Honestly Amersham Met Line trains are not busy at all because most passengers take the faster Chiltern service to London but there are still a handful of people taking the All Stations Met Line trains.

[@hb1338]

If my memory is correct, in the 1970s Amersham was served by both fast and slow Met trains - the fast ones travelled Moor Park Harrow-on the Hill Finchley Road, the slow ones visited all stations, but there were some variations on this pattern. My father knew which services ran when without recourse to the timetable and I have inherited and/or acquired his eye for detail. Nowadays it appears that only the Chiltern Line (nice trains) operates the fast service.

[@Mgameing123]

@@hb1338 Met line still run fast trains but only at peak time in the peak direction. But for the most of the day yes Chiltern trains are your best bet when going London.

[@simplesimon2802]

​@@hb1338 for a while the trains ran non-stop between Finchley Road and Moor Park. I sometimes travelled on them, the journey took a little under 20 minutes!

[@Mgameing123]

@@simplesimon2802 I was not alive when that happened.

[@billsinkins361]

Hearing about Amersham reminds me of my time in graduate school. We bought quite a few radiochemicals from Amersham. Some googling tells me the old radiochemical center is now a GE Healthcare site.

[@hb1338]

My best friend's father worked there in the 1970s.

[@billsinkins361]

@@hb1338 Brilliant! Amersham radiochemicals were used all over the world. That small town in the English countryside was home to a very important resource. Your best friend's father should be proud!

[@iankemp1131]

Originally part of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, then Amersham International, and indeed still fulfilling a vital role today. Harwell in Oxfordshire also produced radiochemicals from its research reactors, mainly iodine-131. Its half-life was about 2 days (thus decaying rapidly and not harming patients). So it was made during the day, chemically extracted in the evening and loaded into a fleet of fast cars which distributed it overnight to hospitals all round the country and were officially authorised to exceed the motorway speed limit. A friend worked on the extraction process. They normally finished between 10 pm and midnight, but if things went wrong they might be working till 2 am.

[@ianmcclavin]

BR did peruse about closing Marylebone in the early eighties, as the Met was already running parallel services as far as Amersham, centred on Baker Street, but this wasn't proceded with, and now Marylebone has become quite an important terminus again in its own right, at the time it was under threat, Metropolitan Line trains to Amersham were almost as fast as the Chiltern ones, and Banbury only saw a service from Marylebone every two hours, the hourly service to Princes Risborough alternating with a 2-hourly Aylesbury service via High Wycombe. Now, there's fast and stopping services, projection of the Banbury service to Birmingham, a viable alternative to the WCML out of Euston, and the new Oxford service. Marylebone 's fortunes have turned around completely.

[@Mgameing123]

Maylebone is now at capacity with "no room to expand" so yeah it definitely became important again.

[@AaronOfMpls]

Indeed, and Jago did a video about that about a year and a half ago: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z16zcpSna7adoZY

[@MrGreatplum]

@@Mgameing123 - and they extended it by 2 platforms in the early 2000s

[@Mgameing123]

@@MrGreatplum Yeah.

[@ianmcclavin]

@@MrGreatplum Yes, it takes quite a while to access the trains if you find out yours is departing from one of the platforms at the far end! The porters with the buggies are kept busy here, they do a grand job!!

[@scottpankonin1068]

It is still far out in the countryside (from my place in the London bubble, anyway). That far out, on the approach they change the next station announcement to include a "Hear-ye, hear-ye..."

[@winterspark7324]

if you walk down the hill from the station you will find the Sun Houses leading to High and Over ... art deco masterpieces and then into the actual old town and onto Shardeloes

[@jennyd255]

Back when I bought my first home in Aylesbury, around the time when Adam was first dating Eve, and Maggie, the wicked witch of the west, was casting her first spells, there was talk of a tube service being restored, but I guess that never came to anything. These days I suppose the hope is for a reopening of the route to Calvert and the new East West railway. I wonder if that hope too will prove forlorn. Sadly, as I'm now Scotland based I probably won't get to ride either route.

[@hb1338]

I believe that when David Lidington was MP for Aylesbury, he lobbied very hard for improvement of the rail service to Aylesbury, but without success.

[@borderlands6606]

A college friend lived in the area. It seems the further north one lived in Buckinghamshire, the more people laboured under the suspicion they might be living in the Midlands, and consequently, Provincials. Which was the opposite of their aspirations to be metropolitans. Amersham is roughly level with Oxford, which critics say is a small Midland town, to the annoyance of its students. On such delicate topics does English identity balance. MS&L = Money Sunk & Lost, GC = Gone Completely.

[@iankemp1131]

Amersham is in fact the highest point on the line through the Chilterns as the route climbs over a hump between the Chess and Misbourne valleys, so even before the cutback of Aylesbury services it was the highest station on the Metropolitan Railway and London Transport. Most of the bank from Rickmansworth is at 1 in 105 and presented a stiff test in steam days for Met and GC trains alike.

[@sihollett]

When they run Met Number 1 for 'Steam on the Met' days, or even old electric locos like Sarah Siddons, they throw on a historic BR diesel loco at the other end to make sure the train has enough push to get up that hill.

[@sarran1955]

Hello Jago, Wow.. this takes me back to the '60s, when we would go from Chorleywood to Amersham to visit the BRAND NEW swimming pool. Cordialement,

[@sihollett]

Pretty sure people do that now, in the '20s... (that once brand-new swimming pool was demolished last year after a new one was built next to it).

[@hb1338]

They built a new library at the same time.

[@sihollett]

@@hb1338 Given they demolished the old Library (and the Youth and Community Centres) it was only right that they put a Library and Community Centre in the new facility.

[@julianaylor4351]

I liked the old Metropolitan rolling stock, because the floor plate, told me that it was as old as me and the sprung seating, which is something you don't get on suburban trains anymore. The seating is now like a park bench, if you can get to sit on it....rock hard.

[@chrisnmayor]

Come for the pun - stay for the trains...😁

[@Steven_Rowe]

Oh Amersham, I know thee well. Back in the dim dark past of the 1960s you could buy a twin rover ticket and travel on tube and buses all day for FIVE BOB, blimey that is 25P, and it was 10 bob for adults. So my mate and I would just travel the tube all day long and a favourite was going out on the met. Well we decided to go as far as we could, so one Saturday morning, we arrived at Aylesbury, I would have been around 12 at the time. So imagine the scene when an inspector with a peaked cap looking and sounding like Blakey interrogated us, it was like the Spanish inquisition, our crime was travelling to Alyesbury when the furthest you were allowed to go was Rickmansworth, he accused us of doing it before and insured as that we would wind up in Pentonville awaiting Albert Peirrepoint to drop us through the trap door. I kid you not this geezer was scary, probably failed to get into the SS during WW2. So we decided to turn over and read the back of the ticket, which duly stated, "It's not valid North of Rickmansworth. Honestly, when you're 12, you don't read junk like that do you? Anyway, it's all good now, I met some wonderful people inside, the Kray twins, and got out in 2021. Yes, I did meet Blakey , very intimidating he was too.

[@hb1338]

I used to get told off at Great Missenden for standing too close to the edge of the platform. My greatest fear was that the station master would tell my father, even though he didn't know him from Adam.

[@Steven_Rowe]

@H B yes you would be shot at dawn.

[@corinheathcote9868]

Watkins another stand out character from the early days of tube👍🏻. Nicely covered.

[@reptongeek]

I never got to Amersham sadly as the lack of signal staff in the early hours did me in. But I am planning to have a day trip so I can finally visit my last eight Underground stations

[@alanbudgen2672]

We need a Brilliant Brill video one day. Excellent as always.

[@ThatScottishAtlantic57]

Ok, that title pun was clever. Great video Jago, love the Metropolitan Railway steam fleet👍

[@tbjtbj7930]

This is Amersham. The end. Of everything. Seriously, don't go beyond this point, they eat their babies out there.

[@sihollett]

Can confirm. Don't head north or west of here. The Eldritch horror that is James Corden comes from just beyond Amersham, and the less said about Chesham the better...

[@apolloc.vermouth5672]

Come now, there isn't really anything beyond Amersham. George Orwell was a science fiction writer.

[@sihollett]

@@apolloc.vermouth5672 Growing up in the town, I did try to walk west, but after a few miles I found myself back in the town. It was like there was some mysterious force field trying to stop people from falling off the edge of the world.

[@Mgameing123]

@@sihollett Great Missenden: I am here to ruin your carrier!

[@sihollett]

@@Mgameing123 Great Missenden is a fictional place created by children's author Roald Dahl, with the lie continued by Chiltern Railways to sell tickets on that line that they don't have to give all the revenue to London Underground.

[@NickyMitchell85]

I think 💭, Therefore I Amerfan of Jago Hazzard’s ‘Tale From The Tube 🚇’.

[@Pinkybum]

Finally I got one: "Locomotives to my wooden coaches!"

[@isashax]

I like the countryside look on this station. Need to visit it one day.

[@hb1338]

Amersham is an affluent dormitory town with a pleasant feel and an excellent boys school. The old town, now bypassed, used to lie on the main road from London to Aylesbury and was a coaching halt, with a wide main street flanked by attractive old buildings with stables behind. The new town, which is mostly anonymous but includes the station, is at the top of the hill. If you take the Chiltern line further, Great Missenden and Wendover are lovely rural villages. There used to be a post office in Great Missenden, and the safe there was built by my great-great grandfather.

[@davidwong9230]

Those operating the line needed coaching in the 1960s in the techniques of electrifying the service. It must have been quite a shock to the system 🚂 ⚡️

[@maximarkhipov2186]

great video , was waiting some time for you to document the station that I use very frequently .

[@AFCManUk]

Ah, Mr. Jago, you're Denmark Hill-ing Me Softly with your puns!

[@rwm2986]

Thanks for another informative video. It is quite amazing how, under BR, the services out of Marylebone were the 'Cinderella' of all operations yet as 'Chiltern Railways' the services have gone from strength to strength. I sometimes think that the only reason BR kept Marylebone was that it was very useful for running weekend steam excursions as, up to the mid-1980s and perhaps beyond, it still had a turntable.

[@highpath4776]

Plus BR HQ was there , in some part to stop Ex Midland / GW and LNER stations / regions thinking they were superior

[@Recessio]

@@highpath4776 maybe that regional rivalry explains why some of the staff referred to the HQ as "the Kremlin"!

[@highpath4776]

@@Recessio Well it was a representation of State Ownership (actually I get confused, at times it was BRB , sometimes the BTC - were they both there at the same time ?)

[@kaitlyn__L]

The self deprecating joke at the start was unexpected and funny, I liked the end of episode pun as well. I hadn’t realised some parts of the network used steam locomotives into the early 60s!

[@eugenemurray2940]

LT used steam till 1972.. Maroon painted GWR Panniers BR stopped in 1968

[@chris8405]

Last steam seen in London was a couple of LT (ex GWR) Pannier Tanks used on engineering trains until 1972. Last steam passenger trains were out of Waterloo until July 1967. Otherwise steam was gone from the other routes in the capital by the end of 1965.

[@miked351947]

The flying pig electric engine took the train to Rickmansworth. A steam locomotive took the train to the end of the Metropolitan line at Aylesbury. As a young trainspotter in the late 1950s I would look at the trains from the North Circular Road bridge over the railway at Neasden 😊

[@simonbennett6648]

The distance from central London and semi-fast operation were part of the reasons taking over the routes of Amersham and Chesham were part of the original 1990s Crossrail scheme. Come the 2000s revival of the scheme though and the success of Chiltern meant the SRA would not countenance carving up that franchise. So now we have the unbalanced situation with nearly half the Elizabeth line service not going further west than Paddington.

[@therathergoodengineer9285]

Amersham is one of those stations that turned a village into a part of the city (its hard to explain)

[@DarthCoco]

3 weeks ago, I finally went to Amersham. Like Chesham I appreciate the area for similar qualities, and it also does feel far out for a London Underground station. Definitely has good connections with both Chiltern and Metropolitan Line services.

[@barrywood2806]

"Station names bordering on false advertising". And now the same happens with airports. And yes, those A60/62 stock were rather special. Roomy, and the fact that they were, in effect, express trains made them feel a cut above the usual underground rides.

[@tomcarroll2244]

I lived in Beaconsfield (the High Wycombe branch with service to Marylebone) back in the 1970s. When British Rail would go on strike, which seemed like an annual occurrence, I would just catch the express tube from Amersham.

[@GeoffArnold1]

Great video of my home station (I lived there in the late 60s.) Curious why you finished off with a shot of 1938 Tube stock, which never ran in regular service to Amersham.

[@delurkor]

Yes, this ex colonial also wants to know about that. Or is TFL in worst shape than we know?

[@davidholt7883]

I suspect it is one of the Museum's Art Deco runs, which are very popular. The 38 looks full. There are some more happening at the end of this month.

[@highpath4776]

Wakins line from Sheffield was also hauled by the "Ee, Class" as the yorkshiremen said

[@highbury1972]

I have also been there a few times and it’s a lovely place. I do believe some of Midsomer Murders was filmed in Amersham. Chiltern Railway’s have a cool livery and it has shades of NSE about it.

[@justinrovers1]

The title alone gets 5 stars!! Made me laugh, not just lol.

[@muzza9575]

Yet another great episode Jago. Love the title. Any chance of a "Cognito Ergo Sum-merston"?😜.

[@PokhrajRoy.]

“hacks on KZbin…” Is there something you’d like to share with the class, Jago?

[@iankemp1131]

When the MSLR changed to GC the nickname was changed from "Money Sunk and Lost" to "Gone Completely". By and large it was a fair comment. Watkin was chairman of both and also the SER and the first Channel Tunnel borings project, so indeed getting to Paris was surely on his radar. (Not that it had been invented then).

[@john1703]

I fear that Mr Watkin was sadly mistaken if he thought that one could reach Paris, on the Metropolitan line, by heading out beyond Amersham.

[@frglee]

Watkin actually built a mile of the Channel Tunnel out under the sea from Folkestone in 1882/3 so he and his investors must have been pretty serious about it. Another mile was dug on the French side at Sandgatte. (It was actually stopped by the British government, terrified of foreign invasions!) Oh, and the Great Central Railway was built to continental loading gauge for when higher and wider coaches and wagons from continental Europe ventured onto the British railway system through the Channel Tunnel. Watkin was quite a visionary, unlike the myopic fools that closed and demolished the line in the 1960s.

[@gravellegb]

There was once an American railroad called the Erie Lackawanna. It was notorious for being in financial difficulty, so people called it the Erie Lackamoney.

[@Inkyminkyzizwoz]

It was also called the Mucky, Slow and Lazy

[@stephenarbon2227]

I read in one book, that the GC and then LNER never paid a dividend from the year they started building the line to London, till the year LNER was nationalized and they stopped running trains.

[@tremensdelirious]

Love the traditional stations on Chiltern line. At Aylesbury, there’s a post box in the station wall with a VR inscription. Just perfect

[@allotment3275]

Big up the Zone D massive

[@kevinnicholson7722]

A stock are the best underground trains ever!

[@zetectic7968]

Only got to Amersham a half dozen or so times but for at least 1 winter was getting off at Chesham. The trip up from Baker St. was always a cold one at 7 am as the heating was poor & most of it left the carriage at every stop when the doors opened. Fortunately the journey back was always much warmer & after a tiring day I often nodded off.

[@teecefamilykent]

Brilliant video sir!

[@evani2000]

I don't know if it's still the case now but in the 1980s at least some of the flats on Hill Avenue (the shopping street up from the station) were still paying their rents to the underground. It had presumably built and retained them as a source of income. I grew up within earshot of Amersham Station and to this day the rattle of distant underground trains soothes me to sleep.

[@playwithmeinsecondlife6129]

I have plans to take the Lake Shore Limited from Syracuse all the way in to Pennsylvania Station but I can't imagine getting anywhere near your haunts. Still, I like the sound of your voice.

[@sujmaster]

On the chiltern railway, i actually prefer it when i travel back to birmingham now, its cheaper and the trains are much nicer inside in my opinion, and its only around 20 minutes slower than the fastest avanti west coast service

[@dogrando]

I can't believe I'm writing this, but... I think it's the *third* most northerly (after Chesham and Epping) and the second most *westerly* (after Chesham, by a gnat's whisker).

[@sihollett]

It is however, by some margin, the highest tube station at 150m above sea level (number 2 is Chalfont & Latimer at 123m)

[@AFCManUk]

Indeed, Chesham is the most Westerly Station, but, when the inbound service from London is parked up in the turnaround siding just past Amersham, That train is the most Westerly on the whole network.

[@italiahill77]

Jago, do you think there’d be enough in it to make a video about the history of goods being carried on trains? I often hear mention of goods depots, goods carriages etc but not sure I understand the system or the place in day-to-day life, when they existed. Thanks for the really wonderful videos.

[@machosker]

Love the video, got to visit here last year. Both my brother and I are transport buffs and did the 1938 stock running last September. That 1/3 scale model is well worth a look.

[@MattSomethingOrOther]

*I grew up in Amersham and went to college in Aylesbury, by train every day! Dirty smelly diesel. Wonderful*

[@cebudave]

Thanks for the great info on Amersham station. I live in High Wycombe and prefer to travel to London via Amersham, as it's cheaper that way for a family of four.

[@iankemp1131]

Ironically, 40 years ago, LT fares out to the Amersham area were noticeably more expensive than BR ones to nearby destinations, and you weren't allowed to use a Student Railcard on the Aylesbury line or break your journey because of this.

[@Punnery]

Way to slip in the "A Train" reference. :) Duke Ellington would have been proud.

[@ZGryphon]

"Well, look, old boy, we called it the Metropolitan Railway because if we'd called it the Middle of Nowhere Railway, nobody would bally well ride it, would they?"

[@chris8405]

The 'A' stock is well worth a video of their own, I used to enjoy the bouncy ride out of Uxbridge on those comfy seats, plus the thudding of the noisy compressor. I got to Chesham in one, but never to Amersham. Thinking about it I've only ever been to Amersham on loco-hauled trains thanks to BR diesel specials and Steam on the Met.

[@tsungiraichiramba]

Went there in Aug 2021 and it’s by far one of the best places to visit

[@miguelbarreira5005]

I can't wait to see Jago do Verney Junction!

[@harold6442]

I think it would be cool to have a video on the Met 100 and Met 150 events

[@robinjones6999]

The title caused an instant click - brilliant

[@brenstratters2026]

I do enjoy your little tit-bits on the underground and others. Just a thought. How about covering the change from ground pick ups to overhead on The Thameslink line between Blackfriars to Farringdon?

[@seanbonella]

Clever title Jago

[@JamesPetts]

I approve of Metroland.

[@sihollett]

Picture of the most terrible interwar housing in the town (not part of the Weller Estate that was in the poster you put), in the rain, to make it seem that Amersham's Metroland was not as good as the hype... ...OK later developments made it not quite as countryside-adjacent as it was originally. And yes, it was suburban (albeit very leafy) rather than proper countryside, but the advertising was pretty accurate.

[@dukenukem5768]

The advertising poster was not misleading. It correctly showed the trees that were chopped down to make room for the houses.

[@kapuchinoification]

It seems odd that more than half of the line to Aylesbury is electrified, yet diesel trains run over the 4th rail, to serve just 5 stations. Surely it would be better to lay the additional 20 miles of 4th rail, and run the Met trains up to Aylesbury. This would offer a direct connection to the city for commuters. Timings could be retained by reintroducing the 'fast' services between Moor Park and Finchley Road, and capacity on the Chiltern main line would be increased at Marylebone!

[@iankemp1131]

Good point. It was also suggested in the 1980s when Marylebone was slated for closure. However I'm not sure that passengers would have been keen on either the bouncy A class stock or the hard-seated S stock all the way out to Aylesbury. The other argument against it was lack of track capacity south of Finchley Road and east of Baker Street.

[@dukenukem5768]

The 'elf & safety droids freak out when extending 3rd or 4th rail electrification is mentioned. So good luck with that.

[@MartinOgg]

You are definitely in Amersham! I used to live there

[@PaulSmith-pl7fo]

Hi Jago. Who doesn't enjoy a ramble?

[@laurenceskinnerton73]

Very good.

[@18robsmith]

Oh dear, is it rally that long since I travelled from Baker Street to Harrow on the Hill with Mater and Pater on a steam train before swapping to one of those new fangled electric things. Well I suppose it must be.

[@andrewmurray5542]

By jove, yes. When they removed first class, Nanny instructed us to sit tight and converse with nobody and that we wouldn't understand them anyway as the other paasengers would speak with strange accents. As usual, Nanny was right.

[@RogersRamblings]

From Manchester to Paris via Amersham and the Channel Tunnel if Sir Edward Watkin had had his way. Doubtless the publicity copywriters of yore would have provided aspiring You Tube historians with yet more material to ramble on about.

[@dom1310df]

Imagine if the Metropolitan Railway had stuck with its original plan to run to Tring via Chesham. We might not have Amersham (town and station) as it is today, if at all.

[@rolandbogush2594]

Very interesting, not least for giving the pronunciation of ‘Bois’ in a place name, something I have long wondered about but been too embarrassed to ask. I have heard it said as ‘bwa’ as if it were being said in French, but I am prepared to take your pronunciation as gospel. Theydon Bois is another example that springs to mind.

[@superlynx98]

I was in Amersham just last weekend! Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if the metropolitan line took over the Chiltern line to Aylesbury. Would it use Marylebone? Would capacity at Baker Street or Aldgate be increased to facilitate the extra services? What becomes of the Chiltern railways depot at Aylesbury? Would this mean fast metropolitan line services all day in both directions (I would assume so, I don't think Aylesbury residents would appreciate their already 50 minute train journey being made longer with 7 more stops!)? What would the tube map look like now it's got those extra stations (special fare zone, contactless only at Stoke Mandeville and Aylesbury?) Clearly I've spent too long thinking about this while waiting for my train to work! :)

[@allenwilliams1306]

MS&:: Money sunk and lost; GC: Gone completely.

[@1Tenor1]

Omg been here, it felt too fancy for me icl

[@highpath4776]

The 1960s map with the radiused 90deg curves looks interesting , has anyone done a modern version of the network map with the elegant - if somewhat even less geographical accurate - flowing lines?

[@thomastc520]

I've always wondered if TfL would restore services to Aylesbury as some form of "TfL Rail" services

[@Mgameing123]

I think that Chiltern trains in theory could get cut and replaced with some additional Met Line trains.

[@Flipper-hd6cx]

I can't see any need, not really any benefit for TfL certainly. Amersham travellers generally try to use Chiltern services as they are so much quicker especially off peak when the Met is all stations. Outside of the peaks a half hourly 2 car service is generally sufficient for the needs of the stations to AVP.

[@mattsyson3980]

Nitpicking I know BUT if the aspirations were London, Amersham 'possibly Manchester' I think I see a small snag in the 'Paris' direction, on the basis it is completely the wrong direction. I suppose if it was intended to be a 'Tube' line then tunnelling under La Manche could fall in the generally accurate description of the works needed. Whatever, it is always good to hear Jago's dulcit and measured tone giving me fascinating information about things I will probably never see again. If only there was someone who was so forthcoming about the Paris Metro lines I could while away many hours on those. Tim Traveller has started but as he is not a resident of France he can't really get into the real depth like Jago.

[@norbitonflyer5625]

Thge Paris extension would indeed have bveen from the other end, using the met's "Widened Lines" link (or possibly the Brunel tunnel) to the South Eastern Railway - another part of Watkin's railway empire

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

I hope you're okay, you sounded a tiny bit out of sorts.

[@elizabethspedding1975]

I think on some days there are steam trains running as a special event.❤

[@ThatCoalSoul]

Because of updated signalling systems steam is no longer allowed on The Underground ...or steam traction is not allowed in the tunnels now, I know that for certain.

[@ianpatterson6552]

Look back in Amersham.

[@fenlinescouser4105]

Off track but Look Back in Ongar, surely?

[@apolloc.vermouth5672]

Rolling Stock With It? I'll see myself out ....

[@highpath4776]

@@fenlinescouser4105 Look Back in Hanger (Lane)

[@AFCManUk]

Morden a feeling...

[@AFCManUk]

Holborn in the USA

[@eastlancsesteem]

Random fact: Chesham is actually further than Amersham.

[@roderickmain9697]

Cognito ergo Underground. It would have been quite easy to get to Oxford assuming they could have reused existing lines. I can see it now "Oxford to Paris by Metropolitan line". Railways are, after all, about connections. I'm not entirely surprised by the closure of goods yards. Picking up single wagons here and there is not exactly encouraging rapid delivery of said goods, particularly if they are perishable. Occasionally, you come across the remains of some huge marshaling yards which have all but died out too. Even in the rest of Europe theres not much (visibly) going by rail. In the USA its a different piscatorial kettle where passenger traffic is the forgotten son as mile long goods trains chunter across the land. (some of them even double decker containers). Americans are still going to use planes while we consider ever faster trains (well, at least Europe). I'm imagining Metropolitan liveried Javelins going to France. If Only.

[@hb1338]

In Great Missenden there used to be a coal merchant in the station yard - at one time, all his supplies arrived by train.

[@TheChunky2010]

Today it would be called Amersham Parkway 😂

[@Mgameing123]

What a horrible idea since it is bang in the middle of the town.

[@TheChunky2010]

@@Mgameing123 I guess you didn’t watch the video

[@Mgameing123]

@@TheChunky2010 Oh I forgot about the huge parking lot.

[@ThatCoalSoul]

That title? You should be amashamed! Then again maybe I can't say that, my steam video titles are just as odd!

[@HuggyBob62]

You'd have needed a very big Oyster card to go all the way to Oxford or Manchester, never mind Paris.

[@Sophiebryson510]

Why was verney junction called that?

[@ThatScottishAtlantic57]

I believe the name comes from the fact that. Until the railway came along, the only people living there was the Verney Family. Taking from Wikipedia, so take with much salt.

[@kbtred51]

Because it joined the Oxford to Cambridge line

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

​@@ThatScottishAtlantic57 specifically Sir Henry Verney of Claydon House, who was chairman of the Aylesbury and Buckingham Railway Company, which was then bought the Metropolitan Railway in 1891.