Metropolitan Railway in 1910

[@justRayEvansopinion]

Bravo to the people who had the foresight to film this in 1910.

[@Sameoldfitup]

no police to stop them

[@subk2010]

@@Sameoldfitup there are police to stop enthusiasts to film in station now?😨

[@meerkatmusings8450]

They knew KZbin would desire the footage.

[@lorrainetownsend8806]

My great grandfather was killed on this line in July 1904, he was on watch between Sloane square and Victoria in the middle of the night , his name was Arthur Townsend , he left behind a widow and 6 children

[@kylemore9142]

All that lovely verdant countryside, the rivers and trout streams and lush grazing - about to be covered in acres and acres of Mock Tudor!

[@lesgibson9366]

No rubbish on the tracks,no graffiti,wonderful.

[@somethingclever1128]

hur dur good old days hur dururur

[@jonka1]

Nothing Clever here!

[@johnhawkins6506]

How it's changed!!

[@paulukjames7799]

Yes now everywhere is awful

[@mickyboy223]

And four years later these people were led to slaughter.

[@jonka1]

Lots to see and many differences from present times. Roads without cars, no great runs of cables at the side of the tracks, lots of homes with (probably) no mains electric, no tv and not even radios, and in the days before powered hedge cutters lots of grown out hedgerows that didn't actually need to be trimmed and ,with only hand saws, lots of trees that didn't need to be cut down. Pity we can't hear the silence of the countryside or see the summer flocks of birds and clouds of butterflies before the farmers had the chemicals to get rid of them. Contemporary fashions and dress on the people are very interesting Wonderful glimpse into a world lost to silence.

[@wcstevens7]

No brain damaged idiots spraying paint on walls or rolling stock...

[@TimLondonGuitarist]

Trains probably as unreliable as they are in 2020, but a lot cheaper

[@jonka1]

This is a time before safety was a major priority. In modern times the power rail swaps sides when in a station. Anyone who slipped down the side of the platform in those days was toast.

[@ukmusichero]

superb, great stuff, it's nostalgia like this that keeps us humans alive, my father in law was station manager at Hillingdon,..obviously it didn't exist when this was filmed, Uxbridge,...that's changed a bit,.lol...as i guess it all has,..my only complaint is the complainers,...don't like the sound,...turn the speakers off, great upload thanks, so glad i stumbled on this.

[@cupofqwarffee4802]

I Think they moved the Uxbridge station down to its present location in the 30's. I think thats Belmont road houses in the background so where that station was, is now a Sainsbury's!

[@robtyman4281]

Hillingdon station was re-sighted in 1989 to allow for a widened A40. As a result, the Met line had to be permanently re-routed and follow a new course. So for anyone wondering why the present Hillingdon station looks abit modern - now you know! It's not in the same place that the original Edwardian style station was located at, as that's now occupied by the A40.

[@mirajulislam341]

​@@cupofqwarffee4802

[@mirajulislam341]

​@@robtyman4281

[@Biggles-gm6tm]

What a complete joy to watch! And all filmed on what looks like a hot mid-summers day. Lovely to see all the sidings and goods sheds in as built condition, and not a TV ariel in site! Really tastefully filmed with the side views, soundtrack is great too, really adds to it. Many thanks for uploading this.

[@Ashley_van_Schooneveld]

More than a 100 years later and the scenery hasn't changed that much

[@rodericklow323]

Noted! One of the Metropolitan Railway Pullmans sitting in the sidings just before Aylesbury. Also, lovely GCR 'Atlantic' rushes through. Very nice film!

[@HROM1908]

All things considered, the added soundtrack was very well chosen and edited. Well done !

[@WilliamHBaird-eq2hp]

Amazing to see the first three stations in the tunnel (After Baker Street) now long gone and all the locations that have changed very little in over 100 years!

[@johnsharp8632]

The alignment of the track, signs of excellent weed control and freedom from litter is better than anything seen today and all done manually. I like the soundtrack by the way whatever others may think, after they can always mute the sound.

[@alanesplen2253]

In these times of Corvid-19 lockdown this is a wonderful and relaxing view of a vanished world, how I would love to have lingered at the stations. Some of the footage was also used in the 1973 BBC documentary film written and narrated by the then Poet Laureate , Sir John Betjeman.

[@twoslices]

Amazing to see open fields in Ruislip and no fence guarding the tracks!

[@Clivestravelandtrains]

My late father once recollected having taken a train to Ruislip as a child, for a walk in the country. He was born in 1909.

[@telemachus53]

Little did the cameraman know in 1910 that we'd watching this wonderful film jaws agape with wonderment and joy. My heart leapt at every station name, every herd of cows ambling on where shopping centres are now, and saw Willesden crowded as usual. Many thank for this wonderful upload!

[@merccadoosis8847]

Wonderful video. Looks so much like part of the NYC elevated subway system. Background sounds add much to the viewing. Thank you forsharing this delightul little movie.

[@TheLpbrennan]

Notice the general haze in the air, the result of the wide-spread use of coal. In the shot of Pinner at 6:50, for example, every house has one or more chimneys, and you can see smoke drifting from a number of them. Between the houses, factories, locomotives, and ships, there was a phenomenal amount of smoke being emitted every day. London's famous fog was as much coal smoke as water vapor.

[@jasonfelix7438]

@Stephen Anthony You can't actually be serious surely?

[@Terk131]

@@jasonfelix7438Why, no regulation and with wood and coal being used for literally for everything it was a problem. Why do you think parts of China have air quality problems today….

[@brianrose234]

Would be interesting to to see this as a split screen, a then and now film.

[@lucaschapman2188]

Amazing ! I grew up in Pinner .Very Rural back then.Harrow unrecognisable from now.it's changed a hell of a lot since the early 1990's to be honest.

[@ThePerson1959]

You almost feel as if you are on the train. Love it.

[@brendaboudinot6431]

Astonishingly clean and tidy, no rubbish or paper on the rails. :D

[@WilliamHBaird-eq2hp]

All those signal box towers... Lovely!

[@v8pilot]

Twenty years later, those fields had been replaced by housing estates.

[@johntyjp]

Nice to see this video again, it had been removed for copyright reasons so I was informed! My recollection of this line doesn t go back as far as 1910, though my late grandmother remembered the Great Central being built in the1890s at Missenden. Change engines at Ricky I remember and seeing that G C express at Aylesury was fun!!

[@dreadnaught3894]

So gratifying that this excellent footage has survived and made available by your goodself. Reality of the Past preserved. Thanks so much! Pity J Betjeman isn't with us to see it.

[@peterbaxter2913]

Dreadnought - JB did indeed use a small proportion of this footage in his "Metro-land" - still available (DD Home Entertainment D23284).

[@stnicholas54]

I see that between Willesden and Neasden stations there was no Dollis Hill station in 1910.

[@dpsqwerty]

Great video - interesting how rural it all was beyond Harrow, and how little vegetation there was in places compared to now. Also nice to see the milk churns on the platform at Willesden Green and Northwood

[@ulazygit]

Bloody Uxbridge line train came first even in 1910! 😂

[@johnhawkins6506]

Simply amazing! My Mother's parents were born in 1910!

[@mikeagate]

For over 30 years the route from Watford Met to Baker St was my daily commute. Such a delightful film 🎥👏👏

[@rodericklow323]

Noted: Power rail often on the platform side directly below passengers' feet. Also Uxbridge line trains of three coaches.

[@rogersponge6153]

Intrigued by the lack of housing between Uxbridge & Ruislip. Very different from the scene my daily grind!

[@claudiarouse6864]

It's amazing that trains went so fast in 1910.

[@garyd6421]

Incredible footage

[@billcobbett9259]

Thank you so much for not putting on the film projector noise that so many other people use for silent films... I really don't see the point in it.

[@Natterlee]

I agree with the nonsense of adding film projector noise- but also dislike added sound intensely especially when it is not even of the correct form of traction as here This was filmed from a steam loco propelled flat wagon.

[@99ize18]

Natterlee - At least it's train sounds and not some awful music.

[@ThreeRiversMuseum]

Bill Cobbett can't understand when people complain about the sound, when they have a mute button.

[@steffanoberg4782]

Beatiful, want see underground subway on 20, 30, 40 ,50, 60, 70, 80, 90s was in 1988 in lpndon and brighton. Love underground and history :)

[@Hammondfreak]

Great piece of footage. I can't imagine why there are dislikes - they probably think it should be in colour and HD with a genuine hi-fi stereo soundtrack !

[@bertspeggly4428]

Fantastic! Who would think there would be a "cab view" from 1910! Thanks to whoever filmed it, to you for uploading it, and to KZbin for making it available to millions. BTW is there someone wandering around on the lines at Wembley Park?

[@musicforaarre]

Wonderful. I could feel the bucolic charm of the countryside !

[@bhipp75]

Very interesting. How about a modern day run in 4k?

[@henrysimpson6964]

The country side, the elms, all gone.

[@christopherbentley5216]

Stoke Mandeville Station was obviously added later. The road bridge is there. Oh to travel on a GCR Express to Manchester via Sheffield.

[@nigelwilliams7403]

Fantastic Victorian engineering. All neat and tidy, no mess or graffiti. Wonderful!

[@TimLondonGuitarist]

Uxbridge station hurrah, famous for the Uxbridge English Dictionary

[@IamRobotMonkey]

So nice to see this. Getting lots of inspiration for my model Met line.

[@robtyman4281]

No Wembley stadium back in 1910!! So that huge Wembley Park station in this footage puzzles me? London's main stadium would have been the one at White City at that time. (having hosted the Olympics two years earlier). Fascinating footage - all the stations look really neat and well kept. And obviously not being as built up as now, it didn't take as long to get into countryside. Alot of the current stations wouldn't have existed back then, as the expansion of the line - 'Metroland', didn't take place til the 1920's and 30's.

[@saikyoDRAGON]

It's cool to see the stations between Finchley Road and Wembley Park, before they had to accommodate the Jubilee Line. Also interesting to see the now A406 at Neasden station before. Wish the film got closer though

[@PeteS_1994]

Bakerloo Line, it changed to Jubilee Line later.

[@ulazygit]

@@PeteS_1994 originally the Met railway to Stanmore …

[@tarondenby]

Anyone else the placement of the conductor rail at every station that's electrified.... crazy

[@Δανιήλ-ψ8χ]

Incredible video, thank you 😊

[@gwr5029]

I have a feeling that where it says 'Ebury Line' it is the LNWR branch to Rickmansworth

[@johnjephcote7636]

Yes. I did that once behind a 2P and we could not get the engine to run round at Rickmansworth as the coaches were fouling the return crossing-can't remember how they managed it now.

[@Resholden]

Fascinating! I hadn't realised that the Met. seems to have operated only 3-car trains.

[@cherylpurdue888]

Love watching the old films 😊

[@jacksugden8190]

Unimaginable in 2020 to have been in 1910, that’s 110 years ago, not even my late parents were born then, posing the point that lime was indeed short.

[@simontaylor2319]

Excellent film, I know the route well

[@beatsinabar]

Where was the camera positioned for the 'stratight ahead' scenes in the steam hauled section. Fascinating filom, thanks for the upload.

[@mrrolandlawrence]

wow sandy lodge station. that was my stop for 15 years! all changed there now mind. people back when used to walk. now they get picked up / dropped off.

[@PaulSmith-pl7fo]

Wot - no digital remastering (wouldn't that be wonderful)? I love the design of the trains - the Victorians/Edwardians had such elegance. What were those line-side boxes at time code 11 minutes (approx)?

[@Natterlee]

Aside from the inappropriate added soundtrack- this was a silent film shot for the Metropolitan Railway filmed by a cameraman on a flat wagon being propelled by a steam loco, this has much of interest. A rarity is a shot of one of the two compartment single cars- used later on the Watford-Rickmansworth and Wembley Park- Stanmore shuttles- leading a three car train. it can be seen as the filming train climbs to cross the canal outside Baker Street and where the Met and GC briefly paralleled each each. Shame the quality suffers in this copy later on and a shame that there are no outtakes, extra scenes for us to drool over (unless the BFI has some hidden in their archives.)

[@CSpeedydog]

You can always turn the soundtrack off.

[@cefnonn]

I like the soundtrack, railways aren't silent! Thanks for uploading.

[@johnjephcote7636]

I was hoping to see an up GC express and right at the end came what appeared to be a Jersey Lilly-a Robinson Atlantic. Still remember the Colwick class fives at 'Ricky' and seeing an up and a down GC Nottingham train passing each other at Chorleywood in '66. The rural fastness of the Uxbridge branch-before the arrival of the tube-a huge area rural for so long owing to the lack of rail transport in that part of Middx.

[@MrBrutal33]

As a regular user in all directions this is fascinating to watch! Are the defunct stations between Baker St and Finchley Rd still viewable?

[@stuartsviews1565]

I don't knowabout still, but the remains of the platforms of the first two were still in the 90's, but swiss cottage had gone altogether.

[@alcopower5710]

Outstanding footage

[@bazza945]

Brilliant. Thank you for sharing. Did you notice the pristine station name signage?

[@marvinwatkins8889]

Great and authentic sounding sound effects. Obviously a special train with no stops and that station signage looked a bit too clean snd contrived up on bridges and whatnot where it's unlikely any passenger would see them. I am sure all that farm land has long been developed and it's no doubt electrified all the way and beyond by now.

[@norbitonflyer5625]

Only electrified to Amersham

[@mrtransport2]

The rest of the line past amersham is now chiltern Railways

[@cliffwheeler7357]

I can remember when the engines had to be changed from steam to electric and vice-versa at Rickmansworth. I can’t remember when the line was electrified to Amersham, I was only a schoolboy when that happened.

[@barry5111]

I think I was travelling on some of that rolling stock when I was a kid in the fifties

[@57305northernprincess]

There's one of the two Pullman cars as the film enters Aylesbury

[@johntimken9842]

Great video, but only add a sound track if it matches the pictures, otherwise it's naff.

[@brando6BL]

I wonder how long it took before the 'fourth rail' was moved away from the platform edge in stations, by placing them in the central space between the tracks?

[@12crepello]

The power rail (the one outside the running lines and the one that can kill you!) is the 3rd rail. The 4th rail runs along the centre and is the return rail.

[@geoffcrisp7225]

I wonder how many people commuted into central London on this line then? Most workers when this was filmed would only travel short distances to work. Whereas today travel from Chorleywoo is or was quite normal.

[@robertnielsen2461]

Please note the center third rail!

[@12crepello]

4th. The third rail is on the outside of the running lines.

[@SirKenchalot]

Fascinating and very enjoyable.

[@smokerjim]

A great film, but I'm disappointed I didn't get to see Preston Road Halt For Uxendon and Kenton (200 yards or so south of the current Preston Road and where I grew up)

[@titup2]

Thank you; an historic gem!. Lovely peaceful countryside......and in four years they would be at war.

[@icefahrer]

Amazing!

[@thebrummierailenthusiasts5329]

This is about 110 years ago

[@lorrainetownsend8806]

Arthur Townsend was a night watch man for a gang of track maintenance workers and a train ran into him ,but at the inquest the railway company denied the train had ever been there , he lost his feet and was hurt across the middle , I have been trying to find his grave but to no avail , anyone can help me ?

[@davidf0071]

Great video. What are the ‘boxes’ along side the tracks from about 11.15? Where was the camera situated for the footage from the steam locomotive (no steam box can be seen)?

[@alenalen_]

There are poles along the road, but no electrical wiring....and the lamps do not have electrical wiring between them...another technology far beyond today's time....

[@lesliechrol-frolowicz3480]

Brilliant!

[@LordHeath1972]

Great video. The Metropolitan line is my favourite on the network, and Chesham is a beautiful station (shame it's not featured here). Is it true that Watford station will soon be extinct?

[@norbitonflyer5625]

No - the project to extend to Watford Junction has been cancelled.

[@alenalen_]

And the camera that is shooting is not a DVR? many archival videos of trains and trams had similar videos from the same point of view.

[@fflubadubb]

Simply fantastic.

[@vacantspaced3930]

Amazing, thanks!

[@bigmull]

I am 99% sure that the "soundtrack" is from Train Simulator Jinty 3F pack.

[@craphead9842]

The good old days and the trains on time... Tony cuenca

[@robertjones-eb4xo]

Excellent

[@RevPeteS]

Where did you get the electrified sound effects from ? It sounds as if it is from a Pre 38 Standard stock motor car.

[@CSpeedydog]

Sarah Siddons - electric, Steam on Met - Steam

[@uttaradit2]

Looks like a sunny day

[@Kitchen619_1M]

لايك واشتراك من فيديو رائع و جميل جدا هده المناظر نادرة شكرا على مشاركتنا بالتوفيق والنجاح

[@manmeetsinghmahajan6183]

Amazing.

[@tommyfin962]

Cameras back then didn’t record audio though...

[@Hertfordshire247]

Apparently Chorleywood station burnt down in 1982, does anyone have a source for this?

[@BelreklamaReverse96SX]

Amazing

[@MRconfusedboy]

back when there were less people, those were the days

[@maddogryan5799]

your got the E U to thank for that leting the scumbags in the country

[@allanegleston4931]

from my information, the parts that were electified , that happened a few years earlier . im trying to figure out the actual track arrangement. so is the rail outside the positive rail and is the 1 in the middle a return rail for the current.? thanks

[@12crepello]

Correct. The outside rail is the "3rd rail" which supplies the power and is the dangerous one! The "4th rail" is the one in the centre and is for the return current.

[@stevedixon8567]

Loving the huge white signs

[@bobwood856]

Am I right in thinking that the big white signs at every station were put there temporarily as an aid to the cameraman, or whoever did the editing of the film for the sub-titles, on what was presumably a pre-arranged trip/trips especially for filming? I can't imagine they were there all the time.

[@johnjephcote7636]

It did appear to be pre-arranged. I was watching the reactions of station staff.

[@richardb2682]

Any signal failures or train cancellations? 😃

[@Ashley_van_Schooneveld]

Sure there sometimes was!

[@maddogryan5799]

rember the steam trains well

[@8403276629]

This is real pictures ? Real camera? On this year was a camera?