Rickmansworth and the End of Electricity

Out in Metroland again, and it’s time to look at what makes Rickmansworth so important.
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Patreon: / jagohazzard

[@alanbatty3825]

..."a clever accounting trick known as "lying"" - with 30+ years in banking behind me, I think this comment is hilarious. Love the videos and the dry humour, I too am a South Londoner so please keep 'em coming.

[@okboomer6201]

You can beat the lying bankers by investing in Shiba Inu cryptocurrency.

[@olafthetroll5262]

I guffawed myself when I heard it! Absolutely pricless!

[@meer-cha4985]

@@okboomer6201 stop trying to pump that shit coin, your fault for buying the top

[@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

As a retired accountant I take great exception that there should be a clever accounting trick called “lying”. 😂 Priceless comment sir, priceless 👏👏👍😀

[@Rog5446]

I once had a next door neighbour who was an accountant, his surname was Fiddler. Seems he was born to be in that profession.

[@calmeilles]

@@Rog5446 Nominative determinism at its finest. 😀

[@andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

@@Rog5446 Oh to have had an appropriate name 😂

[@emjackson2289]

@@Rog5446 Was his office on the roof?

[@rupe53]

I was always told it's not lying. When you can't find a mistake you use a "ledger entry" to make things balance.

[@brian9731]

Rickmansworth is famous to fans of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy of five books as the place where the girl sitting on her own in a small café had suddenly had an idea to make everything right.

[@GodlessGrandpa]

Came here looking for this comment you Hoopy Frood. 👍

[@ZonkerRoberts]

I'm amazed this comment is so far down.

[@frglee]

Ooh, it's another interesting vid from that nice Mr Hazzard! Interestingly, the inflation calculator site estimates a new 1925 built semi detached family house in Metroland Rickmansworth cost, according to your figure, about £60,000 in modern money. So, you might well weep, as the actual cost of such a house there in good nick nowadays is typically in the region of £750,000.

[@neville132bbk]

Prices as helium inflated as here inNZ. My daughter and her husband sold in semi rural Herts last year, within earshot of Thameslink trains shooting past.... they bought a very average 1970s house herefor

[@clockwork9827]

i laughed. hollow-ly. dear mr Hazzard, might you tell us something about Holloway ?

[@pyellard3013]

When I was a child everyone was shocked when someone sold their house for £5k that cost them £500 15 years earlier.. Now, in the same street they are plus £1 million... Unfortunately, my parents were renters... 😢

[@johntyjp]

Coming out of London late at night, you could always have a nap after the changeover at Ricky, the slow climb up to Amersham! The fast run down to Missenden would wake me up in time for my stop!! Guaranteed !!! 😄

[@PMA65537]

And when you wake up your bag contains someone's used newspaper they couldn't be bothered to carry. (reverse stealing is what I call it)

[@harbl99]

It's Our Boy!!! at 2:55 [excited Jago watcher noises]

[@Dave_Sisson]

I thought you meant it was an incidental "face reveal" of Jago Hazzard himself. I debated with myself whether I wanted to know what he looked like. Upon deciding that I did want to know, I clicked only to see... Yerkes! So the appearance of Jago Hazzard will remain a mystery to me, but that's probably what the man himself intends.

[@cargy930]

@@Dave_Sisson Plot twist: Jago _is_ Yerkes, kept alive by unearthly forces.

[@GeorgeChoy]

you're really spoiling us, thanks.

[@metrovic]

Grew up in "Ricky" in the days of A Stock trains on the Met and Class 115 DMU's on what is now Chiltern Railways. RT, RF and GS type buses would serve the station as would Boughtons Taxis with their always slightly up market cars, Austin 1800''s, Ford Zephyrs and Zodiacs. The station cafe had a jukebox and a pinball machine. They were happy times.

[@Themclachlans]

Nice to see Ricky, Jago you chatted to my mum in Three Rivers Museum! I used to live on a narrowboat in Ricky, within sight and sound of the Met Line.

[@AFCManUk]

Woah! A six-car Chiltern train...quite the rare sight on that line. Unless they've added more carriages lately, Chiltern have had an annoying tendency to run just 2 or 3-car stock along the Amersham line - leading to the inevitable overcrowded crush as they get nearer to Marylebone.

[@ThisCatLikesCrypto]

Haha I find this too. I listened to the anncoucments at one of the stations and its said the '[Time] Service to London Marleybone. 'This train is formed of 4 carriages' YAY 4 not the 3 I'm used to!

[@ThisCatLikesCrypto]

Also, They do the same on the via High Wycombe route. They have ones that go to Birmingham/Oxford and they get nicer trains with more carriages but I kinda get that.

[@UKInkSupplies]

The six cars don't usually stop at Rickmansworth, just going through, when there's works on the line. You have to get off at Chorleywood and come back on the Met.

[@Jablicek]

Without Watkin and Yerkes, what would our trains and Tube be today? It feels as though they're evil villains whose work happened to be beneficial after all. As though, oh I don't know, a Bond villain trying to invent a secret weapon accidentally comes up with the cure for cancer.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I think Yerkes was greatly misunderstood, he seems to get things done. (I still picture him as Grimly Fiendish)

[@Jablicek]

@@darylcheshire1618 Not Gently Benevolent?

[@darylcheshire1618]

@@Jablicek Grimly Fiendish was a villian in the 1960s series comics like Beano, Dandy,Whizzer & Chips,

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

Somewhat sad to find out we could have had New Rickmansworth and ended up with Pennsylvania instead.

[@ShedTV]

I bet that three minute emgine swap was a sight to behold.

[@richardirvine1997]

Something which I saw very often, as I travelled by steam from Chorleywood to Rickmansworth and back every day when I was in secondary school. Returning, we watched this changeover.

[@malcolmbrooks9527]

Ah Rickmansworth, the well known frost hollow. gets cold at night!

[@johnjephcote7636]

Cycling back to Watford from the 1280 Sqdn. ATC hut, my greatcoat was covered in hoar frost in the short distance over the Chess from the bottom of the by-pass to the bottom of Scots Hill. So many car accidents in the fog there. It is the second coldest place in GB after Braemar.

[@jeantremlett174]

Too true, I have a north facing bedroom in my parents house in Rickmansworth....

[@Larry]

AAh, just down the road from me :D There was also a second railway station in Rickmansworth where the Premier inn is now.

[@JamesTilsley1]

You never know when Larry will show up in the comments.

[@bishwatntl]

Church Street station - I only knew it as the site of a Travis Perkins depot - I hadn't realised that Premier Inn had taken over the site - very handy for the canal and the town centre.

[@SamMcDonald83]

@@JamesTilsley1 this is the second consecutive video I've seen Larry pop up in 😅

[@johnjephcote7636]

Indeed. I called there once behind an LMS 2P. The station hosted a printer that did my wedding invitations.

[@Moggster23]

What's the train service like at the second station? 😄

[@dennistay9980]

Thanks for keeping the whole shot of the Chiltern Railway train departing at the end. Appreciate it!

[@monotonehell]

I haven't watched it yet, but if there's no, "Just how much is a Rickmansworth?" joke I'm rioting.

[@monotonehell]

Flips table. Wink.

[@pjf_nn1]

Do you realise in about 120 years time, a still young Hazzard will be telling similar tales of the venerable and ancient Old Oak Common interchange between the warring railway companies?

[@blameless_hyperborean8638]

It's one of Sir Jago's favourite locations for tying damsels to the tracks.

[@channelsixtysix066]

@@blameless_hyperborean8638 Sir Jago - now that has ring to it. The dastardly Jago appearing in all black, handlebar moustache, with a top hat and the like?

[@blameless_hyperborean8638]

@@channelsixtysix066 I have always thought of Jago as the archetypal Bad Baronet of Victorian Melodrama. Perhaps there is a potion element: 'Dr Wright and Mr Hazzard'

[@voiceofraisin3778]

@@channelsixtysix066 Unless somebodies got a monopoly on them?

[@eekee6034]

@@blameless_hyperborean8638 I see him as an outside observer; a time traveller protected by a cloaking field or, should he choose to appear, shaded by a big hat.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

interestingly, due to a change of electric provider which still happens at Rickmansworth, after a storm in the early 2000s, you did for a matter of weeks again have a locomotive (this time diesel) pulling tube trains from Rickmansworth to the end of the line.

[@Pesmog]

I bet they took longer than 3 minutes to make the connection with the Loco...

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

@@Pesmog yes, closer to 15 or 20 I think.... still was relatively smooth given the odd style of operation, but no where near what they could once.

[@chrisinnes2128]

Of course it took them longer after all by then they were a bit out of practice by over 50 years

[@walkingTVwithadog]

I'd argue that the most famous resident was the great George Bernard Shaw. Loved this video. My grandfather was a driver on the Met from 1936 until 1971. He often let me ride with him in the driver's cab as a child. Fond memories of shunting into Neasden depot at the end of a run. Happy days

[@Leonard_Smith]

That wink was so well disguised as to be almost seamless...almost...

[@rodjones117]

Yerkes twirls his moustache and laughs in a villainous manner... Who do we all think should play Yerkes in the now inevitable film of his life and career? My vote goes to Gary Oldman.

[@cargy930]

Anthony Hopkins would be pretty good in my book.

[@GreenJimll]

I vote for Jago Hazzard. 😃

[@cargy930]

@@GreenJimll Good call!

[@piearm1271]

John Malkovich

[@1973Washu]

Yerkes is slightly better than Dr Beeching and his incurable fear of trains.

[@eddjordan2399]

there was a young girl there once who figured out how everyone could be happy and this time no one would need to be nailed to anything.

[@mquietsch6736]

At least three thumbs up plus a gold ingot wrapped in slices of lemon for this comment! I was just going to post the same thing!

[@rogerbond2244]

Reading this, the first part was very much in Jago Hazzard's voice, and then it melded into Peter Jones'. It's been a long day. But, this is a delightful level of perfection. TftT comments are in a class of their own. Thank you...!

[@robinbeckford]

I went to school at Rickmansworth - remember the line well.. Thanks.

[@petertooth2831]

I’ve never been to Rickmansworth, I probably never will. I’m not that bothered about trains and tube, and I don’t think that will change either. But, and it’s a big butt, I enjoy Jago’s videos immensely. Well written, well produced and humorously narrated. Greetings from the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

[@AndreiTupolev]

It's a big butt? 🤭

[@stephenpegum9776]

I'm curious to know how he'd know ?! 😱

[@petertooth2831]

Curiosity killed the cat. I think that’s a rumour put about by dogs.

[@CJonestheSteam72]

Charles Yerkes mention klaxon

[@baxtermarrison5361]

It feels like it's been a while since we last heard from CTY, so well done you.

[@timhubbard8895]

Your mention about the new, (old) metropolitan locos, ("But in reality this was a clever accounting trick known as lying") made me laugh! This cheered up my Sunday!

[@highpath4776]

Anyone know what the old ones were and which bits got incorporated into the new ones. I knew the southern would use 4 or 6 wheel coach bodies doubled onto new bogie underframes and rebuilding steam locos to a new profile was common to most railways, but something into an electric seems odd.

[@timhubbard8895]

@@highpath4776 The Southern and later British Railways Southern Region seemed to have a habit of using a mish, mash of bits and pieces of older stock to help create newer and in some cases, better stock units. They used the traction motors and equipment of their older 4 REP units in their excellent class 442, (plastic pig) units. Pretty much a case of, "if it isn't broke, don't fix it"!

[@britishcorndog6079]

The A Stock giving electric power to Amersham and Chesham, while also forcing Chiltern to take over the line to Aylesbury: _I've won, but at what cost?_

[@ianw1935]

I lived in Rickmansworth between 1962 and 1965, and from 1968 to 1971, as a child and frequently watched the trains from the foot bridge and on Chorley Wood Common. They still had, at that point, the old electric locomotives, which were frequently in the siding platform. At that point they used the A Stock trains on the Metropolitan Line and the Marylebone, British Rail services, used Derby 115 stock DMUs in sets of four. I wish we could turn back the clock - fond memories of journies up to Baker Street and Marylebone.

[@dkirk5814]

Hi Jago. I enjoy your content for the architecture as much as the history. I also appreciate your dry wit.

[@General_Confusion]

I don't think these new fangled electric trains are going to catch on. Just a passing fad if you ask me. No one really wants to be transported on a train that works by magic.

[@barneypaws4883]

What's a train?

[@britishcorndog6079]

Well it head out until 1961

[@hctrains5779]

?

[@Julius_Hardware]

Out in the Chilterns we viewed them with great suspicion, and occasionally burned one for witchcraft just to be safe.

[@General_Confusion]

@@Julius_Hardware I heard the locals in The Chilterns throw spears at them.

[@Paddyboro]

Jago's comment section, where most of my favourite highly articulate KZbinrs hang out. Fine upload as per kind sir.

[@eattherich9215]

It's good to find a courteous channel. Most of the ones I visit are full of the tin foil hat brigade.

[@chrisstephens6673]

@@eattherich9215 perhaps if you hang out here long enough you will find the hat brigade less than worthwhile and yearn for more of the intelligent and witty content videos, like Jago's. It could be the start of your redemption. 😁

[@eattherich9215]

@@chrisstephens6673: I'm one of Jago's faithful subscribers. 😁

[@chrisstephens6673]

@@eattherich9215 aren't we all?😂

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Apparently the depot for t/ops is known as clicky Ricky

[@Rabx_4]

The local golf course is known as tricky Ricky :)

[@mrshannonite4016]

I always love that play out clip at the end. There something always relaxing and comforting for me about an underground train going off, the sound is almost ASMR.

[@1258-Eckhart]

Jago even includes the initial clonk when the traction equipment is set.

[@dodgydruid]

When I lived in Watford myself I often partook of a train from ol' Ricky, the Croxley line was still running back then and I used to wander to all the stations for little adventurette's, I even was on the way to becoming a guard on the St Albans line then my life plans changed and returned to my haunts of South London where the trains were still proper, copious and comfy although there was something about getting one of the fast express electrics non stop to Euston from the Junction. My uncle was a councillor for Rickmansworth and had been somewhat pivotal in getting the Croxley line reopened but sadly that fell on its face recently but the fight is not over it would seem :)

[@tenterdentown2452]

It is interesting that the water tower is still in situ at this station. If it had been a BR station, it would have been demolished long ago. One is tempted to think LT was too lazy to demolish it, along with the old signal box which appears in this video! But I don't think that can be the case, it must be that LT unlike BR had no direct labour that could carry out the demolition and would have to pay for an outside contractor. This station would make a good subject for a model, having both an LT and National Rail service. Thanks for uploading another video in your inimitable and laconic style!

[@frglee]

I suspect LT management attitude is that if it isn't dangerous, then best to give it a lick of paint from time to time, tidy up the brickwork a bit as and when, and then leave it alone. Why waste a small fortune in having it demolished?

[@henrybest4057]

See Underground Eric's channel for a model based on that area.

[@tenterdentown2452]

@@henrybest4057 Thanks. I have been following that channel - great minds think alike!

[@RJSRdg]

There are still some water towers around at NR stations. Romsey has one which now has the station toilets underneath it (does that make the tank the world's largest toilet cistern?)

[@henrybest4057]

@@RJSRdg I hear that the staff at Romsey station are flushed with pride about it.

[@brettpalfrey4665]

Nice to see Darth Yerkes back...

[@ShunraCats]

I grew up further towards Amersham and remember when we had to change engines at Ricky, and also the Master Cutler coming through the station. I see mention of a second station where the Premier Inn is. Looks to me like the Permier Inn is where the waterworks used to be, where I had my first job, and Toolstatation (how appropriate!) is where the station might have been. The Ebury Way runs along the line that went to it, from a junction with the disused line from Watford High Street that was going to join up with the Croxley branch. I do remember extra sidings coming with electrification, and the joy of being bounced around on the jump seat in an A stock carriage. If it was a Marylebone train we sometimes managed to get the seats behind the driver, only desirable if they didn't have the blinds down. My favourite part of the journey to Baker Street was the marshalling yards at Neasden as I never knew which side to look! There was also a distant view of the old Wembley Stadium Towers. There was a one-off steam train came up from Neasden one winter, one of the pannier tanks, to defrost points. At the latest that was 1973 as I left school then and it arrived when I was on my way home. Of course memories get conflated, but that might have also been the same day that when a diesel train eventually arrived we crammed into the guards van as well, and stood. It should have been 4 minutes to Chorleywood but that day it took much longer than that, and it was dark so no landmarks to help deduce where we were. The railways were also a bit scary back then. The banging noises once in the tunnels south of Finchley Road and the steam expresses were the main sources of terror.

[@surinfarmwest6645]

2:55 and my dogs and cats are giving large with the "Hallelujah chorus" outside my studio, the wife is running around screaming in Lao, what translates to "We are not worthy!" .... and the picture of "Him!" appears.

[@Bunter.948]

Mr H, you've done it yet again. Done what (I hear you say)? Delivered a sparklingly spiffing video, at least up to your usually excellent standard. I really don't know how you deliver such consistently good stuff every time. Chesham, then Rickmansworth? You are definitely heading into my some-time home turf. Thank you. Simon T

[@MarkMcCluney]

The artwork on the Metroland brochure is fantastic. I'd like to see a lot more of that. Thanks for this one, I really enjoyed that one.

[@biglads4tw]

The little multi-storey car park next to Ricky station is built for cars sized as if it's still 1925.

[@Hackney_Boy-DoesntReadReplies]

Built for cars that fit on the roads.

[@eattherich9215]

That horrible design is everywhere.

[@alanmoss3603]

"Ford Prefect came from a small planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse - and not Rickmansworth as he previously claimed!" Take that, Rickmansworth!

[@heathercoleman9875]

Came here for the Hitchhiker quotes. But Ford claimed to be from Guildford. "And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small café in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything."

[@josephturner4047]

Back when those houses cost 900 quid, a train driver made about £3 a week.

[@otm646]

6.75 years wages doesn't sound all that bad. Especially by London prices.

[@katrinabryce]

Now they make £1115 per week, and the house costs about £800,000, so it has increased from 300 weeks salary to 717 weeks salary.

[@jaklawrence4301]

@@katrinabryce Plus, train driver jobs are union jobs and are anomalously well paid; average weekly take-home salary in London is £589.57.

[@hi-viz]

Maybe you should play the Doofenshmirtz jingle everytime Yerkes gets a mention

[@mudmucks]

For anyone looking at this comment and wondering what the all the likes are about kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqi1nplngLWkjtE

[@hi-viz]

@@mudmucks Honestly I'm surprised that many people here got the reference

[@mudmucks]

@@hi-viz Who knew - train geeks and Phineas and Ferb! 🤔😁😁

[@vaclav_fejt]

@@mudmucks I only know that viral video of a cute girl in a Perry the Platypus onesie. Does that count? :-D

[@bonniekane8547]

This is one of your best videos! We always wanted to know where William Penn lived in the UK, because we live where he lived in the States. Bucks County, Warwick Township, Friends Meeting from 1685, etc. Thank you!

[@jeantremlett174]

WPenn lived in few places in the UK.

[@jeffreyhunt1727]

"... a clever accounting trick known as 'lying'" It's these little details that make me love your videos so much lol

[@caileanshields4545]

2:40 After hearing that price tag in relation to today's house prices (in general), I may very well do the same thing. :( Plus, there are two of those Metropolitan Railway electric locos (a total of 20 were built by Metropolitan Vickers aka Metro-Vick) still in existence in preservation: No.5 John Hampden (a static exhibit at the London Transport Museum) and No.12 Sarah Siddons (retained in fully operational condition by TfL). Possibly the most 'steam-punk' electric locos ever built lol

[@rjjcms1]

The days when you could get a house that was terribly affordable in Rickmansworth vanished decades ago. In the 80s,when I had a friend who lived a short walk from the staion,we occasionally went to a cocktail bar called the Long Island Exchange at the top of Scots Hill,which is the name of the short stretch of steeply inclined main road leading up from the station in the Croxley Green,etc. direction. We also went to pubs like the Feathers and the Half Way House there. When invited for dinner in Rickmansworth on day I brought a new girlfriend from London with me and she thought we were going to visit a person called Ricky,not a place.

[@barneypaws4883]

There is many a tear flowing right now

[@neville132bbk]

My daughter and her husband sold in semi rural Herts last year within earshot of Thameslink trains shooting past and bought a very average 1970s house in this town of 20 000....12 months later it has increased in value by a good 50 000 pounds .. they could not afford it today.

[@neville132bbk]

I forgot to add ...we are in NZ

[@ianhelps3749]

To be fair, when detached houses in R/worth cost £975, the average wage was about 30 shillings per week, so it was still a lot of money.

[@SormonAusPol]

Ah Rickmansworth, glad you made this video as I am working on an OO scale model of the station. Love the look of the place, might even use your video for refrances.

[@Peasmouldia]

You can have a gander at a couple of Met locos at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. A class No.23 (LT L45) & E class No.1 (LT L44). Still there according to Wiki. Ta Jago.

[@18robsmith]

You're getting close, when are we going to see joys and delights of the Uxbridge line?

[@Rog5446]

This ties in very nicely, with an article in the current edition of 'Steam Days' magazine, about the Central line, and its interaction with the LNER and GWR.

[@teecefamilykent]

Sir, again you have outdone yourself. Loved the comment about crying under your desk lol.

[@coyotelong4349]

I would make the argument that Rickmansworth was decidedly NOT a suburb of London at the time of the Metropolitan Line’s extension there, but now would be considered as such

[@schlollepop]

A locomotive change in 3 minutes would still be benchmark today. Incredible job!

[@GreenmanXIV]

Sir William A Stanier, was Rickmansworths most famous resident.

[@Steven_Rowe]

Back n the day in the 1960s you could buy a twin Rover and go anywhere on the bus or tube all for 5 Bob or 10 Bob for adult fare. Well the Met was always the place to go and so on Saturday my mate and I went to AMERSHAM, not Rickmanswirth. An inspector looking rather like Blakey from on the Buses gave us a right ol bollockin. He said we had done it before. I was puzzled done what Well we never bothered looking at the conditions on the ticket, suffice to say not valid for travel north of Rickmansworth. I kid you not, this was Blakey in real life. He wanted to run us in to the police. We thought we were going to end up in the Ville doing a 10 stretch. Even Reg and Ronnie would do less porridge them us two. Oh GAWD Butler, I hate yah I HATE YAH Happy days indeed

[@chrisstephens6673]

Nowadays the equivalent is called the old people's freedom pass but, God bless'em, it's free. And surprise surprise the first trip I made with mine was Amersham.

[@RobinHillyard]

Brilliant. Pretty sure I’ve done the same thing.

[@Steven_Rowe]

@@RobinHillyard He accused us of doing the same thing a week ago. He was really scary, I was 13. I think he must have failed the exam to join Hooters SS during WW2. They were great days though. One place I never went was Ongar,

[@Steven_Rowe]

@@chrisstephens6673 the rivers were everyone. Don't know if it was free for pensioners back then The tube is the best network in the world

[@chrisstephens6673]

@@Steven_Rowe indeed it is, and as my card was generously given to me I feel it would be an insult not to use it and ride the tube as often as I can. I aim to one day have ticked off the whole system.

[@nigelclark1823]

Thoroughly enjoyed this tale from the Tube, ex tube employee, now in Perth WA

[@mrd64]

If Ricky is a suburb of anywhere it's Watford. The London suburbs start when you get to Harrow or Northwood.

[@applebane2000]

I remember falling asleep on the tube once and winding up at Rickmansworth. I was late to school that day, it was unfortunate.

[@Hammondfreak]

When I was a young lad in 1950's London, my friend and I did Baker Street to Aylesbury on the Met and the change over at Ricky was fast. The old compartment trains were great fun and we often had one to ourselves. We (politically incorrectly) took our peashooters and treated the waiting passengers to a barrage at the bypassed stations between Finchley Road and Wembley park. Then it would have been classed as youthful high spirits - today it would be common assault. Happy Days !

[@sgu02nsc66]

As someone who grew up in Rickmansworth, I appreciate this. Thanks!

[@MattMcIrvin]

Back when I used to ride the Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains from Boston to Washington DC for holidays, the line was only electrified from DC to New Haven, and I remember that it took half an hour to switch locomotives there. (It's electric the whole way now, but the MBTA commuter rail is still using diesel locomotives.)

[@RobinHillyard]

My recollection is that the Chesham branch was still steam only quite some time after Amersham had been electrified. Anyone got dates?

[@lassunsschaun6859]

"And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small café in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything." [Douglas Adams / tHHGttG]

[@johnjephcote7636]

I remember that !

[@mquietsch6736]

Yesss!!!!!

[@davidioanhedges]

Note there is a small Cafe in Rickmansworth ... it does a nice cuppa ... ...there is also a bar owned by Andrew Ridgeley formerly of Wham! Lifelong fan of Adams .. Born in Rickmansworth now living in Bournemouth - which I can confirm Ford Prefect was right about ..

[@Julius_Hardware]

I was led to believe the cafe in question was the Swiss cafe on Church Street, now the Lemongrass. But maybe DNA didn’t know Ricky at all and just thought it must have a cafe somewhere.@@davidioanhedges

[@davidioanhedges]

@@Julius_Hardware Just checked and Cafe Swiss is now a Thai Restaurant ... it was the one that did a really nice cup of tea .. and probably the one Douglas used .. he did visit the area

[@charlotteoleary196]

My local station! I always wondered why there was a water tower there, now I know.

[@Bolivar2012able]

And the no doubt the stage for such drama's as The Avengers Location Shoot.

[@UKInkSupplies]

Great to see my most used station featured

[@bishwatntl]

Some of the sidings are very much still in use for stabling trains. I've noticed that late evening trains heading south out of Rickmansworth often pause by the stabling lines; I have wondered if it's for picking up drivers who have parked their trains in the yard.

[@ShunraCats]

When electrification was extended to Amersham etc. some new sidings were build just east of where it crosses the High Street, and they are still there according to Google Earth whose photo is from this year.

[@Andrewjg_89]

Rickmansworth is very laid back, posh, quaint and beautiful. And If the former siding does be reused then maybe the Metropolitan Line should operate a shuttle service from Rickmansworth to Watford (with the mothballed Croxley Rail Link extension to Watford Junction).

[@richardmellish2371]

When it seemed that the line to Watford Junction was going ahead, it was stated that the line to Watford Met would be retained but only for stabling stock. Running a shuttle service between Watford Met and Rickmansworth, stopping at Croxley for interchange with trains to and from London, would have made excellent sense, maintaining a service for the residents of the Cassiobury Estate; but that idea was rejected.

[@peterdean8009]

What's the point, when there is a half-hourly bus service from Rickmansworth to Watford town centre. If you got the train to Watford (Met.) station it's still a 20-25 minute walk!

[@iankemp1131]

@@peterdean8009 So the alternative might be to run Rickmansworth to Croxley Green and Watford Junction (and maybe beyond to St Albans under some plans) and split the Met service from London between Watford Junction and Watford (Cassiobury) with connections from Croxley to WJ on the latter.

[@richardmellish2371]

​@@peterdean8009 The main point of Watford Met - Rickmansworth would have been, as I said, to maintain a service for the residents of the Cassiobury Estate, not to get anyone to or from the centre of Watford; but connections at Croxley could have provided for various journeys, all a lot quicker than a bus at busy times when the Watford - Croxley - Rickmansworth road is congested. Likewise a direct Rickmansworth - Watford Junction service as suggested by @Ian Kemp. Sadly, none of that looks like happening. All parties loved the idea as long as someone else would be paying.

[@Andrewjg_89]

Totally agree with you folks. Some interesting comments.

[@corinheathcote9868]

Yerkes, oh dear another shot whisky....... Shouldn't play a drink game watching these videos. It's like Geoff Marshall and allotments.

[@peteryoung4957]

I love Ricky (Rickmansworth) . A what if : I wonder what the Met would've been like had they electrified up to Aylesbury.

[@N330AA]

Grew up there. The Bakerloo line use to serve another station in Rickmansworth with a branch from the Euston DC line. All gone now.

[@bcwbcw3741]

New York's Metro North lines deal with the lack of electrification north of Croton-Harmon on the Hudson line by running electric engines on the local trains from Grand Central to Croton-Harmon while the trains that continue north have diesel engines and run as express trains south of Croton-Harmon into New York. There are masses of extra sidings underground near Grand Central to accommodate the engine changes that used to be required when there was a mix of electric and steam/diesel engines.

[@eekee6034]

"Houses were available from £975 for a detached house, and I hope you'll understand if I'll go and have a little cry under my desk." I think I'll join you! Under my desk, you understand. Sharing yours would be a little awkward. I just looked into buying a house this last week, and found prices *6 times* what I'd hoped for! Admittedly, the houses were bigger, so maybe bring that down to 3 times.

[@SynchroScore]

Interesting that the Penn Museum should be called "Three Rivers". That's a term sometimes used to refer to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the meeting point of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Youghiogheny Rivers into the Ohio River.

[@jeantremlett174]

The three rivers that meet in Rickmansworth are the Colne (HS2 includes a viaduct over the Colne valley), Chess and the Grade.

[@SynchroScore]

@@jeantremlett174 Ah, that makes a bit more sense.

[@ShunraCats]

The three rivers in Pittsburgh are the Allegheny, the Monongahela, and the Ohio. The Youghiogheny flows into the Monongahela at McKeesport -almost 10 miles as the crow flies from Three Rivers Point.

[@roderickmain9697]

Again, fascinating stuff. Actually, learning a lot about the recent history of London and suburbia as well as the Underground. Good work, Jago.

[@mumblbeebee6546]

My favourite days are the ones when I have a Jago video with my breakfast! Thank you, sir!

[@henryharesdene4164]

Progress, ear boy, progress... As one who spent his youth somewhere on the District Line and had a retired Adniral (nearly) of WW1 as a feandfather, I looked to the area near "Ricky" as something quaint out in the sticks - until our passion for canal boats linked the whole experience together. Ahh - isn't hindsight wonderful??

[@neilthehermit4655]

Nearly at 130,000 ! - Well done sir. - Rickmansworth, I have never been and I must say it looks pleasent. Maybe if I ever return to London I might visit. Thanks Jago,keep em rolling.

[@Richardincancale]

Very interesting! Seeing the electric locomotive with Metropolitan on the side made me wonder whether the Metropolitan-Vickers firm who made trains as well as all sorts of electrical power systems (even computers in the 1950s) was related? Most LU rolling stock was made by Metro-Cammell which was a descendant company. Metro-Cammell was previously called Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Co - was this part of the Metropolitan Railway firm back in the 19th century?

[@neiloflongbeck5705]

No links whatsoever, sorry.

[@Tevildo]

In the nineteenth century, no. Metropolitan-Vickers and Metro-Cammell were two firms that emerged from various takeovers, amalgamations, and divestments between Westinghouse (electrical), Cammell-Laird (shipbuilding) and Vickers (shipbuilding and armaments) in the first half of the 20th century. The Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Co, where the "Metro" part of both names originates, was a separate company from the Metropolitan Railway, founded in Birmingham in 1863. It entered the melting pot from which Metro-Cammell was to emerge in 1902, along with Ashbury's, who made the first carriages for the Metropolitan Railway, but there was no connection between the railway and the (Birmingham) carriage company in the nineteenth century.

[@britishcorndog6079]

and then metro-cammell gets absorbed by alstom

[@highpath4776]

@@Tevildo Metro-Vick built a lot of control gear and motors for tramcars

[@barbaralamson7450]

Brilliant. And thank you for the auditing tip. 😂😂

[@no_one_of_that_name_here]

Wonderful video! Thanks so much

[@Jimyjames73]

Very Good - I grew up in Hertfordshire!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂

[@trevorrandom]

Rick Mansworth didn't he play keyword for David Bowie

[@PlanetoftheDeaf]

Great video. How have I previously never noticed that water tower 😁

[@oc2phish07]

Ha ha ha. A clever accounting trick known as lying. I love it. Another great video Jago. Thanks.

[@sirrliv]

Brilliant! I've been looking forward to this one ever since it appeared in an episode of Classic Trains.

[@seanbonella]

i think many Overground stations wouldve been built out the the suburbs easier then because it was maybe less expensive.....but then you never know due to many houses built and then not awarded stations to them...great again Jago

[@SteamCrane]

The polite term is not "Lying", it's "Ship Of Theseus".

[@stephenjcuk7562]

😭behind your desk. 😂Made me laugh. 😁👍

[@j.lightlady8030]

"A clever accounting trick, known as lying." As a bookkeeper, I appreciate the clever dig!

[@michaelsansom6]

I know you are good but, being familiar with this station and town, I now realise that you are EXCELLENT. Thankyou.

[@jaklawrence4301]

houses in Rickmansworth in late 19th century: £975 houses in Richmansworth in 2021: £700,692

[@1258-Eckhart]

I do miss the A-Stock trains with their bouncy ride and just as bouncy seats though.

[@rat_king-]

I miss Mixed traffic and freight rail in london

[@AdamDTaylor]

Good one Jago, I too share your tears on London House prices, Bumper Harris would turn in his grave...

[@gregpotter6957]

Another genuinely informative and entertaining post😁👍

[@BaseReality]

They had to wait as _long_ as the 1960's to have their railway electrified? *cries in West of England*

[@bingola45]

Residents of Lancaster, Morecambe and Heysham had their railways DE- electrified in the '60s. As did Tyneside...