Uploaded July 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
If anyone uses the London Underground Northern Line between East Finchley and either High Barnet or Mill Hill East then you will be travelling on a section of railway which was once served by these trains!
However in those days the line continued on from Mill Hill East to Edgware (via Mill Hill) plus there was a surface route between Finsbury Park and East Finchley stations plus a branch to Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace (right at the top of the hill, next to the Palace).
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About this film:
This film is mainly about the four carriage articulated 'Quad-Art' trainsets which were designed by Nigel Gresley in the early 1920's for use on Great Northern Railway suburban services out of three stations in central London - Kings Cross station, Broad Street station (which was reached by travelling over tracks of the North London Railway) and Moorgate station (which was reached by travelling over the 'Widened Lines' built and owned by the Metropolitan Railway but mainly used by trains operated by other railway companies).
Because of the large numbers of passengers travelling and the short length of the platforms at Widened Lines stations Gresley designed these carriages to be articulated (ie: to use shared wheelsets) and for the distance between carriages over these wheelsets to be much less than usual. This created a train which had more space for passengers than would otherwise have been possible.
As an aside, the Metropolitan Railway also used fixed formation close coupled trains but these still had a wheelset at each end of each carriage.
Although these four carriage trainsets were first designed by the Great Northern Railway the railway grouping in 1923 meant that they were built and operated by the London & North Eastern Railway - the LNER.
This footage was filmed during the North Norfolk Railway's annual July "The Story of Suburban Travel" event which also includes a four carriage Mk1 suburban train as built by British Railways (BR) in the 1950's to replace some of the Quad-Art trainsets. I can recall seeing trains formed of these BR Mk1 suburban carriages at Farringdon station. I was a schoolboy at the time and alas, did not photograph them.
At the end of the film is a short four image montage showing the future fate of the routes shown on the Line Diagrams inside the Quad-Art trains. The images show Class 313 trains on the electrified 'Great Northern Electrics' service (at Crews Hill station), London Underground Northern Line 1995 tube stock trains (at Woodside Park station), a disused and overground Cranley Gardens station which represents the several sections of railway which ended up closing and some motor buses on the Luton-Dunstable kerb guided busway which incorporates a section of closed railway which is shown on the LNER Line Diagram.
If anyone uses the London Underground Northern Line between East Finchley and either High Barnet or Mill Hill East then you will be travelling on a section of railway which was once served by these trains!
However in those days the line continued on from Mill Hill East to Edgware (via Mill Hill) plus there was a surface route between Finsbury Park and East Finchley stations plus a branch to Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace (right at the top of the hill, next to the Palace).
----------------------------------
About this film:
This film is mainly about the four carriage articulated 'Quad-Art' trainsets which were designed by Nigel Gresley in the early 1920's for use on Great Northern Railway suburban services out of three stations in central London - Kings Cross station, Broad Street station (which was reached by travelling over tracks of the North London Railway) and Moorgate station (which was reached by travelling over the 'Widened Lines' built and owned by the Metropolitan Railway but mainly used by trains operated by other railway companies).
Because of the large numbers of passengers travelling and the short length of the platforms at Widened Lines stations Gresley designed these carriages to be articulated (ie: to use shared wheelsets) and for the distance between carriages over these wheelsets to be much less than usual. This created a train which had more space for passengers than would otherwise have been possible.
As an aside, the Metropolitan Railway also used fixed formation close coupled trains but these still had a wheelset at each end of each carriage.
Although these four carriage trainsets were first designed by the Great Northern Railway the railway grouping in 1923 meant that they were built and operated by the London & North Eastern Railway - the LNER.
This footage was filmed during the North Norfolk Railway's annual July "The Story of Suburban Travel" event which also includes a four carriage Mk1 suburban train as built by British Railways (BR) in the 1950's to replace some of the Quad-Art trainsets. I can recall seeing trains formed of these BR Mk1 suburban carriages at Farringdon station. I was a schoolboy at the time and alas, did not photograph them.
At the end of the film is a short four image montage showing the future fate of the routes shown on the Line Diagrams inside the Quad-Art trains. The images show Class 313 trains on the electrified 'Great Northern Electrics' service (at Crews Hill station), London Underground Northern Line 1995 tube stock trains (at Woodside Park station), a disused and overground Cranley Gardens station which represents the several sections of railway which ended up closing and some motor buses on the Luton-Dunstable kerb guided busway which incorporates a section of closed railway which is shown on the LNER Line Diagram.
