It takes real skill to make a video of onesself playing with Google Street View on one's PC, peering over walls into dark holes in the ground, for ten minutes, and yet make it interesting... Good work Geoff!

Whenever I think about the way the “cut and cover” lines originally worked I try and visualise how it must’ve looked to see great pillars of steam emerging from holes in the ground.

Geoff, you are the ONLY person I know who can make video of exploring railways on google maps interesting.

5:08 I'm a little surprised that Google didn't blur the pigeon's face to protect its identity.

@jordansmith7182

4 жыл бұрын

That only happens on the U-Bahn

@mildertduck

4 жыл бұрын

Excellent pigeon content, Geoff :)

@MichaelBrodie68

4 жыл бұрын

Recent research shows that at least 42% of pigeons are train spotters.

Quarantine day 169: watching Geoff use google street view

And thus a new channel/series was born: Geoff looking at some maps and StreetView. I would watch that.

Forgotten station entrances and exits series when London is out of lockdown

Thanks. I drove circle line trains for over 30 years, and some of things we saw what the public never did. I could talk all day on the subject. Cheers Geoff brilliant video.

Interesting video and I can testify to the Blackfriars story as I got soaked with rain a few months ago when a deluge of rainwater unexpectedly spilled over from up above catching all of us on the platform by surprise 😀 Another great vantage point for trainspotting from ground level is up at Clerkenwell where you can spot the tracks at Farringdon station from the top of a double decker bus!

Geek level: Off the f**king charts! Loving your work, Geoff! When possible, I'm expecting a video of you visiting all these walls!

The triangle near Glouchester Road was the West London Air Terminal for years. You could catch the Airbus out to Heathrow and even check-in for certain British European Airways flights. There was a staircase you could go down and it would let you out by the tracks for the High Street Kensignton to Glouchester Road curve for the Circle Line. I imagine there was some sort of wall but it was almost 50 years ago so I am not sure.

@caw25sha

4 жыл бұрын

I had forgotten about that so looked it up on Wikipedia. There is a photo of buses towing luggage trailers which were a common sight when I was a kid.

@davidchurchill

4 жыл бұрын

There used to be 4 tracks from Gloucester Road to High St Kensington, the Circle line tracks remain but the District line tracks went in the 1960’s and the space was used by the Air Terminal

@zork999

4 жыл бұрын

@@caw25sha Yes, you could check-in for BEA flights there and the luggage would be secured in those luggage trailers and passed directly to your flight without you dealing with it. On arrival, the luggage would be checked through to West London Air Terminal and you would pick it up there. They had regular luggage carousels just like at a normal airport. If you were flying another airline you could take the Airbus from there, but you were responsible for your own luggage. IIRC the Airbus stop lasted well past the terminal closing in 1974. Half of the terminal became a Sainsbury's and they built apartments above the whole thing.

@meijiturtle3814

4 жыл бұрын

I am so old I can remember checking in and travelling to Heathrow on those buses! Very convenient.

@johnmurrell3175

4 жыл бұрын

@@caw25sha The trailers for the routemaster buses were built by locomotors in Mitcham. The routemasters were quite sought after as they were the only ones with towing hooks. I know someone who borrowed one for a weekend to tow a boat to Stockport !

1:08 - I always remember my Mum driving past this on the way to visit my Nan when I was a kid. Loved seeing this again.

How deep would you say the deep-level lines are? Equal to fifteen floors?

@AndersDahnielson

4 жыл бұрын

@@archstanton6102 kzread.info/dash/bejne/nKl60Nh8qduzfaQ.html

Quite a few streets in London have just the facade of houses as it was the way Georgian developers built houses. One or two show houses would be built to be shown to prospective buyers but only the fronts of the rest of the street would be built to show how the street will look until the plot was sold. The buyer would either hire their own builder or use the developers'. Often the developer would go Bankrupt or die before the rest of the houses were built, with the legal proceedings taking many years to sort out the rest of the houses never got built but the fronts were left to maintain the look of the street and the land behind put to a different use later. This practice continued well into the 19th. Century.

@simoncolenutt5228

4 жыл бұрын

Any of these facades still existing?

@tonys1636

4 жыл бұрын

@@simoncolenutt5228 I believe a row of about 5 or 6 survive in the Cromwell Road area. Many were later finished by the Landowner, an aristocratic one, hiring another developer. The reason why many Georgian town houses have the front parting company from the rest of the later built Victorian house and having to be stitched back on. Most of Central London is still owned by 4 or 5 Duchies' including the Duchies of Cornwall, Lancaster and Westminster along with the Church of England. One may own the house or building but not the land it is built on, paying an often low annual ground rent on a very long leasehold. Arthur Guinness had a five thousand year lease on the land of the brewery in Dublin.

Memo to MI6: hire this man.

Fascinating Geoff! I never thought about this. Love how you mix in satellite & GPS images. Hope you're back on the rails soon!

Out where I used to live in South Woodford, there are plenty of opportunities to see the Central Line trains running past. Between Gordon Road and Churchfields, there is a pedestrian bridge right over the line, a few hundred yards from my old flat.

5:05 "Lucky pigeon," - All of us locked-down railway fans.

@markgaughran4374

4 жыл бұрын

Very lucky Pigeon, gets a good view

@John2Ward

4 жыл бұрын

Literally 'the Dove from Above' (who remembers that from Vic Reeves & Bob Mortimer?)

Another video full of a slightly manic enthusiasm and yet again, so totally watchable!!! :-) Tx.......

Hi Geoff. Love all the Videos. Long Time Fan. Keep up the Good Work

Should do a post-corona for this video where you have nice shots from trains actually passing by, or atleast. Encourage people/spotters to see some of these spots. Just because!

@maplady572

4 жыл бұрын

Have you seen Geoff's "Secrets of the Underground" series? I'm pretty sure there are at least a couple of such shots in those. He also visits Leinster Gardens. They are very enjoyable and highly recommend if you haven't seen them.

@hartstukken

4 жыл бұрын

@Sannesthesia ja ken je spotter crazyperson

@hartstukken

4 жыл бұрын

@@maplady572 yes big fan sadly I am mot a Londoner and have to rely on footage

@maplady572

4 жыл бұрын

@@hartstukken me too, I live in the Midlands. I am missing being able to travel, anywhere really!

My Dad used to have the offices above the now Aberdeen Steak House at Paddington Station on Praed Street. I remember when I was young, going onto the roof and watching the trains and passengers. Thanks Geoff

I think that Burger King just has a facade of a multi storey building

@stephenrgow

4 жыл бұрын

A 15 storey building by any chance?

Hey! Thats very interesting. Im not joking.

@pixoontube2912

4 жыл бұрын

Good to know that I'm not the only German person watching Geoff.

@fredtracy1673

4 жыл бұрын

And entertaining. Being viewed in Canada too! 🇨🇦

My favourite example of one of these is when I was on my way to mail rail from Farringdon and I was standing on ray st bridge looking over the wall to watch to H&C, Circle and Metropolitan trains underneath

Loved the facts about the subsurface lines! Really enjoyed this one!

My favourite is Ray Street in Clerkenwell where you can see the ‘Ray Street Gridiron’ the flyover structure where the subsurface lines swap sides with the Thameslink tracks.

I LOVE following the line of the many old railways in South Wales by following treelines and strange linear patterns in nature and urban settings. This is the ultra urban version which can show some amazing little things about the history of London. Gwych!

This video is double the fun. First the video itself, then the delightful comments. Well done Geoff.

Google Maps? We're one step closer to Geoff playing GeoGuessr. There's even an All The Stations map challenge

Am I the only one confused by the blurry tree???

@teabagfc

4 жыл бұрын

I really want to know more about that!

@2H80vids

4 жыл бұрын

Could there be a poster or something nailed to it?

Geoff, I can't stand on my dad's shoulders....I'm 30. So yeah, I'm just short, haha.

@hosephanerothe1440

4 жыл бұрын

IceCranberry “ Goddamit Dad , just get on your knees “

I’m a bit late, but in the ‘60s my sister & I had many happy times watching the trains in Sloan Square Station from the top floor of 22 Bourne Street. Alas my grandparents’ lease ended 50+ years ago. 😢

"If I drop the yellow dude there" 😂 Edit: thanks for the likes, I've never had this many likes before

@AllThingsRailways

4 жыл бұрын

The street view chap is also a good alternative.

@jcrailwayvideos6588

4 жыл бұрын

@@AllThingsRailways yeah 🙃

@caw25sha

4 жыл бұрын

I thought it was a teddy bear.

@apfwilliams

4 жыл бұрын

Surprised it doesn't have an official name like Fred

@gibbo9089

4 жыл бұрын

Thought he was Wan Hung-lo.

When I was little, every time I went to London, I thought every single place in London had the underground underneath. I just wanted to put my ear to the ground and hear the trains.

This would make a pretty cool livestream.. "Geoff scrolling around in Google Maps"

I just love hearing your excitement and fascination with London transit. This was very fun to watch 😁

I thought I was the only person who did this on streetview. The subsurface lines seem to weave their way through the basements of buildings, appearing and disappearing from view.

I have to say that I’m really enjoying these lockdown videos - because I can do it too! If I want to go out and about around London, I have your back catalogue at my disposal. Thank you once again.

There's a bit of the Green Line in Boston where the trains not only come aboveground, but run in the middle of the street like trolleycars, rather than in a fenced-off right-of-way. This is a somewhat startling thing to encounter for the first time, if you didn't know they did that.

It is nearly impossible to make interesting videos about trains, when stuck inside and yet you managed to do that too. Impressive!

The episode that I was waiting for!!! Everytime I travel to London I make a waypoints map to catch and film trains, this help me a lot! Best regards from Argentina!

I love exploring train tracks on Google earth.

@samanli-tw3id

4 жыл бұрын

Mark Jones me too! Also rivers!

@QT480uk

4 жыл бұрын

and me

Geoff, "...the yellow dude..." is called PegMan!

Grateful for proper pigeon representation.

My parents live in east finchley and you can see on the road Church Lane the tube as it goes outside. You can view it from the road which is a bridge and walking path. Its a really nice view and I remember this walk on my way to school. You can view the train easily and its not blocked off like some walls.

When going South from Notting Hill Gate immediately after leaving the station it goes into tunnel followed by going through the large cutting at Bedford Gardens then a short while later goes through a much smaller cutting which I managed to locate on Google maps (at Campden Grove if I remember correctly). I know locating railway cuttings on Google maps is unexciting for most people but I love it. Very cool and interesting! There's also really small cuttings at Blackfriars, Great Portland Street, East of Temple and two at Victoria

@maplady572

4 жыл бұрын

I would find such an activity interesting.....😉

I’m pretty sure when the central line comes above into the open after Gants Hill there’s a bridge you can peer over and see the central line trains coming out of the tunnel

London Road Depot is a good one for spotting deep level trains in the open. Across the river, near Farringdon you can see the subsurface and Thameslink cross over, underneath the Betsey Trotwood pub.

Do you have many American subscribers? Although visiting London seems unlikely for me, watching your adventures and seeing how the trains fit in to the city is endless fun and fascination.

My favourite spot like this is the Premier Inn London Kensington, which has rooms looking down onto the district and Piccadilly lines, which seem to have been built through people’s back gardens.

Stayed at the Point West Apartments a few years ago. Great view of the trains coming to and leaving Gloucester Rd.

Cool stuff Geoff. Great source of interest during this lockdown. We all know Leinster Gardens, but I look forward to the day to head back into town to investigate some of the rest!!

I was told the underground went underground, i don't know if it's true

@kk-transport

4 жыл бұрын

yeah for the tube lines which are deep level

@Nebbia_affaraccimiei

4 жыл бұрын

it's about 45% true :)

@unknown-im2bh

4 жыл бұрын

Benjamin Téry no I don’t believe it does

@bluecardholder

4 жыл бұрын

They all pop out somewhere into the big wide world towards the end of the lines, apart from the Victoria Line which is end to end underground.

@lotsofspots

4 жыл бұрын

@@bluecardholder Waterloo & City, too!

Will see after quarantine!

Earlier this evening there were 37 comments saying what that blurred out tree is but since then GCHQ has hacked KZread and deleted them all.

@SK_3PT1

4 жыл бұрын

such an exact number wow

The up and over hump on the PIcc from Hounslow to Hatton Cross is my fave!!

Hey, 7:58 Lillian Penson Hall, bang in the middle of the screen, that's where I'll reside from a couple of weeks once in London.

I grew up round the corner from Bouverie Place, Paddington. Those walls used to have large advertising hoardings in front of them up till the 1980s or early 90s.

You can see the Central Line from the bottom of Queens Road in Buckhurst Hill, by the Railway Tavern. I know because my parents used to run the pub when I was a kid, and I recently revisited.

If you go to St Chad's Place, Kings Cross you will see the subsurface track running behind the disused Thameslink Kingscross station. Plus its a long stretch with many bridges to view both railways.

In Lambeth you can find the Bakerloo line depot, which I never realised was there for many years. Think you can glimpse it from the top deck of a bus going along St. George’s Road.

On my first date with my girlfriend I took her to the Leinster Gardens Façade and told her to know on the door! She was a bit hesitant so I knocked on the neighbour's door! When we got no answer I explained to her what it was. 5 1/2 years later we're still together! :)

Central line Leytonstone, leyton, , Snaresbrook, newbury park, hainult, Fairlop, barkinside, south woodford, Debden Loughton, Buckhurst hill, Chigwell,woodford and for a bonus northern line east Finchley and woodside grove. great vid.

I've spent hours doing this with railways all over the country!

@maplady572

4 жыл бұрын

Oh God I thought it was just me....also looking for "Station Road" and then seeing if I could spot the line of the old railway from above!

Really good one, Geoff! maybe extend the explore-London-railways/underground-via-google-maps theme? - how about 'Ideas for new junction stations', or 'Suggestions for the coming (hopefully) West London Orbital Railway' , or even 'How to sort out Acton's messy railway map'?

Its actually been nice travelling on trains and buses, so nice and quiet.

Also from the Canal between Willesden Junction and Harlesden if you walk up towards Harlesden first you pass the depot for London overground at Willesden junction which is on your right. Further up on your left you can see into the GWR depot.

You mentioned venting the steam, surely steam could be condensed but the smoke would present more of a problem.

@zork999

4 жыл бұрын

The Metropolitan and the District both used Condensing Engines but they reduced the horsepower of the engines fairly dramatically. Early on the Metropolitan tried heating bricks at one end of the line (this was when the line was just Praed Road [Paddington] to Farringdon, about 3 1/2 miles IIRC), and using that instead of the firebox, but that did not work well.

Over 2500 likes on this interesting video. We are all waiting for your next one with bated breath ! Edit: I didn't realise that you could drop the "yellow dude" onto some Tube platforms, eg South Harrow and Harrow on the Hill. Just hope he doesn't get hit by a train!

Fascinating. Thank you.😊

Hello Geoff! Keep your videos up! It’s educational for me

Used to stay in a hotel on Norfolk square and you could hear the underground trains

Hospital staff "so what happened" Yellow dude "I was stood on a bin looking over a wall"

My favourite game is trying to find former airfields in satellite imagery, using shapes of farm tracks and field boundaries.

By Waterloo Station on Spur Road, you can see down to the tracks where the Waterloo and City line trains are brought to be lfted out by the blue crane so they can be transported off for servicing.

I used to work in an office (since demolished) on Victoria Street and could see down into a small square (probably even smaller than the Blackfriars one) onto the District and Circle lines between Victoria and St. James's (or is it James'!) Park. Annoyingly shadows mean you can't make it it out on either Google or Bing maps. It's behind either Kings Gate or The Zig Zag building.

If you click on any tube/overground station on google maps, it shows all the TfL lines and you can follow along! not sure if you knew this :)

Your enthusiasm does you a lot of credit.

Im a National Express driver and at the end of lane 20 in Victoria Coach Station as it exits to Ebury St there is a open shaft about 3mx3m onto the underground often you see the sparks from the conductor rail at night and certainly hear them

Geoff you should do a video on places where the Underground is actually above the level of the street!

This video would be good for those who want to photograph tube trains.

Good video! You could have used Google Earth to get the satellite and 3d view.

Various bits of the Circle etc between Kings Cross and Barbican are in the open too, St Chad's Place for example has a good view. Just west of Liverpool Street station there's a small section of open tracks that can't be seen from the street, but can be see from the buildings above the tracks I imagine!

I live on that street in Kensington/Notting hill. I can hear the trains especially in the early morning. Quite reassuring actually lol

Am i the only person who is talking about how he synced the jubilee line departure with the intro? Very good geoff. 5 stars. Edit... I realise ill probarly end up with a 500 star rating of this video as im only 25 seconds in

I love how the Blackfriars bit just got corrected in OpenStreetMap 8 hours ago.

Videos like this are like crack to train nerds! Aha!

@blakejarrettegibbons9119

4 жыл бұрын

You got that right!

Haha @0:32 my house is literally on the centre of the map

Me, during every episode of Paul & Rebecca's videos. :)

I like following disused railways on Google maps, then try to find traces of them when I'm in the area again, its quite fun! Only criticism of the video is the recommendation to stand *on* bins which have wheels; we don't want anyone falling off or into a wheelie bin!!

Gavin Gibbons wrote an article for the Railway Magazine in, I think, the 1950s, of what could be seen of buildings etc. from the Circle Line.

I love Google Earth. Very handy for short- listing AirBnBs after checking out the neighborhoods by wandering around in street-view. Way back when we could travel.

This is interesting

I’ve been doing this for the last 6 1/2 weeks. It’s the only thing keeping me sane.

Many years ago, I saw some tube trains go under the hotel at kings cross st Pancras travelodge. There was a bit of track visible between there and tunnels

You sir, are a pain and to blame for my crazy-ass post pandemic planning! Have been bingeing on all your vid's including 'All The Stations' and am now formulating a plan to travel- all the stations- in south east Queensland- in 1 DAY. And blog the experience live. On paper it can be done- I've plotted it out- but whether the trains behave and no *cough* police incidents *cough* then it's doable! Just need a few days off work now to do it (I'm still working in an essential service)

“Yellow Dude”! 😁

Those houses that have windows looking directly into the tracks are cool. I thought they only existed in Sherlock Holmes stories. 😉

Fascinating video. Thanks Geoff