On the 21st October 2022, the London Transport Museum opened it's doors for a "Museum Late". They do this periodically and this is the first one that I have been able to attend. My wife came with me to this one and it was more convenient to drive this time, rather than use the train. I had seen the advert through the mailings that they send out and and thought that this would be a good one to go to. The advert said: "Come to this special Friday Late celebrating the opening of the Capital’s new high-speed railway, the Elizabeth line! Enjoy nostalgic games and creative activities hosted by historical costumed characters from different decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, from hopscotch and snakes and ladders to wristband making and balloon modelling. Show off your design skills as you build your own railway station and test your knowledge of London’s latest railway line in a fun pub-style quiz. Learn about the development of the Elizabeth line, and how the museum is documenting the journey of its launch - and try ‘driving’ an Elizabeth line train yourself!" On the day, they put out the following post on Facebook with this image. "At tonight's Museum Late, Chris Nix, the Museum’s Assistant Director of Collections and Engagement and co-presenter of the #HiddenLondon Hangouts will explore the history of the #ElizabethLine and how plans for the railway we know today were first proposed more than 100 years ago! If you didn't get a ticket to our sold out Late, tune in to the Museum's Instagram at 8:30pm for a live stream of Chris's talk." As I had never been to one of these events before, I didn't really know what to fully expect, but was looking forward to going. We arrived slightly early and thought that we might be turned away, but the staff member on the door said that we could go and wait in the canteen upstairs, so up we went. At this point Chris Nix was chatting with Alex Grundon and I had the opportunity to talk with them both briefly. My wife said that I was "star struck" as I have been watching the Hidden London Hangout series on YouTube, which episode 101 was going to air the day after the night at the museum. On the way into the museum, we met Luke "Tubemapper" and had a chance to talk with him. There was a poster with a schedule for the evening in the main shop entrance. So much to pack into one evening! The countdown was on and then it was time to go in. I just wanted to do everything, but there just wasn't enough time! We went through, not knowing which way to go, so followed the crowd of people. Some went around one way, some went up in the lift and then promptly came back down. We did find our way around onto the main floor, where we were greeted by various people in different attire to show the different Eras that they represented. We managed to get into the first talk, which was packed out with people. Not wanting to miss anything, we dashed out and went to the canteen. ready for the quiz. There were some really easy questions like "How many stations are there on the Elizabeth line?" (41 for those that don't know). Then there were some more obscure questions like "How many sleepers have been laid?" & "On average how many times a day do the platform doors open and close?" and some even more obscure questions, that I had no idea of the answer. The quiz sheets were handed back in at the end, presumably this is so that nobody shares the answers anywhere and so they can be used again. We gave it our best and got 15 out of 30. Not quite enough to get a prize, but was good fun. On the main floor, there were lots of activities and a trailer that was a bar (which I may have visited!) and I met Geoff Marshall (#PurpleTrain) and Tim Dunn, who very kindly posed for a photo. I said to Geoff that we had driven to the event from Stratford-upon-Avon and he was most disappointed that we didn't drive to Reading and then get the Elizabeth line from there! Aside the cost factor, my wife uses a wheelchair, so we would have to drive to our nearest station and pay for parking, change trains at Leamington Spa, change trains at Reading and then walk from Tottenham Court Road, as Covent Garden is not step free! This would make it a really long journey and we would have to stay overnight somewhere as train services would have stopped running by the time that we would have got out after closing. It was great to have a look around the museum at night and to see how some things had changed since my last visit. If you have not been to the museum before, I would say to go in the daytime and take your time, so that you can stop and read the information on display, as this can take a couple of hours. We had a great time and I would highly recommend going to one of these evenings, if you can. I did get an email from the museum after the event asking for feedback, which I did send to them. The only thing that would have made it better is to make it longer, as I didn't manage to go to tall the talks that were on and I didn't manage to do all the activities that were laid out and I dashed around the museum without having chance to read anything on the walls, or have a go at driving an Elizabeth line train.

On the 25th August 2022, I managed to get to London and do the long awaited tour of the abandoned parts of the Moorgate station which is promoted and organised through the London Transport Museum. So my adventure all began the night before when I had travelled to London by train and having arrive at Marylebone, had a quick change at Baker Street, so I had a little explore around the station, to see what things I had not noticed before. It is amazing what you don't see until you stop and look around. So after a one night stay at my friend's house, the adventure began. I said to my friend that as I don't live in London, I would like to find some abandoned parts of the network, where there are still visible signs of buildings from the past. I thought it would be good to find the abandoned Marlborough Road, so get off a train at Finchley Road and then use Google maps to walk to this one. However on the morning, it was raining heavily, so we decided to give this a miss, however we came up with a plan to see abandoned bits without getting wet! The first stop was at King's Cross St Pancras. This is another station that I have never explored much. We arrived on a Metropolitan service and then a little walk across the main concourse to the Thameslink service, with a sneak peek through some windows at the Eurostar on the way. The Eurostar platforms are above the main concourse. It is quite amazing to think that these lines would have been used by steam trains many years ago. The Thameslink service took us through the disused platforms of Kings's Cross that can still be seen and before we knew it, we had arrived at Farringdon, then up a few steps and onto a Circle line service to Barbican. I have seen a few videos on YouTube that show there is a lift that goes directly to the Elizabeth line at Farringdon, so really what we should have done was follow the signs to the Elizabeth line, then get the lift to Barbican, but we did it a long way around. We went: Farringdon to Barbican by train and then back to Farringdon by foot, without going through an Oyster touchpoint! So we found the abandoned platforms at Barbican quite easily and saw the end of the widened lines tunnels, which go through to Moorgate. After this we went to Moorgate, where we had a guided tour and explored lots of disused parts of the station. Before going, I didn't really know what to expect, other than lots of walking in dusty places and seeing things that most people would not normally see. I hadn't quite realised how the station redevelopment had left such chunks of tunnels underground. It was also interesting to see how modern technology has enabled straight lines and level surfaces to be used to create tunnels, rather than curves and slopes. The 1st picture above shows me with my "visitor" Pass. the 2nd shows how the City & South London Railway would have looked on a map from 1890 - 1933. And the 3rd picture shows some broken glass tiles. When a lot of stations were originally built, they made tiles out of a very thin glass, so that the small amount of light that was available from gas lamps could be reflected back at people. There are not many places where there are still glass tiles available to see and I was aware of these, but had never seen any so close. I did not realise quite how thin they were! After the tour, we then went exploring a bit more. So the next stop was Angel, which has it's own disused sections. The Hidden Hangouts team from the Transport Museum have done a great video explaining more than I can, which can be seen on YouTube here. I thought that the old station had been demolished when the station entrance was relocated, but we walked passed it. Next stop was the former City Road station. Again there is another video produced by the Hidden Hangouts team, which can be seen here. This station was closed due to low footfall, but was then turned into a ventilation shaft and is now generating electricity for the local area and is called the "Bunhill 2 Energy Centre" Next we went to Kentish Town, followed by a walk to find the abandoned South Kentish Town, where the building is still in use as a "Cash Convertors" shop and the door on the left hand side is an entrance to an escape room called "Mission Breakout" Then to find York Road station. Looking on Google maps, there wasn't a lot in this area, however, this area is under a lot of redevelopment and there are lots of high rise buildings under construction here now. Again there is another Hidden London video which can be seen here. Then it was a bus ride to King's Cross. Where we found the abandoned Thameslink entrance, again this one was not on our planned route, but the bus stopped almost right outside, so we took a sneaky peek through the windows. The next stop was the abandoned Down Street station. Again there is another video produced by the Hidden Hangouts team, which can be see here. This station was used by Winston Churchill during the war. The next stop was Hyde Park Corner, now you may be thinking that this is not an abandoned station. That is correct, it was originally built with an external building, which was repurposed after the station was redeveloped and is now a hotel. And the final stop of the day was Brompton Road, another Leslie Green station that is left abandoned owing to either low footfall or redevelopment. There is another Hidden Hangout video, which can be seen here. You may be able to spot a bit of a theme going on with some of these stations. I have watched a lot of the Hidden London Hangouts videos on YouTube by the London Transport Museum and I have been inspired to go and find some of these places for myself. After Brompton Road, I went for a ride on the Waterloo & City line and I was hoping to find the partial Greathead shield that is in a section of the tunnels, only these were closed off for the Bank redevelopment, so I was not able to see these (maybe next time). I have also made a video, if you would like to see it, then it is available here.

On the 9th June 2022, I went to Heathrow Airport to collect someone returning back to the UK and I decided that I would arrive early enough to be able to go and explore and have a ride on a #Purpletrain (thanks to @geofftech for this). There is debate as to whether I had a ride on a "true" purple train or not, as the one I went on had been in service for a while but had been running as TfL Rail service. The line was built under Crossrail and has now opened as Elizabeth line The line has been opened as 3 sections and the time of writing this, Bond Street has not yet been opened owing to many challenges that have been faced. The first section runs from Reading and Heathrow Terminals, merging at Hayes & Harlington to Paddington. The second section (which is the new section that has been built underground) runs from Paddington to Abbey Wood. It is worth noting that at the time of this post, if you want to go from Hayes & Harlington to Abbey Wood, you would have to get a train to the surface level platforms at Paddington, then change platforms and go underground to get to the next section of the line, which could add around 10 minutes to the through journey. The third section runs from Liverpool Street to Shenfield. If you look at the map, it looks like it runs from Moorgate, as the map interchange is a bit blurred into one. The reason for this is that the platforms are so long on the Elizabeth line, that Liverpool Street is actually connected to Moorgate, so you can enter Moorgate Station and board the train at Liverpool Street. The first public service ran on 24th May 2022 and I had seen plenty of videos on YouTube (Hidden London Hangouts: Farringdon, Paddington, Canary Wharf, Trial Operations, Whitechapel, Liverpool Street, Ultimate Premiere, Opening Day Special, Geoff Marshall: Opening Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8.) and posts on Facebook where trial runs had taken place and I was curious to see some of the things for myself, so I topped up my Oyster Card and went to find the Elizabeth line platforms. As I had never done this before, I expected at Heathrow to have one entrance that allowed access to both the Elizabeth line and the Underground, but they are actually a short walk away from each other, which makes the engineering here very complexed. There is a walkway under the runways, which then has a link to the Underground and a separate link to the Elizabeth line. The entrance to the Underground showing that the entrance to the Elizabeth line is a short walk away. If you travel between the Heathrow Terminals on either the Underground, or the Elizabeth line, this is a free connection, and the stations are managed by Heathrow Airport, rather than TfL. I was quite surprised at just how deep the platforms were. This is the bottom and I had already come down a couple of other escalators, bearing in mind that to get to the entrance from the terminal building (2 & 3), you have to go underground. So onto the train. The journey was smooth and the train is so long that not all the doors fit on the platforms, so the trains have "selective door opening", which means that only sections will open. There are announcements within the carriages that do advise on where to stand. Next stop Hayes & Harlington, where I had to dash to the exit, tap out with my Oyster card and then tap back in, so that I would be charged the correct fare. The line map on the left shows the three sections of the one line (which will eventually become just one line) and it also shows Bond Street as opening soon. As this station is also serviced by mainline services, this is shown on the line map on the right. And then back to Heathrow Central - It hasn't been known as this for many years, but the signs are still in place. It was a great little outing for me and it was great to see some of the train features that have been shown on so many of the videos that I have seen.

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