On Sunday, the London Transport Museum hosted the second of its semi-regular Heritage Train Days, between Harrow and Amersham. Having previewed it back in August, we were kindly invited along for the ride.
The featured attraction, a 1938 Northern Line train, last saw regular service in the Seventies but has found itself a cosy retirement as a timepiece from the Tube's storied past. Within well-maintained red carriages, a mixture of epochs are found: period furnishings including art deco lamps, opening windows and wooden flooring, are mixed in with a tube map that dates from 1968 and a series of posters that, despite being only 30 years old, seem to come from another planet.
After a couple of hours in Amersham, whose bizarre and at times frightening Heritage Day involved Morris dancers, clapped-out Routemasters and more anorak-clad trainspotters than you could shake a Railwayman's Omnibus at, we arrived back at the station to discover the Metropolitan Railway electric loco Sarah Siddons waiting to pulls us back to town. Built in 1923 and recently re-daubed in her original livery, the lolloping motion of the train almost nodded us to sleep as we sloped back toward Harrow.
For information about future heritage days, contact the London Transport Museum
