Waterloo & City line

Waterloo & City line

The Waterloo & City line is a short underground railway line in London, which formally opened on 11 July 1898. It has only two stations, Waterloo and Bank (formerly called "City", as it is within the City of London). Between its stations, the line passes under the River Thames.It exists almost exclusively to serve commuters between Waterloo mainline station and the City of London, and does not operate late in the evening or on Sundays (during the line's history there has been only a single four-year period, between 1943 and 1947, when the line did operate on that day). By far the shortest line on the London Underground at only 1.5 miles (2.5 km), it takes only four minutes to travel from end to end. It was the second electric tube railway to open in London, after the City & South London Railway (now part of the Northern line).
The London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) reached Waterloo in 1848. The location of the terminus made passenger access to the City of London difficult, and at that time proposals were considered for an extension, but they were abandoned on grounds of cost. When the South Eastern Railway constructed its Charing Cross line, some through working was operated from the L&SWR line to Cannon Street, but this was commercially and operationally unsuccessful.Nonetheless the difficult access continued to be a problem, and eventually the solution was determined to be a tube railway, hugely cheaper than a surface line as it avoided nearly all land acquisition that would have been required on the surface. The Waterloo & City Railway was formally opened on 11 July 1898, and from the start was operated by the L&SWR. It remained a separate legal entity until 1906, when it was absorbed into the L&SWR, then passing into the Southern Railway on the grouping of British railways in 1923, and subsequently became part of British Rail's Southern Region on nationalisation in 1948. When British Rail was privatised, it was seen as anomalous for it to be part of the National Rail network, and by agreement ownership was transferred to London Underground.Its ticketing was fully integrated with the national network and passengers could buy through tickets from mainline railway stations to Bank.The line was designed by civil engineer W.R. Galbraith and James Henry Greathead, inventor of the tunnelling shield that bears his name. The remnants of one of the Greathead tunnelling shields used in the construction of the line can be seen in the interchange tunnel linking the Waterloo and City with the Northern Line and Docklands Light Railway.
The Waterloo & City is colloquially known as The Drain. The origins of this name are somewhat obscure today. One theory is that this arose when the line was operated by train crew in a link that otherwise operated normal surface suburban routes. In comparison with working surface railways, the Waterloo & City consists of underground tube tunnels. Messroom conversation would include discussion of what turn a driver would be working tomorrow, and if it was a Waterloo & City turn of duty, it was an obvious metaphor to say that the driver was working "down the drain". Another theory is that it was given this name by the maintenance staff, because the tunnels, being under the river Thames, leak considerably allowing much water to enter. This water has to be continually pumped out. This water gives rise to a musty smell which provides a third theory for the name.
Uniquely among London's Underground lines, the Waterloo & City runs underground for its entire length, including both stations. (The Victoria line comes closest to this, with the only non-underground section being that to the depot).
In January 2003, the Waterloo & City was closed for over three weeks for safety checks due to a major derailment on the Central line, which required all 1992 tube stock trains to be modified. That same year, responsibility for the line's maintenance was given to the Metronet consortium under the terms of a Public-Private Partnership arrangement.
Original rolling stockThe original wooden stock, consisting of 11 motor and 11 trailer carriages, built by Jackson and Sharp of Wilmington, Delaware, USA, using Siemens electrical motors and control equipment, was used until 1940. The L&SWR was unable to procure the rolling stock from British suppliers at that time. The trains were operated as five trains of four carriages each, with one spare motor and trailer. The trains were of a novel design, being able to be driven from a small semi-open cab at either end of the train. This was achieved by running cables from both motors the length of the train, which allowed the rear vehicle's motors to be controlled by the control equipment on the leading vehicle. Another cable (making nine in all) connected the current collectors at both ends in order to eliminate the power loss that occurs at interruptions in the third rail at points and crossings where the conductor rail is gapped.The Board of Trade was dissatisfied with this arrangement and forbade traction current being conveyed between carriages on any further tube projects, forcing the Central London Railway to use conventional locomotives.Five additional single motor cars were ordered from Dick, Kerr and Co. of Preston in 1899 for single carriage operation outside rush hours.