A section of the Metropolitan Line was the first subway line to operate in the world in order to encourage people to live outside the city, and they used steam trains. The rail line was operated by Metropolitan Railways. To re-connect with the steam rail past, a few steam trains were put onto the Metropolitan Line between Harrow-on-the-Hill, Ruislip, and Amersham earlier this month on the Saturday and the Sunday. I had the chance to take a ride on one of the trains in the morning from Harrow-in-the-Hill to Amersham. On the Sunday, the Amersham Heritage Day event took place, and I will cover this in another post.
The steam locomotive (No. 9466) and two class 20 diesel locomotives were a part of the service, and the rail coaches dated from the 1950s. Older carriages from the 1930s were hoping to be put onto the line, but they were unable to do so this year.
The journey started at Harrow-on-the-Hill. This was the first journey of the day, calling at Amersham. Then, the train would take in different routes throughout the day before finishing at Ruislip.
As the train rolled along, I looked outside the window and at the passing stations that we went through, which were filled with people on other journeys and people hoping to see the steam trains.
Sometimes the diesel engines were used. Other times, the steam engine was used. This made a lot of smoke. The air smelled like steam/coal as it went along. We were told that the stretch of rail on the way to Amersham was the highest point in the track on the London Underground network.
When the train arrived in the station, I took a few photographs. They had to do some maintenance work on the steam train; I believe that the steam/water needed to be taken away and the engine cooled down. I don't know a lot about how it works.
Afternoon tea was also offered at Amersham station with old wooden tables and Union Jack bunting. I wish that I had booked it in advance, but I was slightly worried that it would not amount to much. I thought that I could have booked it on arrival after seeing what it was like, but apparently, it was booked full although there were only a couple of tables occupied when I was hanging around and only a couple of tables were occupied when I returned later in the day in order to go home.
One of the volunteers on the train mentioned that they were going to try to do a new steam journey next year on the District and Circle lines around Kensington. I do hope that they do another journey next year as I did enjoy the day out, and I would like to ride in one of the older carriages.
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