"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote in message
...
In message , michael adams wrote:
The stations in question Belsize Park, Camden Town, Goodge Steet, Stockwell,
Clapham North, Clapham Common, Clapham South are all deep level tubes
running through 11 feet 8 inches (3.56 m) tunnels.

The plan envisaged subsequently using the 16.ft 6in diameter shelters as
platform spaces, not as "train size" tunnels, as you claim above.

No, they weren't. 16'6" is too small for a platform tunnel.

There appears to be a misundertanding here. I'm not claiming anything
but merely quoting back material from a link posted by spud,

" work began in 1940 on building deep level shelters which were envisaged
to eventually become the platform tunnels for the express route.

http://underground-history.co.uk/shelters.php

which contradicts his earlier claim, supposedly based on the same source -

quote

wrote in message ...

Are you autistic? Yes, built to as in straight tunnels of train size

/quote

I'd originally posted material from Subterranea Brittanica and Wiki
which followed the genearally accepted line, that there was no
pre-war plan, and it was this, that spud was claiming was
nonsense.



From the various sources I've studied (*not* just The Web of a Million Lies), the
tunnels were explicitly designed as shelters, but put in locations where they could be
used as the basis for an express tube after the war.

Indeed. The only source which claims otherwise appears to be
spud's link

quote

"As congestion on the Northern Line increased in the '30s, a plan was
developed to build a second pair of tunnels in parallel with the Charing
Cross branch of the Northern Line

http://underground-history.co.uk/shelters.php

/quote

None of the original material available on the web, or the quoted
versions of it at least - the LTPB New Works Programms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Works_Programme

or scans of an undated but circa 1942 account of the construction
of the tunnels discovered by Mark Bennett and posted on the SB website
concerning the "shelters suggest otherwise. ...recently completed" (p 2)
....while on page 3, its explained that they were so arranged as to line
and level so as to be incorporated at a later date in a new system of
tube tunnels should further developement be necessary. But no mention
of any pre-exiting plans at all.

The very existence of such an account , which appears to be a
supplement from a Civil Engineering journal, the quality of the
production etc is somewhat surprising given the circumstances
under which it was produced. Presumably it would have had
positive propaganda value not only at home to counter claims
that not enough was being done but if it fell into enemy hands -
the extensive measures the UK Govt takes to protect
its own citizens. Even if by that stage, as it turned out
thankfully, the worst of the conventional bombing was over


Such express tubes were under consideration from 1937 onwards (see
http://www.davros.org/rail/culg/victoria.html for some details)


Indeed on the route of what became the Victoria line

"The first plan which was a recognisable precursor of the Victoria Line
appeared in 1937. A new express tube line would run from Victoria to
Finsbury Park "

whereas for the Northeren Line

"After World War II, a 1946 plan for London envisaged providing a completely
separate express route under the Northern Line, allowing the Victoria and
Finsbury Park route (now called "route 8") to serve new markets"

However plans are one thing, obtaining the necessary funding is another
which has been the story of the Underground since its inception really.
Had the whole thing been constructed during the course of a five year
plan using slave labour at the whim of some tyrant then presumably
its history wouldn't have been quite so interesting or given so
much scope for speculation.


and at some times were planned to be capable of carrying mainline stock. So it's not
surprising that a 16'6" *non* station tunnel size was chosen.



michael adams