Mark Brader wrote:
Simon H.:
Can someone give me info regarding the Hammersmith and
City line ?

I used to travel up to London in the late 80's with my
family. I am sure that the H&C did not exist (Ie : It
was still part of the Met Line).

However, a new book I have got shows that this happened
in the 50's/60's. Is my youthful memory playing tricks on
me ?

Andrew Black:
If you are interested in history of the Underground it is
well worth buying Douglas Roase's "The london Underground,
A diagramatic history". This agrees with your memory:

The H&C line was publically portrayed as part of the
Metropolitan until 1990 though it always operated as a
reasonably self contained service.

That's Rose, of course. And CULG
http://www.davros.org/rail/culg says
the same thing. However, as I informed Clive just
recently, there is conflicting evidence in Underground News
#386 (February 1994), Newsflash 24/94:

# At last! Since the creation of the "Hammersmith & City
line" in its # own right on 30 July 1989, the dot matrix
platform indicators at Mile # End and Stepney Green were
altered in November 1993 to take account...

I figure that either the change was announced in 1989 but
not effective until 1990, or else Clive copied an error
from Rose. Anyone here have issues of Underground News or
some other source from 1989 or 1990 that
would pin this down precisely?

As to Simon's memory, note the part about "always operated
as a reasonably self contained service". In consequence,
the term "Hammersmith and City Line" was used informally
before it became official usage. For instance,
I remember being in London one time in the 1980s when a
strike caused
some Underground services not to operate, and seeing
"Hammersmith and
City Line" in at least one newspaper article about this.

The westwards extension to Hammersmith from Paddington was built as the
Hammersmith & City Railway backed by both the Met. and the GWR. It opened 13
June 1864

The line was worked from the start by the GW with Met Train working through
from 1 April 1865.

In May 1867 two additional tracks were brought into use west of Paddington
and the two companies took a joint lease and a joint management committee
took over from June 1866.