In article , Michael Bell
writes
If you read Croom & Jackson's wonderful book "Rails through
the clay",

Your following text makes me wonder if *you* have read it.

An American called Yerkes (Rhymes with "Turkeys") started the
tube in the early 1890s as a string of separate railways,

No, he didn't.

The tube was started in the 1890s and 1900s as a string of separate
railways. Yerkes bought out five (CCE&HR, BS&WR, GN&SR, B&PCR, DLD[*])
but not the other four (CLR, C&SLR, GN&CR, W&CR).

They were going
to be cable-hauled in the manner of San Francisco cable cars, this
accounts for the small crosssection of the tube, but while the tunnels
were being dug, electric traction was developed, so the system was
finished as an electric railway.

This applies to exactly one of those nine (C&SLR).

It was still a city-centre system, in the 1920s and 30s, the
tube was extended into the suburbs, as unemployment relief.

No, it was extended for a range of reasons; government guarantees for
schemes that provided employment simply made the financing easier.

By the way, I was struck to read over the weekend that the
government now spends MORE money on railways than on roads.

Would this be because most of the latter is spent by local authorities?

--
Clive D.W. Feather, writing for himself | Home:
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