The most famous, the first and still the largest underground rail network anywhere.
A London icon and one of the best known logos in the world, it hasn’t changed much at all in over 100 years.
No trip to London England is complete with a ride on the Tube.
At first, a road would be dug up and a section of tunnel would be made by digging out and then covering back over, a very tedious process which only worked for the sub-surface parts.
Also, the first trains were pulled by steam locos. They used smokeless coal and the steam was re-circulated but traction was a problem, especially on the gradients in and out of the sub-surface and deeper lines.
So electric traction was borrowed from the USA, after which the Tube just kept growing.
Apart from moving thousands of Londoners and tourists around, it has also doubled as air raid shelters during WWII. Some stations were only ever air raid shelters, some were built in the wrong place, and others were used as underground bunkers for government.
Want to know more than you would otherwise see if you travelled the Tube?
Some more for you..
http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/sites/k/kingsway/
When the trains stop running for the night, an army of workers go through the system removing litter, human hair and anything else which gets sucked into the tunnels as your train rockets out of the station and back into the burrows that make up the London Underground.
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