This, is the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden
a popular destination for tourists and locals alike in Central London
but if you jump on a Piccadilly Line train
and travel a few stops west to Acton Town
it will take you to ...
to here!
the London Transport museum depot, where
we've still got ten minutes before opening, but already
there is a huge queue of people, ready to come in
the Depot is the museum's storage facility
access is usually via appointment only
but there are two weekends each year
where the doors are opened to the General Public
so what is here, at the Depot?
you've got curator led tours
you've got children's activities
you've got pit tours, heritage bus runs
but to start with we've come up here to explore some of the old maps and signs
now this is many people's favourite section of the depot
and if you're a london underground eficenado
then you're going to love it too
there is maps and signage dating back years and years
just like this 1972 map of the London Underground
where the North Line Line has been stuck on
in a transparent overlay, because it wasn't on the original map
the collection expands to include enambel bus and tram stop flags
alongside underground station nameplates
and direction signs
many of these show the growth of the distinctive london transport brand that we all know and love
including, the famous roundel logo
the acton depot, is great fun if you have children
as there's always an activity area
with arts and crafts where they can make something and take it home
we've got three different activities up here today
you can in this area, you can
make a train drivers hat entirely out of paper
you can do some painting, we've been asked by Crossrail
to paint some panels
and thay are going to from part of Crossrail's float for the Lord Mayor show
you can also make an amazing balloon powered bus
are the activites very popular?
oh yes, every Depot open weekend we get around 300 children
coming eveyr day to make various bits and pieces
the reflections and exhibits of the depot
another activity happening here at the Depot are the "Be safe" activities
led by the museum's safety and citzenship team
and we've got Chris here today who's head of learning development
to tell us a little bit about these activities, Hi Chris
- Hello! what are, the Be Safe activities?
Ok, we've got two things running here today
this is the bus displaey vehicle
which allows us to teach young people about how to use the bus safely
and responsibly and respectfully
and also just especially young children
about how to make their journey safely and about what to do if
things aren't quite going according to plan when our on the journey
we also have a sister vehicle to this one
the rail display vehicle
which is a mock up of a tube station
complete with inflatable train
and that's got a real working help point
and CCTV inside it
so the vehicles i own also show films
that illustrate certian points
like children can roll play certain things, like how to
sit properly on a seat, not climbing on it
and about how many times you press the button
just the once!
not too many times
and we even have the drivers seat over there
at the front so people can get a freel of what it's like to be a driver
when people perhaps don't always say hello when they get on a bus
and how it feels different when they do say hello
and they give a little wave
as well as all the activities and tours going on here at the Depot
there's also a lot of opportunity to buy things
these are like boxes of photograpphs
that's actually ... pretty cool
you can buy old maps, timetables
photographs, badges
and whole variety of transport memorabilia
- Most peope just collect say, one company
- Or, they're Welsh and they like welsh buses
- Or there from Manchester, so they want Manchester buses
the London Transport Museum shop
also has all its regular items on sale here
and every depot weekend
there is a limited edition item released
some people queue to get it, just to get the latest model
can i get, one burger
one cheeseburger
one portion of chips
Here's a tube map variant i haven't seen before
it's the London Underground film map
so that's a return to ... Covent Garden
three teas, but one with no milk
that's not all for me
nice cup of tea
*sigh* pre-Oyster
So - i think it's time to go look at some buses
it's like we've travelled back to the 1860's
there's wide range of buses from all eras
we ended up taking a pit tour with curator Bob Bird
getting underneat and up close with this green line coach
and this, made we want to take a ride on a bus
time to head for the old Routemaster
so another of the events that are on at the depot today
are the heritage bus runs
and a man who knows all about that, is Barry le Jeune
hi Barry, tell us a little bit about the heritage runs!
well we've got two buses running, this one is a 1950's RTW type
it was the first type that was eight food wide
most London buses before that were seven foot six wide
this was the first one, that was eight foot wide
it caused some problems at the time
the police didn't like it, they thought it was too wide for the streests of London
there's a whole range of organistations that run
they call them heritage bus running days
we particularly take the routemaster to that sometimes
we used the bus to support the heritage Underground trains operations
'cause there are two heritage trains that run
and typically they run, up the Metropolitan line, everything's running to Amersham
and then we run the heritage buses in connection with those
when the train runs so people can have both the heritage underground ride
and the heritage bus ride
- Fantastic! all on the same day
would you recommend upstairs or downstairs? - ooh, upstairs
THIS WAY NOW, for the free bus ride
this way now, free bus ride
the bus goes on a half and hour ride around the local streets of Acton and Ealing
before taking you back to the depot
the museum has a dedicated group of volunteers
whose help is essnetial to the smooth running of the open day
they support museum staff by helping out
like here for example, at the object handling trolley
ticket machine? - and the machine
Ok .. oh yes!
there you are, ticket!
oh, yes, it's a 194 oh, that's no the ticket
so whatever aspect of London Transport you might be interested in
trains, buses, or even maps and signage
the Acton Depot, had it all