Good morning.
You're early, I like that.
It's about ten to six in the morning.
I'm in Zone 7
on the London underground.
And Chiltern trains stop here too
in Hertfordshire
Yes, we're in Rickmansworth
to ride the secret North Curve.
The curve of track,
which only sees about three passengers trains a day.
Let's do it.
That northbound train there is heading to Chesham.
and the southbound I just let go.
Not my train.
That's an all-station.
stopper to Aldgate.
Next stop, Moor Park,
which is what you would expect for all southbound trains.
Except it's 6:08.
And it's just come up to 6:00 AM now.
There should be a train
that goes around the secret North Curve
of track between here,
takes us through to Croxley Green and Watford.
Here's a map.
The northwest corner of a standard tube map
looks like this.
So normally,
if you want to travel from Rickmansworth up to Watford,
you'd have to change at Moor Park.
But what they don't show
is this secret curve of track
that's known as the North Curve,
over which just a few trains a day travel.
Some of them in passenger service,
some of them as empty stock movements.
And on a geographical map,
it looks like this.
And there's even a tunnel section
on the North Curve too,
as we're about to see.
[Train Announcement] This is, Rickmansworth.
This is a Metropolitan Line Train to Watford.
The next station is Croxley.
So the PA's gone off,
it's not going to Moor Park next.
It's definitely going around the curve...
Around the North Curve.
Next door, Croxley.
The windows are filthy by the way,
So we're going to get the moment,
the train here, heading south,
curves off towards the north to the left,
and you'll be able to see the tracks
down here carrying on towards
Moor Park,
and then we'll be on the North Curve.
And sure enough,
instead of going straight,
the train curves to the left.
All right, that's it.
We're on the curve.
The other side, is double track, is here.
And we're going through
a tunnel section right now.
We'll come back to that later
because we're going to go up there.
Oh, it's quite short.
I wonder how short.
Look out the window
and a moment later
you can see where the curve rejoins the normal line.
And we've done it. That's it.
It's that simple, right
Ridden the North Curve.
Fairly sure there's nobody else on this train.
We've ridden the North Curve
in the northbound direction.
So do I get out at Croxley
and walk back?
Or do I go to Watford?
Just for the heck of it?
I think I'm going to get to Croxley.
And walk back.
[Train Announcement] This is, Croxley.
It is Croxley.
Yeah, I was the only person on that train.
No one else.
I had the whole North Curve train to myself.
Croxley Station looking rather splendid
in the early morning light.
Two interesting things to note there.
On the platform, at Rickmansworth
It definitely said the next southbound train,
as late as 6:05, 6:06,
it was saying the next one was the Aldgate
And I was like,
well where's the Watford train?
And then the Watford train rolled in,
even though it said the next one wasn't.
And then here,
at Croxley,
I noticed on the dot matrix on the platform
heading north towards Watford,
the next two trains were saying Watford.
But the first one, our one, just said Metropolitan Line.
So it's like the systems
don't quite know how to cope with the fact
that there's the awkward North Curve train.
What we can do now though,
is take a walk
and go back to that tunnel.
Yes. Head down Frankland Road,
walk through some back streets
and you are heading for the local woods.
Welcome
to Croxleyhall Woods.
And here is the North Curve.
Go down some paths
and you'll cross over the regular curve of track
between More Park and Croxley.
But eventually,
will also get to the point in the woods
where the path goes over the bridge
that we just went under through
on the North Curve.
Can you hear it?
Can you hear the whine
of the S Stock motors in the distance?
I can hear the M et, somewhere.
Somewhere over there.
So I got the 6:08 from Rickmansworth,
started at Rickmansworth to Watford.
There's an earlier train there.
If you want to go even earlier,
the first Chesham train of the day
comes down to Rickmansworth
and then goes around the curve
up to Watford.
Would be perfect for tube challenge.
And we used to consider it,
back in tube challenge days.
Were it not for the fact
that you didn't obviously miss out
and skip Amersham
But apart from that.
And then
there's one late at night
that goes from Watford
going in the other direction.
So here's a summary of all the trains
you can catch.
So there's three passenger trains
you can ride on,
if you want to do this.
Two in the early morning heading towards Watford
whilst there's one really late at night
at the end of the service day,
when a train leaves Watford
and terminates at Rickmansworth.
But look,
there's also six empty stock movements as well.
So if you just want to spot a train whilst
walking in the woods,
then make sure you come at around one of these times.
A lovely walk in the woods
of approaching that point.
I think I'm just getting to the point
where I'm above the tunnel right now.
The tunnel, by the way,
which I believe is the only part of the underground
in a tunnel
that's underground
outside of London
because we're in Hertfordshire.
And it's also the shortest tunnel on the network
at just 80 metres.
I think I can see it there.
But you don't have to
get one of the three passenger trains a day that run it.
There are other ways
to ride the North Curve as well.
Yes, there are occasional weekends
where their engineering works
and they divert all Metropolitan line trains
to use the curve.
Or you can just do what I did once
and that's ride a railtour train
Here's the moment from 2017,
when a 1938 stock tube train
made the journey several times in one day,
between Amersham and Harrow
going via the North Curve
and Watford.
The early morning sun is now out,
I can hear the trains, but I can't see them.
But over here,
if you come, walk through the trees
Gosh, that is bright.
Come down to the fence.
Oh, I can see it already.
That is the southern portal
of the North Curve tunnel.
Which I travelled through
just a few moment ago
down here.
And there's also another nearby bridge
where you can see the line up towards Amersham.
And the North Curve there
branching in, from the right.
And that's it,
riding the North Curve.
That's how you do it.
video done.
end of video.
Except it's not, is it?
Because now that I know that there's a late night,
midnight service
from Watford coming down.
In a southbound direction towards Rickmansworth...
I kind of have to ride it
in the other direction as well.
Don't I?
Like this.
And good morning,
cause it is morning again.
It's 18 hours later.
It's 00:36.
Coming in on this platform here
not the one on this side,
in any second.
Is the penultimate one in
from London.
And it will go out as the 0049.
It's the last train
out from Watford.
But it goes to Rickmansworth.
Yeah. So it's midnight forty-three
We leave in five minutes...
Six minutes.
At 00:49.
The dot matrix up here is correctly showing
we're going to Croxley next
and then round the North Curve
to Rickmansworth.
On the side of the train,
the front and rear carriages of S Stock trains.
It always shows the train number as well, 470,
4-7-0 tonight.
What that number is, is the train number,
which is listed in the working timetable
here on screen now.
It's a little excerpt from the working timetable
with the letters NC,
which are the letters to look out for.
If you want to know where that is,
the link to the working timetable
for all tube lines,
not just the Met line,
the secret TFL page
which links to the timetables
is in the description.
You can go look it up.
That is how I knew
which trains were going over the North Curve.
It's a ridiculously late/early.
I'm fairly sure I'm the only person on this train.
The driver looked at me like,
are you sure you want to go to Rickmansworth?
And I nodded, yes.
And we just to wait to leave
to go around the North Curve.
[Train Announcement] The next station is Croxley.
And this is why if you want to ride the curve,
come and do it in the early morning daylight
and never at night time.
Because it's just dark
and you can't really see much.
Here's the point where you go through the tunnel though,
and then you rejoin the main line,
But mainly it's just very dark.
It was...(laughs)
That was it,
Couldn't really see much, could you?
But today, we did it.
We're now...
We've now rejoined the main line
and oh we've stopped at a red signal. But Rickmansworth next.
[Train Announcement] This is Rickmansworth.
Where this train terminates.
And that is it.
There's two early trains in the morning,
there's one at night.
You can get a heritage tour there are empty stock movements
during the day.
It's awkward to do,
but it's fun to do
if you're prepared to get up early or late.
That is how to ride the North Curve.
The secret bit of track
on the Metropolitan Line.
It's 1:00 AM and I've got to
figure out
how to get home.