welcome back, good afternoon
we're heading out to the eastern side, the far right
of the tube map, and the District line into Zone 6
into the London Borough of Havering
as we do the end of the line, at Upminster
ah, hello Upminster, hello eastern end of the District Line
and to a station which isn't manged by London Underground
it's managed by C2C railway
we'll talk abuot their fast trains in a moment, but that's why
on the platforms, you've just got this rather
no-roundel signage
there are no roundels, at Upminster daylight!
well .. except for .. except for this one here
yes at the eastern end of the station there's this footbridge
and climbing up the steps takes you up to the entrance of Calverly House
this is where District line drivers book on
and also, in this facility, there's lever operated signal cabin
thre three reception roads we've got coming out and into the depot
so you've got 51, 52 and 53 road
shunt signals to let you into the various platforms
so you've got platform
3, 4 and 5 that we use here
and obviously then the
the starting signal to let you go out onto the westbound
Calverly House by the way, is named after Les Caverley
a former train operations manager who retired in 2009
after an amazing 47 years working on the Underground
footbridge, is currently being
repaired, which is why you can't go through
there's a huge gap in the middle i hope it's being repaired, i hope it's gonna come back
back in Secrets of the Underground, back in two-thousand and ...
... i wanna say thirteen, was it really nine years ago?
there's use to be a classic old style lightbox sign indicator there saying
which platform 3, 4 or 5
the next tube train ran from, rather than
the C2C, that's now gone
replaced by this modern day dot-matrix
indicator, but ... the bridge
the footbridge - there's a big gap in it!
from the footbridge, you can also peer over
and carry on looking east, where the tracks continue
for a further mile, all the way
out to Upminster depot
we'll go down, and have a look at that in a moment
but yes there are six platforms in use here
a mix of national rail, tube
and don't forget the London Overground too
here's Geoff to tell us about which platforms are which
so platforms one and two over there are for
the fast C2C trains
platforms three four five
here are for the district line trains
and i told a bit of a white lie when i said there's no roundels
apart from the one on the signal box, here at Upminster
here at Upminster, because ...
... there's platform six over here
which is often forgotten about
Upminster of course, is also the palce where the legendary
Overground service, the Emerson Park shuttle runs from
[ Romford ] Emerson Park, Upminster
sometimes, i even forget that it's here that little orange
sign of the Overground, here at Upminster
proudly displaying their orange Overground roundels
if you've never come
and got the Emerson Park branch train
from [ Romford ] to Upminster
when you come to do Upminster, at the end of the line
you also pretty have have to go and do emerson park and back - just to knock it out
just to say, that you've done it
Upminster station has it's front entrance on the main road
appropiriately named station road, from where on the bridge
you can get a great view down onto the tracks
but also, there's a side road
called Station Approach
and a much quainter building down here, which i like much more
and for this series, i was very happy to see
that the station, caters, for four wheeled vechicles too
if you come down the side, it's
reminds me of Epping station on the central line, there's the
entrance on the side there
where one, there'a a cafe get yourself the all important cup of tea
it's just a nicer building
but more importantly
i'm very happy, you can tick if off your spreadsheet
over here, Upminster ... had a car park!
if feels like maybe i should have started a spreadsheet
to where i make a note of how many parking spaces
each car park has, at the end of the line
and of course, how much it costs to park here
so we can see, which the best value for money car park is
in the car park i've made an intruiging discovery
it's the inverse to a bin bag blowing in the breeze
it's what happens when a bin bag is full
hasn't been emptied, it's so full
that even in a very strong wind
i don't think that will be blowing ... at all
shame
right then! so what's their to do in Upminster?
well, the tradional high street with all the high street chains you might expect
and also maybe not expect to see, are here
i also like the fact that the 347 bus route
calls here at Upminster station
which is London's least-served bus route
it gets just four services a day
in each direction between Monday's to Saturday's
but keep walking, beyond the shops, and literally
five minutes around the corner walk away
is something quite brilliant
and unexecpted ... it's a Windmill!
i think we can safely predict slash say
that in all the other end of the line stations
coming up in this series
we're not gonna find any more windmills
this is the only tube station, at the end of the line
which has a windmill, which is great right?
it's very impressive
the Upminster windmill was built by James Noakes
a local farmer, in 1803
it's now a Grade II listed building
and is regardinly to be the one of the very best remaining schmock mills
currently being restored
it's absolutely worth a visit, if you're in the area
now for those of a certain age, and i am showing my age
all i can hear in my head
is Trumpton's Windy Miller going "eeuk eegh eugh eugh eeeeegh"
and i'll hear that
all day! until i get home
great, thanks. Windmill. Tick!
what about that depot then?
let's go there now
which amusingly involves going ... to another car park
i've come to
another car park, no really i have
it's our running gag here in End of the Line
in Amersham in Episode one
i made a big fuss about going to the westernmost point
of the Underground network
the reason why i've come to car park here
which is hilarious, in a little village called Cranham
which is about a mile east of Upminster
i've come out to here, because this looking through
these trees here, is the easternmost point
of all of the underground, it's the easternmost point
in the country where you'll see
an Underground train, it is ... the depot, just through here
and finally, back at the station
i almost considered getting the Overground train home, but i didn't
but down on the platform
i did find something that i'd never seen before
i've only just discovered, this waiting room
on Platform 6
for the Overground shuttle, never in my life before
have i sat in this waiting room, excellent!
* CAMBERWICK GREEN WINDY MILLER WINDMILL NOISES *
and that's how i'm getting home
via the C2C, not getting the district line
to take me out of here
and where i'm going to next, well ...
there's only five stations on the Underground
that beging with the letter 'U' Upminster is one of them
and weirdly, another
End of the Line that i'm gonig to next for Episode 8
also begins with the letter U
playlist coming up, press subscribe
thanks for watching, see you soon, bye!