Two return Heritage trips were made by the 1938 Stock on the Jubilee Line on this date, unusual for a mid-week outing, between Stratford and West Hampstead. These photos are at Stratford, West Hampstead and Finchley Road

Two return trips from Edgware to Kennington on the London Underground Northern Line were made by the preserved 1938 tube stock on this day. These photos at Edgware, Colindale and Golders Green record the event

Love them or loathe them, their existence does need to be recorded so that they can take their place in London's transport history and show future generations what we had to put up with at the start of the 21st Century

Saturday 28th June 2008 was a glorious summer's day, just right to celebrate the centenary of Bow Garage in the East End and to see some much loved vintage vehicles out on the road again, glinting in the sparkling sunshine.

Chiltern Trains operate services out of Marylebone to such affluent towns as Gerrard's Cross and Beaconsfield and onto High Wycombe, Banbury and Birmingham Snow Hill while the Aylesbury line parallels the TfL Metropolitan Line as far as Amersham.

To celebrate the completion of the upgrade of Cricklewood Garage, a public Open Day was held on this date and, as always on these occasions, included some nostalgic rides round the streets of north-west London in several preserved vintage vehicles, as recorded here.

South London's exciting tram system, opened in May 2000.

The innovative DLR with its unique driverless computer-controlled trains, first opened in 1987 and much extended and rebuilt since

The Thameslink line, now known as First Capital Connect, has been operating between Beford and Brighton since 1988 when the long disused Snow Hill tunnel between Farringdon and Blackfriars, closed during the First World War to passengers and to freight in 1971, was re=opened and for the first time central London had a main line north/south route in addition to the Undeground lines. Completion of this service also saw the closure and subsequent demolition of the old Southern terminus at Holborn Viaduct which was replaced by a new station in the tunnel, at first called St. Paul's Thameslink but soon renamed City Thameslink. This is built on the site of the old Holborn Viaduct Low Level station which was renamed from Snow Hill in 1912 just four years before it closed. More recent changes has seen the closure of the Farringdon to Moorgate branch in 2009, a retrograde step forcing passengers for the latter to change onto already crowded Underground trains but this closure was necessary, so we were told, for the platforms to be lengthened at Farringdon to take longer trains, thereby obliterating the site of the junction.

A collection of photos of Routemasters on the Heritage sections of routes 9 and 15

The end of RMs on route 12

The last day of RMs on route 19

The last day of crew-operation of route 38

The RM Finale celebrations on route 159 were spread over one-and-a-half days from 8th December to noon on 9th December 2005. These photos were mostly taken on those days with a few from earlier that week.

The North London, West London, Euston/Watford Junction and Gospel Oak/Barking lines were operated by Silverlink Metro until November 2007 when Transport for London tookover with the creation of the London Overground. Visually, there was no change apart from new LO nameboards at the stations but all the services continued to be operated with class 313 units before the new class 378 units started coming into service from September 2009. These pics show the former Silverlink Metro lines in the last few weeks of that regime

The London & Blackwall Railway opened its line from Blackwall to Minories in 1840 and in 1841 replaced the latter with Fenchurch Street, the first London terminus within the walls of the city. The line was connected to the GER by a branch from Stepney East (now Limehouse) to Stratford in 1849. The London, Tilbury & Southend Railway opened their line from Forest Gate junction on the Eastern Counties to Tilbury in 1854, extending to Leigh On Sea in 1855 and Southend-On-Sea in 1856. Trains ran to Fenchurch Street via Stratford but in 1858 another cut-off was opened through East Ham to Barking for LTSR trains. The long detour via Tilbury was avoided when a third cut-off between Barking and Pitsea opened between 1886 and 1888 in which latter year the line was also extended from Southend to Shoeburyness. LU District Line trains also operate alongside the Fenchurch Street line between a point west of Bromley-by-Bow and Upminster and since 1962 have taken all the local traffic west of the latter.

The Great Northern Railway arrived in London in 1850 terminating at a temporary station at Maiden Lane before King's Cross opened in 1852. Branches to Edgware opened in 1867 and to Enfield in 1871, followed by branches off the Edgware branch to High Barnet in 1872 and Alexandra Palace in 1873. In 1910 the Enfield line was extended to Cuffley and back to the main line at Stevenage in 1918 to form the Hertford Loop while LU tube trains took over the service to High Barnet from 1940 linked by a new tunnel from East Finchley to Archway on the Northern Line. The Edgware and Alexandra Palace lines were to have been similarly converted but work stopped when the war started in 1939 and was never resumed and those sections later closed. Since electrification of local services in 1976, these now run to Moorgate via the Northern City tube line of 1904 apart from at weekends

The Eastern Counties Main Line from a temporary station at Mile End to Romford opened in 1839 and was extended at both ends to the permanent London terminus Bishopsgate and from Romford to Brentwood in 1840, trains reaching Colchester in 1843. The Northern & Eastern Railway opened from a junction at Stratford to Broxbourne in 1840, became part of the Eastern Counties in 1844 which, in turn, became part of the Great Eastern Railway in 1862. Duuring 1875 and 1876 the GER replaced Bishopsgate with Liverpool Street and opened the Southend branch from Shenfield for goods in 1888 and passengers in 1889 although Southend had been served by the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway since 1856.

The Eastern Counties Railway opened a branch from its Lea Valley Line to Enfield in 1849. The Eastern Counties became part of the Great Eastern Railway in 1862 who opened another branch from the Lea Valley Line at Lea Bridge to Shern Hall Street, Walthamstow in 1870, extended to Chingford in 1873 when Shern Hall Street station was replaced by Wood Street. The route to central London via Stratford from both Enfield and Walthamstow was extremely circuitous and in 1872 the GER opened a series of cut-off routes which diverged from the main line at Bethnal Green to Hackney Downs where it split, one branch running north through Seven Sisters to a connection with the Enfield line at Lower Edmonton (now Edmonton Green) and the other running north-east to connect with both the Lea Valley and Chingford lines and thus shorten the journey to town

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Western Railway opened with broad guage trains from London Paddington to Slough in 1839 although the present magnificent Paddington terminus is the 1854 replacement. Apart from the Heathrow Express, all services on the First Great Western (FGW) line as it is now called are diesel-operated.

As a native of north London, here are some pics taken during my visits to "the other side"

South London has few Underground lines, apart from the absurdly named Northern Line to Morden and the District Line branches to Wimbledon and Richmond. The East London Line is now temporarily closed for incorporation into the London Overground. In South-east London, three routes bear down on the Kent town of Dartford, the original North Kent Line via Woolwich Arsenal of 1849, the Dartford Loop via Sidcup of 1866 and the much later Bexleyheath Loop of 1895.

A collection of photos of lines served by South-West Trains

A selection of my bus photos from north of the river

A collection of bus photos from my too infrequent visits to the south side of the river

As the title suggests, some freight locomotives caught while out in north London

Similarly, a collection of freight locos seen while on my wanderings in south London

First proposed more than ten years earlier, the new London Overground station at Imperial Wharf finally opened on Sunday, 27th September 2009. It is situated on the north side of the Thames a few hundred yards from the West London Line bridge across the river and about a quarter of a mile south of the site of Chelsea & Fulham station which closed in October 1940 and where its derelict platforms are still "in situ" when the former Southern Railway withdrew their service between Clapham Junction and Kensington (Addison Road), now Kensington (Olympia). Imperial Wharf is served by TfL London Overground services between Willesden Junction and Clapham Junction and also by Southern services between East Croydon and Milton Keynes Central. These photos were taken a week after its opening on Saturday, 3rd October 2009.

The East London Line reopened after reconstruction as part of the London Overground network on 27th April 2010, linked into the ex-North London Line Broad Street viaduct by a new section of line between the two.

The East London Line extension, linking the original line at Whitechapel with the old North London Line Broad Street viaduct at Shoreditch and reopening as far as Dalston Junction was due to take place on 4th April 2010 but was postponed. Six days later, there were lots of ghost trains running on test but the new stations were still shuttered with no sign of life as we know it and neither were there any posters advertising when the new service would start. These photos were taken on a bright and sunny Saturday, very welcome after one of the coldest winters the UK has had for many years.

After a few setbacks, the East London Line Extension linking the old North London Line Broad Street viaduct to the original East London Line opened on 27th April 2010 from Dalston Junction to New Cross and New Cross Gate with four new stations at Dalston Junction, Haggerston, Hoxton and Shoreditch High Street. I was fortunate to travel on 378 152 which formed the first ever public passneger service, departing Dalston Junction at 12.05 p.m. and arriving at New Cross at 12.27 p.m., a vast improvement in journey times for north to south London passengers. These photos commemorate the event.

The local service on the "New Lines" alongside the West Coast Main Line between Euston and Watford Junction also fell under the London Overground banner administered by Transport for London from November 2007

After a three year closure for reconstruction the original London Underground East London Line reopened on 27th April 2010 with a northern extension over the ex-North London Line viaduct to Dalston Junction. Three weeks later, on a very hot and sunny 23rd May 2010, trains were promoted on from New Cross Gate to Crystal Palace and West Croydon. The trains run over the former Southern tracks and serve the same stations (now transferred to TfL ownership) although Southern trains continue to run, giving a greatly enhanced service to stations like Forest Hill and Sydenham. And now that the line extends all the way down to Surrey, its title "East London Line" is now somewhat inappropriate though this didn't stop the old LPTB renaming the Morden-Edgware Line the Northern Line in 1937 even though a long section of the line is in SOUTH London. That has always been one of London Transport's little jokes and now it seems so will the East London Line be!

This section of the London Overground that was formed in November 2007 remains a curious diesel-operated outpost in the Capital, its passenger trains interspersed with heavy freight trains that come onto the line by a various selection of connecting non-passenger links, i.e. the single-track link from the ex-GNR which joins the Gospel Oak/Barking line at Harringay Park junction between Harringay Green Lanes and Crouch Hill stations

The first of the Bombardier Class 172 Turbostar diesel multiple units for the London Overground's Gospel Oak to Barking line (the only route in the entire TfL empire not to have been electrified despite many promises) have now been delivered a year or more late and are now running alongside their older class 150 units which will gradually be withdrawn

The brand new Class 378 units for the London Overground electrified routes (the Gospel Oak to Barking Line remains diesel operated) entered service on 29th July 2009 and are currently running in conjunction with the older Class 313 units which will gradually be withdrawn.

The London Overground was formed in November 2007 when TfL took over routes previously operated by Silverlink. These photos are on the North London section from Stratford to Richmond

After a six month temporary closure for engineering works, the Gospel Oak to Stratford section of the London Overground North London Line reopened on Tuesday, 1st June 2010. From that date, trains started using newly constructed platforms on the site of previous long-disused ones at both Highbury & Islington and Canonbury. The platforms previously served by Stratford to Richmond trains will come back into use in January 2011 when the London Overground East London Line is extended from Dalston Junction to Highbury & Islington. These two stations are the most visible signs of the upgrading of the LO routes and now almost unrecognisable while at Caledonian Road & Barnsbury station the former Richmond-bound platform is no longer used apart from access between footbridge and street, the former Stratford-bound platform having been widened to form an island platform, the north side of which is also on the site of long-disused previous platform. What was the platform served by trains to Stratford is now served by trains to Richmond, Stratford trains using the widened north side of the new island platform. These photos were all taken on the afternoon of Saturday, 5th June 2010.

The West London Line was for many years the Capital's "Cinderella" railway. Regular passenger services had ceased in 1940 as a wartime economy but the line remained open foe through north.south freight trains which are still an impoirtant feature of the route. In 1946 a completely unadvertised service from Clapham Junction as far as Kensington (Olympia) - renamed from Kensington (Addison Road) - was reinstated and was destined to be London's last regular local steam-operated service, remaining so until 1967. The line was fully reopened to passenger trains with diesel units in 1994, was soon electrified and has since had three new stations added to it. It too became part of London Overground administered by Transport for London in November 2007.

A variety of station pics from north of the river

London has a wide variety of stations, some retaining their splendour from bygone days while others leave a lot to be desired. Here is a selection of my station photos from south of the river.

The name "Bakerloo" is a corruption of Baker Street & Waterloo Railway, the line's original name as opened in 1906 before extension to Queen's Park to link with the Watford Junction local line. Bakerloo trains once ran all the way to the latter but now terminate at Harrow & Wealdstone while the Stanmore branch was taken over by the Jubilee Line in 1979.

The Central Line originally opened as the Central London Railway between Bank and Shepherd's Bush in 1900 and has been much extended both east and west, incorporating ex=LNER tracks to the east and tracks opened during 1947/48 built alongside the ex-GWR main line to West Ruislip.

The nucleus of today's District Line was the Metropolitan District Railway opened from South Kensington to Westminster Bridge (renamed Westminster 1907) on Christmas Eve 1868. Today the line extends to Upminster in the east, Wimbledon in the south and Ealing Broadway in the west while the Hounslow West and South Harrow branches were taken over by the Piccadilly Line during 1932/33 although a few District Line trains continued to parallel the Piccadilly trains to Hounslow West until 1964. This particular branch has since been extended to Heathrow.

The East London Line as Londoners have known it for decades ceased to exist from 22.12.2007 when it was closed for reconstruction and incorporation into the new London Overground system which will see brand new trains of main line stock running from Dalston Junction over the old North London Railway Broad Street viaduct via the East London Line to Croydon from 2010.

This line extends from Hammersmith to Barking via the northern side of the Circle Line, renamed from sections of the Metropolitan Line.

The Jubilee Line runs from Stratford in the east to Stanmore in the north crossing the river several times on its extension route opened in 1999 when the Charing Cross terminus opened in 1979 closed. North of Baker Street, the line took over the former Bakerloo Line's Stanmore branch which itself took over the Mettopolitan's 1932 Stanmore branch in 1939.

With its semi-fast trains on its Extension Line, the Metropolitan still has the atmosphere of a main line about it as it wanders into the Chilterns. I can only hope that my photos do as much justice to this line as did the late great Sir John Betjeman's 1973 t.v. documentary "Metroland".

The Northern Line is one of the most complicated on the Underground, incorporating the City & South London Railway of 1890, the world's first deep level electric railway, and the Charing Cross, Euston & Hampstead Railway of 1907. Both were linked in the 1920s at Camden Town in the north and Kennington in the south and eventually extended to Morden in the south and to Edgware in the north as well as taking over the LNER (ex-GNR) lines to High Barnet and Mill Hill East.

The Great Northern, Piccadilly & Brompton Railway opened between Finsbury Park and Hammersmith on 15.12.1906 and was extended in new tunnels from Finsbury Park to Cockfosters during 1932/33 while, at the same time, it was greatly extended over the tracks of the former District Railway to Hounslow West and South Harrow and from the latter to Uxbridge over former Metropolitan Railway tracks. The Hounslow branch has since been extended to Heathrow.

The Victoria Line was the first cross-town tube line to be built in London for 60 years. Planned as a single entity from end-to-end with no branches, it is the only line on the London Undeground with no open air sections apart from the spur from Seven Sisters to the depot at Northimberland Park which, of course, is used only by empty stock workings. The line was opened in stages from Walthamstow Central to Highbury & Islington in September 1968, extended to Warren Street in December 1968 and to Victoria in March 1969. The Brixton extension, sanctioned later, opened in July 1971 although Pimlico station, between Victoria and Vauxhall and the only station on the line not to have interchange with any other lines, was not opened until September 1972. Neither, theoretically, does Brixton have a direct interchange with the National Rail station, being a couple of minutes' walk away along the street but the London Underground diagram shows this as being a direct connection, presumably because the two stations, while entirely separate, are so close together.

A selection of my photos of the remains of lines and stations, main and Underground, in north London

Abandoned lines and stations in south London

On a gorgeous sun-kissed autumn Sunday, Sarah Siddons and the 1938 stock made several trips up and down the outer limits of the Metropolitan Line to and from Harrow-on-the-Hill and Amersham and also on the Watford branch. My photos record the day for posterity.

A rally of vintage buses - and some not so vintage and not all with connections to London - was held on the old airfield site near North Weald in Essex on this spectacular summer Sunday and gave people a rare opportunity to travel from Epping station through Epping Forest and the Essex countryside in a variety of much-loved buses that provided one-day only shuttle services between the trains at Epping and the rally site. The shuttles bore the route number 339, a reference to the now withdrawn route between Harlow and Brentwood via Epping, North Weald and Ongar which I had the pleasure of travelling on many times in the 1960s and 70s. These photos provide a lasting memorial to an enjoyable day out and prove yet again that you can't keep good buses down. Their engines seemed to talk to us as we glided along in the sunlight while admiring their interior craftsmanship which show today's "modern" off-the-peg buses up for the less superior vehicles that they are, unlike these goddesses of the road that were designed especially for London. That all came to an end in the 1960s under Harold Wilson's Labour Government and the then Transport Secretary Barbara Castle who have more than a lot to answer for. Luckily for them, they're dead.

Scenes from the Potters Bar Bus Garage Open Day on Saturday, 5.7.2008 where, coincidentally, my brother is employed, a driver on various Metroline routes that are based here though he was nowhere to be seen on this occasion.

Vintage and Other Buses on Rail Replacement outings

The upgrading of the DLR continues apace with stations enlarged and platforms lengthened to take longer trains. The position of the original South Quay station on a tight reverse curve meant it was unsuitable for platform extensions and so it has been re-sited 100 yards to the east. This opened to the public on 26th October 2009 and these photos were taken five weeks later on the afternoon of 5th December 2009.

The Regent's Canal was one of the earliest forms of transport in the Capital, opening in 1820 to link the Grand Junction Canal at Paddington with the Thames at Limehouse. The two concerns were amalgamated in 1929 to form the Grand Union Canal.

The short Romford to Upminster line with only one intermediate station at Emerson Park was opened by the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway in 1893. It survived Beeching in the 1960s and another attempt in the 1970s to convert it to a guided busway and is now electrified. A real curio at the outer limits of the London Area Transport network, it is now electrified and with no passing loops is worked by one train shuttling between the two towns that it links

The famous icon of London, the faithful Routemaster, in regular service just before the end

In connection with a Transport Collectors Fair at the Hythe Centre on Thorpe Road, Staines, on this day, a vinatge bus service in the capable hands of preserved RT 3228 operated a shutlle service from Staines station to the event. As the bus cruised through Staines town centre and infiltrated the bus station, looking like a lone visitor from another planet amongst all of today's modern vehicles, people turned and stared as if the aliens had landed! How short some people's memories are.

The town of Staines is just outside the London area in Middlesex and is unusual in that, although situated south-west of the Capital, is on the north side of the Thames. These photos were taken during a two hour visit on a very cold day

The motor and pedestrian ferry across the Thames between North and South Woolwich, the only FREE public transport in the Capital which otherwise has the most outrageously expensive public transport fares in the world. There is also a foot tunnel, opened in 1912.