The Tube Traditional Geocache

Mind the gap! Mind the gap!

	Photo by Amy, http://amyrtw.com

London's "Tube" is the heart of its public transportation system. Boston has the T, Montreal and Paris share the moniker "Metro," Chicago has the El, and so on.

History

The London Underground, or Tube, is an electric railway public transport network (a metro or subway system) that runs both above and below ground throughout the Greater London area. It is the oldest such transit system in the world. Operations began on 10 January 1863 on the Metropolitan Railway — most of the initial route is now part of the Hammersmith & City Line.

The London Underground is usually referred to as either simply "the Underground" by Londoners, or (more familiarly) as "the Tube", due to the shape of its deep-bore tunnels.

The Underground currently serves 274 stations and runs over 253 miles (408 km) of lines. There are also a number of stations and tunnels which are now closed. In 2004-05 total passenger journeys reached a record level of 976 million, or an average of 2.67 million per day. The first section of the London Underground (the "Metropolitan Railway", running between Paddington and Farringdon) opened to public traffic on 10 January 1863. 40,000 passengers were carried over the line that day, with trains running every 10 minutes; by 1880 the expanded 'Met' was carrying 40 million passengers a year.

Other lines swiftly followed, and by 1884 the Circle Line ("Inner Circle") was completed. All these early lines used steam-hauled trains, which required effective ventilation to the surface. Advances in electric traction later

Photo by Tim Griffiths, http://www.antipodean.org/

In the early 20th century the presence of six independent operators running different Tube lines caused passengers substantial inconvenience; in many places passengers had to walk some distance above ground to change between lines. This eventually changed.

Fares

London Underground uses Transport for London's Travelcard zones for all fares, including Underground-only fares. Travelcard Zone 1 is the most central, with a boundary just outside the Circle Line. Most of inner London is within Travelcard Zone 3. Zones 1 to 6 cover all of Greater London and a few extra stations; the remaining zones are named A, B, C and D, of which zone D is the most remote and consists of Amersham and Chesham out in the Chiltern Hills on the Metropolitan Line. These lettered zones cater for the rural extremities of the tube and do not encircle the capital.

	Tube Map

London Transport's tube map and roundel logo are instantly recognisable by any Londoner, almost any Briton, and many people around the world. The stylised Tube map as we now know it (original maps were often street-maps with the location of the lines superimposed) evolved from an original design by electrical engineer Harry Beck in 1931.

The origins of the "roundel" logo, which in earlier years was known as the 'bulls-eye' or 'target', stems from the decision in 1908 to find a more obvious way of highlighting station names on the systems platforms. The red disc, with blue name bar, was quickly adapted, with the use of the word "UNDERGROUND" across the bar, as an early corporate identity. The logo was modified by Edward Johnston in 1919.

Trivia

An estimated half a million mice live on the Underground system, and can often be seen running around the tracks. TV personality Anthea Turner has written a series of children's books about these London Underground mice.

Only two people have had their coffins transported on the Underground: William Gladstone and Dr Barnardo.

Regent's Park, Piccadilly Circus, Hyde Park Corner, Westminster, and Bank stations have no associated buildings at or above ground level, the stations, except for access stairs, being entirely underground.

On 13 May 1924, a woman named Daisy Hammond gave birth on a Bakerloo Line train at Elephant and Castle. Press reports that the baby had been named Thelma Ursula Beatrice Eleanor were widely reprinted, and not debunked until 2000 when she was traced for a TV interview. In fact she was named Mary Ashfield Eleanor; the chairman of the Underground Group, Lord Ashfield, was her godfather.

Look kids, Big Ben.

The record for visiting all 275 stations in the shortest possible time currently stands at 18 hours, 35 minutes and 43 seconds. It is held by Geoff Marshall and Neil Blake.

St John's Wood is the only station which contains none of the letters of the word 'mackerel'.

In January 2005 London Underground announced that it would play classical music at stations prone to loitering by youths. A trial had shown a 33% drop in abuse against staff. This had been first tried, with success, on the Tyne and Wear Metro.

There are only two tube stations that have all five vowels in them — South Ealing and Mansion House. Heathrow Terminal 4 also contains all five vowels, if 4 is spelled out as four.

A fragrance called "Madeleine" was introduced at St James's Park, Euston and Piccadilly Circus stations on 23 March 2001, in an effort to make the tube smell better. It was taken out of action on 24 March 2001, as it was making people feel sick.

The Jubilee Line is the only line which intersects all others. The District Line meets all other lines except the Metropolitan Line — which it misses by approximately 20 m at Aldgate.

Arsenal is the only tube station named after a London football club (it was previously known as Gillespie Road). West Ham comes close, but the full name of the football club is West Ham United.

Okay, enough already, let's get started.

Manchester doesn't have a subway but we have our very own highways. Manchester was built on water power. Our mill buildings are proof of that. But now we are at a confluence of roads. 93, 293, 101 all come together and envelope Manchester. This cache is about highways, but also about what highways replaced.

The cache is a micro cache, there is no room for any trinkets of any kind. The logbook may be wet but it is made of waterproof paper. Please bring a pencil or ballpoint pen to sign the log.

Do NOT stop on the highway to solve this cache. It is certainly dangerous and also unnesscessary.

You do not need to go poking about in the brush to find the physical cache. You should be able to see it quite easily, but of course (heh heh heh) you need to be looking in the exact right place! Snow should not stop you from finding the cache and let me know if the logbook is filling up. Because of cover, I had a great deal of trouble getting signal so the coordinates may be a bit off. Sorry about that.

Please don't upload any photos showing the cache location. Let others enjoy the surprise. Thanks.

Hints

The cache is not in a fake bolt or fastener or any object hanging off of Frankenstein's neck. Also, the cache is more than 1 foot off the ground so there is no need to play around in the broken glass.

While you are on campus, perhaps you might like my other Manchester cache, the virtual Lest We Forget. Thanks to Wikipedia for the London Tube history lesson.