Rus IN URGE Have you ever noticed how very few
trains there are on the London undergrounds, the District and Inner Circle lines in particular, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays? No doubt an official of the London Passenger Transport Board can correct me, but I believe this is because railwaymen can earn the money they want between Monday and Thursday. 1 certainly know that I take buses on those days or else travel by trains which run to a scheduled timetable on poor old British Railways. These trains have brought to my mind the subject of country stations in London. The most outstanding example is Barnes. where a delightful dark brick building in the Tudor style, like a country parsonage, stands among the trees and grass of Barnes Common. Another station with a country setting is West Dulwich, looking over the playing fields to Dulwich College and the elm-embowered village, and wooded heights of Sydenham Hill. But the most countrified line in all London now that the charming branch to Alexandra Palace is shut is the steam-driven North Woolwich line, and In particular the bit between Seven Sisters Junction and Palace Gates terminus. A wooden platform high above the houses at the Junction receives one and an almost empty train of 'workmen's carriages' waits to take one past recreation grounds and old-fashioned Victorian suburbs to that silent, flowery terminus at the foot of Muswell Hill. West Green station, on this line, might be in remotest Rutland. There are, of course, the line from Mitcham to Wimbledon and the country terminus at Chingford, if you call Chingford London. And there are two favourite old-fashioned stations of mine, Brondesbury Park on the North London, and Wembley Hill, that little-used station on a mysterious suburban service inaugurated by the Great Central Railway from Marylebone.
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