Tunnel vision : The story of the Metropolitan Railway – Colin Brading

Colin is a railway civil engineer, retired now after a career of more than 50 years. He was born and raised close to the Metropolitan railway, and have used it for leisure and commuting purposes in the past, but it has also had a significant work-related focus for me. So, it’s close to my heart!

The Metropolitan opened the world’s first underground railway in January 1863. It was less than four miles long, but London’s ‘tube’ network has grown from this pioneering venture and it has inspired metro systems throughout the world.

The talk describes the Metropolitan Railway’s origins and how it quickly developed into a proudly independent ‘main line’ railway company, before becoming  a part of the new London Transport in 1933. Much has changed since then, and in bringing the story up to date the talk also looks at some of the excellent heritage operations of recent years – not least the Met 150 events that celebrated one hundred and fifty eventful years.