Transport Nostalgia is primarily about the various types of rolling stock which are no longer used, although there is also some interest in ticketing systems, timetables, station architecture, old railway lines, signal boxes and (for buses &: trams) street furniture. Because of past transport 'policies' Britain has an over abundance of railway lines which we are now realising should not have been closed and in some places sections of these closed railway lines have been taken over by preservationists as Steam Centres or Living Museums where visitors can see and ride in trains of older carriages pulled by (usually) steam locomotives. There also exist several such locations dedicated to former street transport - primarily trams and trolleybuses although motor buses are sometimes included too. The television and film industry also frequently use these centres when they want to create a production that is set in an historical time period.
Since this picture was taken the whole line has been resignalled and the cabin has been closed.
The man with the purple shirt is actually using a hand control to 'drive' the lift. He was also the ticket collector, hence the small booth on the right.
The inside of the lift shaft can be seen through the (hand operated) metal gate.
Steam Nostalgia.
Steam engines are the most popular form of railway nostalgia with many older people remembering them with affection from when they were younger and steam was the primary form of locomotion. However modern-day youngsters also find that despite being old-fashioned museum technology Steam engines posses an almost magical attraction. Maybe this is because with the constant hissing of steam and the general busy-ness of the drive gear they almost seam to be alive. What is usually forgotten is just how dirty they are - belching out massive amounts of sulphurous smoke that if the carriage windows are open will come into the train and make your clothes and face dirty. Steam locomotives are also very labour-intensive, not only needing two people to drive (driver and fireman - whose primary duties included shovelling the coal to keep the fire going) but also needing someone to create the fire long before the journey begins and clean out the firebox after it is over. Coal fired Steam locomotives sometimes also emit small slithers of burning coal which can ignite lineside vegetation.
This is from where the train would be driven - ie: the driver's cab in modern parlance. The fire is, of course, essential as it heats the water which when converted into steam provides tractive force. If the fire should die down, and the water cool, then the train would come to a halt.
These two images come from the lovingly restored Horsted Keynes station.
(links to external sites which open in new windows).
Diesel Nostalgia.
It is now more than a generation since Diesels started replacing Steam engines en masse and there is a slowly growing tendency for them too to become part of the Nostalgia movement (primarily older types that have been withdrawn from normal use by the mainline railway). As with Steam engines the Diesels use irreplaceable fossil fuels, make living (albeit growling) noises and emit exhaust fumes. Some railway living museums also use Diesels because they require far less manpower to operate and are ideal for days when the centre is open but expected visitor numbers are low. Diesels are also used in high summer when a drought alert poses a serious risk of Steam locomotives causing a lineside fire.
The sight of a passenger carriage with a 'brake' section (for the guard & luggage, cycles, etc.,) will also bring tears to the eye of both nostalgia buffs and present-day passengers who bemoan the fact that modern-day trains do not include such facilities....
It is now more than a generation since Diesels started replacing Steam engines en masse and there is a slowly growing tendency for them too to become part of the Nostalgia movement (primarily older types that have been withdrawn from normal use by the mainline railway). As with Steam engines the Diesels use irreplaceable fossil fuels, make living (albeit growling) noises and emit exhaust fumes. Some railway living museums also use Diesels because they require far less manpower to operate and are ideal for days when the centre is open but expected visitor numbers are low. Diesels are also used in high summer when a drought alert poses a serious risk of Steam locomotives causing a lineside fire.
Electric Nostalgia.
In Britain Nostalgic interest in mainline Electric trains is of a lesser order, mainly because until the 1960's only London & Southern England saw any significant railway electrification. Elsewhere there were just a handful of locally based schemes and almost without exception all the old locomotives were scrapped when they were withdrawn from active service. Britain also used to have many electrified industrial railways, such as at collieries, docks etc,. however almost all of these too have been closed and again very little remains.
Although not true Nostalgia there is also much interest in various planned railway electrification schemes which never actually happened (or in London were partially completed and then the lines were closed.)
The Pullman carriages were actually introduced in 1910 and using different electric locomotives were the first electrically hauled Pullman's "anywhere" globally. They were for first class passengers only and as usual there was a supplement (extra charge) for travelling in the Pullman, initially this being either 6d (ie: six pence in real money or 2½p in modern decimal money) or 1s 0d (ie: one shilling, which equated to 12 pence in real money or 5p decimal) according to distance travelled, although later this was reduced to just 6d for all journeys. They were also fitted with toilets, which, as usual (in those days) discharged onto the tracks and were even allowed to be used whilst travelling through tunnelled sections of the route.
Scones and afternoon cream tea anyone?
Passenger Carriage Nostalgia.
They were actually purchased by the Metropolitan Railway which saw itself as a mainline railway. The Met's demise came in 1933 when - at the government's behest - it was forcibly merged into what became known as The London Passenger Transport Board.
Within months of gaining control the new owners started looking to reduce the Met's sphere of operations, a policy which by 1937 had seen some line closures and a handover of non-core passenger operations to the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER); in 1962 there was further retrenchment when services beyond Amersham were handed over to British Railways.
Some passenger carriages are self-propelled, which means that they do not need a locomotive as tractive power is spread along train. These multiple-units are also part of the nostalgia movement, both as single (static) vehicles and as fully working trains.
Only the trains in East London were converted to ac power - those in Manchester (known as Class 506 Electric Multiple Units) remained in their original 1,500v dc format until they were withdrawn, this being concurrent with the conversion of the remaining section of the Woodhead Manchester - Sheffield line from dc to ac power.
(The section beyond Hadfield to Sheffield via the brand new 3miles 66yds long Woodhead Tunnel - which opened in 1954 - having been closed in 1981).
"Craven" tube train at North Wield station on the Epping - Ongar branch of the Central Line, which was closed in 1994.
Despite being experimental in design, dating from the 1960's and only four trains having actually been constructed these "Craven" tube trains have become very much part of
the nostalgia movement.
Only the motor cars were built new - they were intended to work with older trailer (non powered ) cars dating from the 1920's. In the 1990's the older trailers were replaced
with newer examples dating from the late 1930's, this being the format in which the train has been preserved.
These trains saw most of their lives working on the Hainault - Woodford shuttle service as test-beds for automatic (self driving) trains. Nowadays the preserved train is used as a working attraction during special events.
Although the London UndergrounD is famous for its small profile 'tube' trains the initial parts of the network used mainline sized trains. For a while services on the Metropolitan Railway were shared with the broad gauge trains of the Great Western Railway, which used tracks 7ft 0.25in (approx 2.14m) wide.
Trains such as the mainline sized examples seen below were introduced in the 1930's and lasted until the 1980's. Although there were several variants which featured different electrical components the difference which passengers would have noticed was in the internal illumination, with the red trains using light bulbs and the white trains using fluorescent tubes.
The flared body design with the lower edge riding slightly over the platform edge was introduced as a safety feature, although it also resulted in trains of an iconic design that saw service for almost 50 years. The flare was instead of the wooden footboards mounted along the trains' bodyside at floor level which began to be fitted to earlier designs of trains shortly after electrification. Their purpose was to prevent passengers from falling through the gap between the train and platform edge, however the wooden boards then became the scenes of several accidents as passengers tried to board moving trains as they were leaving stations by standing on the wooden board and hurriedly open the sliding passenger doors (which in those days were hand worked) before the train had left the station. The danger was especially acute at subsurface stations when the trains reach the end of the platform / the tunnel walls.
Despite being a significantly beneficial safety feature the flared design overriding the platform edge also made special needs 'level access' impossible, so this feature is no longer suitable for present-day train design.
As with many other trains when they were replaced a few commemorative tours were operated for staff & railway enthusiasts and they carried special headboards.
Some sections of the London UndergrounD were built by (or eventually passed into ownership of) American financiers, whose influence and operating practices included referring to the rolling stock as 'cars' and not the more usual British English 'carriages'.
Right An 'R' stock train on a commemorative tour, seen at Kensignton Olympia Station. When this train visited the single-track Olympia branch it replaced the 'normal' passenger service so also carried fare paying passengers (like me!); I do not normally trespass on the tracks (it can be dangerous, even lethal) but in this specific instance permission was granted.
First class on the District line was abolished in 1940 as a war-time economy and smoking was banned after the 1987 escalator fire disaster at Kings Cross station, which apparently happened shortly after government-inspired financial economies saw escalator litter cleaning reduced from daily to alternate days.
This specific photograph shows the interior of the preserved car seen below, and not the inside of one of the trains with a flared skirt.
Right: A mixed R stock train showing two experimental unpainted cars (left and right) plus between them an older car that has been painted white to be visually very similar.
More and larger images of the CO / CP / R stock trains (including internal views) can be found these two pages at the free online "Wikipedia" encyclopaedia (links open in new windows)
the Red CO / CP stock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_O_Stock
the Silver / White R stock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_R_Stock
Originally numbered 8083 it was renumbered to 08083 in 1950 when its passenger doors were converted from hand operation to air (power) operation by the guard.
Nowadays it is owned by the London Underground Railway Society which has a website at - http://www.lurs.org.uk/ (link to an external site which opens in a new window).
Outside of London there were only a handful of urban heavy-rail electric railway systems serving Liverpool, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Manchester and Glasgow (underground railway). As new trains were introduced almost all of the older trains were scrapped and unfortunately even when attempts at preservation were made these sometimes ended in failure. The Liverpool images come from a personal visit before the trains were replaced.
When first introduced they were seen to be of a very advanced design for a mainline railway's suburban passenger trains, featuring things such as air operated sliding doors which were opened & closed by the guard (hitherto trains either had slam doors or hand operated sliding doors). When first built these trains featured a flat front - the doors were added in the 1970's to meet safety requirements for when the city centre single-track underground loop was built.
Even in London some routes used (and still use) diesel multiple-unit trains and as older trains have been replacd with newer ones so a handful have been preserved.
The view on the right was taken in the 1980's when these trains were in daily use on services out of London Marylebone station. Here it is is seen at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre (which is located at Quainton Road station) on a rare passenger working north of Aylesbury on the former Marylebone - Nottingham - Sheffield - Manchester Great Central Railway route. Passenger services are extended over what is now a little used freight-only rail line to this living museum several times a year; the pro-railway lobby groups suggest that more productive use of this rail line would see some of the existing services from London Marylebone which terminate at Aylesbury being extended along it to link in with the West Coast Main Line at Milton Keynes. (No new track would need installing as the entire route is extant, although there would be a case for a new station to serve modern housing developments to the north of Aylesbury.)
Train operator Nostalgia
In 1986 the government instituted some business-led reforms of the then state-owned British Railways. In southern England this saw the creation of Network SouthEast which operated all services (except InterCity) in London and its hinterland - this roughly being south and south east England plus East Anglia. The new operator, along with some new ideas and helped by a boom in London's economy successfully reversed a long term decline in passenger traffic. One of its most innovative and popular ideas was the introduction of a railcard which offered discounted off-peak travel. Although this railcard had to be purchased many people found that it was a cost effective marketing tool which not only saved them money but encouraged them to make journeys they might not otherwise have made.
Class 313 electric multiple unit at Watford Junction (heading for London Broad Street station) in Network SouthEast livery.
Sadly since railway privatisation what became known as the network effect has been killed off. The privatised railco's did not like the Network Card as they saw it as being too generous and a threat to the more restrictive offers they wanted to make for their own sphere of operations only. So, slowly by slowly, over several years the railcard's terms and conditions were so savagely eroded (for instance: on weekdays discounted tickets cannot be used before 10.00am - previously it was 9.30am and there is now a minimum weekday fare of £10.00) that many people no longer bother with them - myself included.
Ticketing Nostalgia
Since railway privatisation the ticketing system for longer distance travel in Britain has undergone a marketing-led revolution. No longer are fares based on a distance basis - instead the motto is what the "market" is deemed to be able to afford, and indeed some tickets (especially full fare singles and returns) are so expensive that they could be made out of real gold! OK so the railcos still offer off-peak discounted tickets (and some do offer *very* good bargains) but these are only for passengers who are prepared to book seats in advance, like an airplane. By way of a contrast no-one ever has to book their private car in advance - they just "turn up". The nostalgia here is for the discounted walk-on tickets, and route interavailability.
British Railways offered the "Saver" and "Super-Saver" tickets which offered discounted walk-on travel after 9.30am ('walk-on' means just turn up, buy a ticket & travel, no advance booking required). Since privatisation the railcos have more or less totally abolished the Super-Saver and would like to get rid of the Saver too - but following a public outcry during privatisation the Saver became a 'protected' ticket, so it must still be offered, and its price can only be raised in line with the national inflation figures. Many people lament that the Super-Saver was not similarly protected too. However, in the eventual hope that it may yet be abolished the railcos have started an ongoing deliberate backdoor effort to undermine the Saver ticket so that so few people use it that it will be deemed irrelevant and (eventually) the decision makers will scrap it. One way in which they are cynically and knowingly trying to designed to make it less attractive is by changing its conditions - such as pushing back the weekday morning starting time to 10.00am - as this change will make day trips far less viable for people who wanted to spend many hours at their destination. At present however it is still permitted to break one's return journey - as long as at all times one is travelling towards the return destination. The combined effects of inflation and abolition of Super-Savers means that on many longer distance routes the cheapest walk-on fares can be as much as 50%-65% higher than they were when the railways were privatised in 1995.
There was a time when a ticket between two stations could be used via any "reasonable" route. Where there were several routes passengers with return tickets could travel out via one route (eg Exeter to London Waterloo or Southend Central to London Fenchurch Street) and return via the other route (eg: London Paddington to Exeter or London Liverpool Street to Southend Victoria). Since privatisation passengers can only do this with full-fare (and for certain routes Saver) tickets, these not being the cheapest tickets by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed with these tickets it is sometimes cheaper for even single people to travel by car - even with Britain's very expensive petrol and congested roads! So nowadays the only way passengers can buy cheaper tickets is to restrict themselves to specified trains, on one route only, out and back.
Tram Nostalgia.
Although Britain had very little mainline railway electrification there were many urban electric tram systems. Of these only the Blackpool - Fleetwood inter-urban survived, but preservationists were able to save enough examples of rolling stock from some of the other systems to create several Transport Centres where they give rides to delighted passengers. Nowadays double-decker trams are very rare - Blackpool being one of only three locations globally where they are still used in full passenger service, The others are Hong Kong and Alexandria, Egypt.
left: As this picture shows even transport museums are not immune to the very much modern-day curse of the "white van driver" parking just about anywhere and blocking all other road traffic in the process.
The green tram which has been blocked by the parked van is Liverpool Corporation Passenger Transport 869, which was built in 1936, sold to Glasgow in 1954 and withdrawn in 1960. In the distance can be seen Leeds City Tramways 399, which was built at Leeds Kirkstall works, entering service in 1925. The vehicle behind that is unidentified.
right: Passengers queue for their tram ride experience. At one time open top double deck trams were commonplace, and whilst they can offer a very pleasant form of transport on a warm summer's day, the same may not be so when the weather is less than favourable (winter, rain, etc).
The open top tram is former Southampton Corporation Tramways 45. Back in 1949 this was the first tram bought for preservation by enthusiasts, costing £10. The other tram is former Metropolitan Electric Tramways 331. First entering service in 1930 it was the last of 5 experimental cars. In 1933 the Metropolitan Electric Tramways was forcibly absorbed in to the London Passenger Transport Board, who in 1937 sold it to Sunderland.
left: (two images) The Victorian archway provides an idea vantage point for photography, as well as helping split the site visually (making it seem larger than it is) plus creating a bottleneck which requires interlaced track.
right: Inside one of Crich's single deck trams showing how to maximise seating capacity in a limited space it features longitudinal seating on one side. This photo was taken at night, with a flashgun, which explains why nothing can be seen out of the windows. Normally flashguns should not be used when photographing transports as it temporarily blinds the driver, creating a safety hazard.
Other living museums which operate trams include Beamish North of England Open Air Museum in Co. Durham (near to Newcastle Upon Tyne and Durham), The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley (near Birmingham) and the East Anglia Transport Museum, (near to Lowestoft). At Beamish and the BCLM the trams (and trolleybuses) are used as 'serious' transports helping carry people around extensive sites which primarily look at how people lived in days gone by, for instance the early 1900's, when trams such as these were often in mainstream use. In this way they have become useful extras that enhance the visitor experience, but not the main attractions.
However whereas the Steam based Living Museums are based on what almost everyone agrees is outmoded technology many of these tramway transport centres were created by people who held / still hold the firm conviction that British transport 'policies' were seriously flawed in encouraging the closure of our tramway systems, and that whilst the money invested in the replacement motor buses appeared to be cheaper at the time experience from overseas has shown that in the longer term it would have been far cheaper to have kept the trams and slowly upgrade them to light rail standards.
To a large extent these views have now been proven correct; especially following the success of Manchester's Metrolink and Croydon's Tramlink: so its not surprising that now many other places also want to bring them back - including London where plans include new lines right through the heart of the central area, serving areas where previously the trams had not been allowed to operate.
For more information about these living museums visit their websites (links will open in new windows).
The National Tramway Museum - http://www.tramway.co.uk/
Beamish North of England Open Air Museum - http://www.beamish.org.uk/
The Black Country Living Museum - http://www.bclm.co.uk/
The East Anglia Transport Museum - http://www.eatm.org.uk/.
Of course some places retained their trams...so in these places there is no need to go to "out of the way" museums to experience historic tramcars / streetcars in action.
Using historic museum cars like this was deemed preferable to temporary substitution by motor buses.
Trolleybuses and an ex-St Louis???? streetcar seen in Market Street San Francisco.
Sometimes there is just a fine dividing line between leisure and nostalgia and further complications are added when the same tramcars are used for both "serious" passenger services and leisure-orientated nostalgic rides.
For instance: Milan, Italy is still using some of its Peter Witt tramcars for "serious" passenger services whilst in cities such as San Francisco they are share duties with restored PCC streetcars on the tourist orientated services.
Some of Blackpool's trams fall into this category too with the open top tram seen below being similar to many others (with 'closed' tops) which provide "serious" passenger services.
Cities which have modern light rail systems have
found that the operation of historic tramcars (streetcars / trolleycars) over part (or all) of the system is a well proven way to attract extra passengers.
Bus Nostalgia.
As previously stated buses also feature in the Nostalgia industry and there are several places where it is possible to ride fully-working preserved trolleybuses. As with the tramway preservation movement
the trolleybus living museums were created by people who held / still hold the firm conviction that British transport 'policies' were seriously flawed in encouraging the replacement of the electric
trolleybuses with fossil-fuel powered polluting motor buses. They see it as a serious error that (so far) the return of the tram has not been matched by the return of the trolleybus.
Arguably Britain's foremost Trolleybus living museum is the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft, this being located on an ex-WW2 airfield near the village of Belton, in North Lincolnshire. (Also near Doncaster, Yorkshire and the M180).
Taken using a 'stretch / panoramic' camera this shows a general view of the main circulating area at the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft. The three vehicles on the right are being used to give passengers rides on a circuit which includes locations not seen in this view. The trolleybuses comes from Bradford (front), Huddersfield (middle) and Nottingham (rear).
left Porto, Portugal (front), Limoges, France (front middle), Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (rear middle) and Liège, Belgium (back).
right Thoughts of thoroughbred (horses) resting in their stables - as with most other living museums there are some vehicles which cannot be used because they need refurbishing / restoration before they can enter passenger service, for which donations of money and time are very welcome! Being a registered charity donations from UK tax payers should be made as 'gift aid' as then the taxman will enhance the donation too. In front of the sheds is the Aachen 1½ deck trolleybus. A dedicated page with more images of this vehicle can be reached by clicking here.
In addition to historic buses, trolleybuses & trams the East Anglia Transport Museum (which is at Carlton Colleville, near Lowestoft) has a large museum collection of vintage vehicles including cars, vans, lorries & steam-rollers, many of which can sometimes be seen operating on its 'olde worlde' style street scene. There is also a miniature railway.
left: Ashton-under-Lyne (red) and Derby.
right: Bournemouth (No. 202, the seaside resorts' open top trolleybus which dates from 1935) plus Solingen, Germany partially visible behind it.
left: Maidstone (going to 'Loose') and London (x2). Next to the Maidstone trolleybus is ex-London 1523, on a special short term loan from the London Transport Museum. Whilst here it operated electrically and carried passengers for the first time since 1961 - a function it performed flawlessly, requiring a surprisingly little amount of advance preparation either!
right: Once a year the EATM opens late, so that people may experience the transport after nightfall. The passengers flocking to this trolleybus come from a wide cross section of the population... no anoraks in sight!!!
The Black Country Living Museum (BCLM) is another place where the trolleybus lives on. As this is a large museum covering an extensive area the trolleybuses (and tram) provide a useful service linking various sections of the complex with the main entrance. As such this is the world's only double-deck trolleybus route (at present - but it would welcome many companions!)
The Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft - http://www.sandtoft.org.uk/
The East Anglia Transport Museum - http://www.eatm.org.uk/.
The Black Country Living Museum - http://www.bclm.co.uk/
The National Tramway Museum - http://www.tramway.co.uk/
[The London Transport Passenger Board was created in 1933 when Parliament gave a pre-existing motor bus and UndergrounD Railway combine (cartel?) full ownership and control of all their commercial rivals with the intention of creating a single unified transport authority for London. It would be interesting to speculate whether the dis-possessed transport operators such as the London County Council (a local government whose remit included much of central London but not the outer suburbs) would have dis-invested in their electric street transports had they retained control of their transport operations]...
Using Historic Buses In The Modern Era.
It is worth noting that when used on the public highway even historic buses must comply with present-day regulations concerning passenger vehicles - which *might* require the fitting of a tachograph, unless certain conditions are met. The conditions vary depending on many circumstances, including:-
- When the bus was built (1947 or earlier, more than 25 years ago, or more recently)
- The type of driving license the driver holds,
- How many people (including the driver) are being carried,
- The purpose and / or point of origin / destination of the journey.
As a general guide, the one constant is that the vehicle must not be being used for hire and reward - which basically means that it must not be being used commercially with fare paying passengers. Apart from that for the vehicle to not need a tachograph then (in most circumstances) all the following conditions need to be met... *it is a vintage vehicle, *it is not carrying more than 9 people (including the driver) and that *it is being driven in a vintage vehicle rally or to / from such a rally, or to / from a museum or other place where the vehicle will be / has been displayed to members of the public, or to / from a place where the vehicle is to be / has been repaired, maintained or tested. Curiously, travelling to a filling station, or to / from a MOT vehicle testing facility (for its annual safety examination) does not meet this criteria - so technically it seems that a tachograph *might* be required when making these journeys.
The term "vintage vehicle rally" is perhaps best understood to refer to an event in which a collection of historic vehicles are driven on the public highway along a pre-determined route.
Sometimes vintage buses are used to re-enact bus services of yesteryear. It is usually understood that providing the vehicles are operating to timetabled services, complete with time cards detailing routes, timings, the drivers' rest periods, etc (ie: just like any normal scheduled urban bus service) then it is probable that tachographs will not be required. Apparently the regulations are somewhat fuzzy for this type of bus usage - it is almost as if the people who drafted the rules did not contemplate buses ever being used in this way!
However, there are some other caveats and exemptions. For instance, when in 1991 new stricter driver licensing regulations were introduced a special restricted license became available to people who were able to prove that they had previously been driving vintage buses under the outgoing regulations. Known as a 'Grandfather rights' licences the holders are not subject to the '9 people including the driver' restriction. Another example is that buses which date from 1947 or earlier are not subject to the passenger number restriction.
The information contained here is for information purposes only, and should not be seen as a legally binding definition of the law. Potential vintage bus operators who are wise will make their own enquiries
in a way which leaves a 'paper trail' as this is the only way to cover one's backside and prove that attempts have been made to learn about and then to follow the manifold and overly complicated minefield of regulations
... Below are some links to external websites which explore the situation more closely, plus a link to a page on the Wikipedia website which is dedicated to those who do not know what a tachograph is! To avoid
being taken away from this page they all open in new windows.
http://www.routemaster.org.uk/information_files/drivinglicences.htm
http://www.self-preservation-society.co.uk/jotter/tachograph.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachograph
Nostalgic Nostalgia.
Sometimes people will complain when items of nostalgic interest are swept away by progress, but it can happen that going backwards can actually equate with undoing previous "wrongs" and / or going forwards.
Perhaps one of the best examples of this is what happened in Berlin, Germany, after the city was re-unified. With the building of the wall in 1961 some sections of the U-Bahn (underground railway) in the western sector of the city ended up being closed to passenger services. At Gleisdreieck station one of the disused platforms was incorporated in to the experimental Magnetic Levitation railway (M-Bahn - more information on this page) whilst nearby a section of disused elevated U-Bahn was effectively "re-opened" by means of a vintage tram shuttling along one of the tracks between Bülowstrasse and Nollendorfplatz stations. Furthermore, Bülowstrasse station became a Turkish bazaar (shopping arcade) whilst Nollendorfplatz station became a flea market with stalls along the platforms and inside the two vintage U-Bahn trains which were stabled in the station.
However, with Berlin's re-unification all these have been swept away and the lines re-established as part of the modern-day U-Bahn.
Vintage U-Bahn train stabled in the platform at Nollendorfplatz station - the red livery denotes these carraiges as having been for 1st class passengers - the rest of the fleet was painted orangy-yellow.
It is seen here at Bülowstrasse / Turkish bazaar station.
A video of the historical tram, Turkish bazaar and flea market has been placed on 'youtube' - click the projector icon or here to see it.
The train seen here is travelling along the tracks that had previously been used by the vintage tram.
The corrugated metal sides identify this specific train as being part of the fleet originally built for services in the former East Berlin.
