underground « kühlschrank.com

24Jul/104

Riding Trains Under The Ground

My first day in New York City included my first trip on the subway system. So first impression? It's a bit dingy, makes me think of a dirtier version of the Berlin U-Bahn because of the squareness of the tunnels and that the Tube is far superior. That last one surely shouldn't surprise anyone.

We took a number 1 train from 14th Street and 6th Avenue to Columbus Circle (I keep wanting to call it 'circus'). Well, we started at 14th and 6th but to get to the 1 platforms we had to walk to 7th Avenue. It was a bit like Bank for the tourist confusion factor. Along the journey there were several trash cans, some of them overflowing. Something you never see on the Underground for various reasons.

Once at platform level the ambiance didn't improve much. The thing we really noticed was how filthy the tracks are. Sure it's a bit sooty and mucky along the tracks but these look like they are never cleaned and are used as make shift garbage bins. The platforms in some cases can be quite narrow. I found the whole experience a bit claustrophobic.

Our silver train approached and we hopped on. The trains themselves are a bit like those airstream caravans on the outside. But with more American flags. Inside is quite minimalistic but at least was pretty well clean. As we made our way North you could see that there are stations in much better nick then the one we started at but they still all basically look the same. I'm keen to check out more stations to get a better feel for it all. For all the dingyness it still has a certainly quality to it. Not everything can be the same as London I suppose

Tagged as: new york city, subway, Transport, underground 4 Comments

4Jul/100

A Lil Look Around Aldwych Station

TFL currently have an exhibition on about the current and forth coming upgrades to various Tube lines. They just happened to host it in a station that's been closed since 1994 that geeks like me would love to have a look inside. What a clever ploy. The station in question is Aldwych (formerly Strand before Charing Cross was renamed Strand for a while, all very confusing). Since closing it has been used for filming, training and private hires. The exhibit takes up the majority of the ticket hall; the platform level was off limits. The info on display can be seen online anytime, I was there to take a poke around.

The Surrey Street entrance and exit.

Interior of the original 1907 lift, the only one left on the network.

Lift exterior.

Booking hall found behind some temporary hoardings.

Phone booths, also behind the hoardings.

There's a few more photos to see over at Flickr.

Tagged as: Aldwych Station, tube, underground No Comments

29Nov/090

Hey King’s Cross, You Have a New Tube Ticket Hall

The new north ticket hall at King's Cross St. Pancras Underground Station (to use it's full name) opened today. It's for the deep level lines - the Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines.

There's a new outside entrance along Pancras road that is easy to get to from King's Cross platforms 9, 10 and 11.

It leads right to the new, massive ticket hall. Seeing this makes you really realise just how small the old (but still open) one is.

Here we have the re-opend walkway to the King's Cross concourse and the new ticket hall from the old deep-level ticket hall. Straight on is the new hall and taking a rightt brings you to the new concourse level entrance/exit.

The new concourse level entrace is off to the left of the old one. There used to be cash machines and benches here before scaffolding took over. Platform 8 is just off in the distance to the right. Will be interesting to see how this changes if any once the present concourse is demolished.

If you're as into this as I am, there's a few more photos and commentary over on Flickr.

Tagged as: kings cross, ticket hall, tube, underground No Comments

26Jan/090

Can You Hear That?

A few weeks ago my dad told me about a program he heard on CBC Radio 1 called Hark. It was about what London sounds like now, and how it would have sounded during the reign of Elizabeth I. Rather interesting program. Espeically when the host would call a random London phone number and ask the person who answered to simply hold the phone up for a few seconds just to hear the surroundings.

While in London this past Saturday I felt inspired by that and took a couple videos with my camera to mainly record the sounds. My little camera's microphone does a surprisingly good job at capturing some decent sounds.

Tagged as: barbican, churches, london, sounds, underground, videos, youtube Continue reading

What’s all this then?

Kühlschrank.com, established 2003, is the personal site of Andrea Vail. She's a Canadian geek girl currently living in England who enjoys history, Macs, trains and a jolly good dance number in equal amounts.

Why 'kühlschrank'? I just think it's a neat word. When taking German in school, I decided it was my favourite German word and used it as my new domain name. So there we go.