Flood gates.

[Deleted]

Can any one help! Got to do a brief of my choice and I'm doing it on tube stations in WW2! I've herd that there are flood gates located on the network in case a bomb hits the River Thames and floods the tunnels. Is this ture and if so where are they located esp on the Picc! Cheers!

[q8]

Tubeprunes website might help>

[Deleted]

See if your library can get you a copy of "London Transport at War 1939-1945", published by LT in 1974. (Originally published in 1947 as "London Transport Carried On".)

The tunnels affected were those of the Bakerloo, both branches of the Northern, East London, and District. There were no floodgates installed on the Piccadilly, as it does not go under the Thames.

At the time of the Munich crisis (Sept 1938), war was feared and the Bakerloo and Northern tunnels were blocked with concrete. This did little to improve the train service, and the concrete was removed when the crisis eased in early Oct 38. However, it was obvious that war was on the way, and floodgates were installed at Embankment and Waterloo on the Bakerloo and Northern; at Bank and London Bridge on the Northern; and at the ends of the Thames tunnel on the East London. In case a bomb breached Victoria Embankment, floodgates were also installed on the District at Charing Cross and South Kensington.

The gates were interlocked with the signals, so that they could not be shut while a train was still under the river and so that trains did not run into them when they were shut. When there was an air raid alert, the gates were closed. (The District ones were closed only if the tide was high.)

If you can get hold of the book I mentioned, it has much other stuff on how the tube stations were used as air raid shelters, and how the incomplete tunnels of the Central Line extension from Leytonstone to Gants Hill were used as a bomb-proof factory.

[Tomcakes]

There are floodgate-type structures to the south of Russell Square and between Manor House and Turnpike Lane - I don't know if they're connected with the war though.

[ikar]

The Bakerloo tunels have been celled off with concreate

There is a flood gate at South Kensington
See: www.trainweb.org/districtdave/html/south_kensington.html

[Deleted]

tombeevers said:

There are floodgate-type structures to the south of Russell Square and between Manor House and Turnpike Lane - I don't know if they're connected with the war though.

There is no mention of them in "LT at War" or in any other book I have read about LT during the war. Since these stations are some way from the Thames, I can't think why floodgates would be needed.

[Tomcakes]

Me neither - but they're definately there (both Video125 DVD and signal diagrams show them)...

[Chris M]

Do the tunnels go under/adjacent to rivers here?
If so that could be a possible reason for having floodgates.

Chris

[Tomcakes]

AFAIK not any major river - but perhaps an underground stream or something similar, I'm sure someone with more knowledge can enlighten us!

[Deleted]

awkward42 said:

Do the tunnels go under/adjacent to rivers here?
If so that could be a possible reason for having floodgates.

Chris

Even if there are, why floodgates? You're not STILL expecting the Luftwaffe, are you? ;D

[Chris M]

true, but it still doens't harm to be prepared for an eventuality that might require you to prevent flooding from a river. Particularly if the tunnel isn't particularly deep below it.

Chris

[igelkotten]

Floodgates can be quite handy, even if you are not expecting herr Göring (or nowadays, US Air Force) to pop in for an impromptu visit.

Flooding can occur through "ordinary" natural disasters and events, such as landslides following heavy rains, burst water mains, naturally present water flows, such as underground rivers and drains and so on. If so, it can be quite convenient, depending on the geographical features of your network, to be able to stop the flooding from spreading out over a larger area.

We have quite a few of them on the Stockholm Metro, since our tunnels go up and down between a series of islands, with several tunnels being underneath the seabed, or even located on top of the seabed in a few cases. Likewise, the stretch between T-canetralen and Östermalmstorg is riddled with natural aquifiers in a sand ridge, so water leakage is a definitive problem there.

[Tomcakes]

I don't know if any of the floodgates still work, AFAIK many of them were sealed out of use after the war.

[boxboy]

There is one newly built floodgate at Canning Town on the JLE. It is built and shaped to look like the Thames Barrier.

However it wasn't built to protect from flooding from the Thames, but from the nearby River Lea.

I have been in the machine room on nights a few years ago, and I can assure you it most definately works, and it is rather noisy!