Strap Hanger's (if that what they are called)

[camperdown9]

Hi

I have recently bought a "strap hanger" if that the correct term. The thing that hangs from the ceiling of the car and looks a bit like a spring with a ball at the end. 

The one I have bought has a grey plastic handle I remember them having black coloured handles on the Northern line. Does anyone know what line had grey plastic handles? I am just trying to figure out what line it might of came from. 

Also when I looked the the LTM's website there were a number of advertising versions; Pepsi, Orangina, Evian, vaseline and even Cadbury cream eggs. Does anyone remember seeing these actually in use on a train?

Thanks

Alex

[nickf]

60 years ago I remember the company accountant coming in and telling everyone how the person next to him in the tube had been holding on to the 'thing' hanging from the roof. It had come detached and struck the accountant a mighty blow to the shoulder. Unsympathetic laughter all round.

[t697]

Sept 7, 2021 8:51:07 GMT camperdown9 said:

Hi

I have recently bought a "strap hanger" if that the correct term. The thing that hangs from the ceiling of the car and looks a bit like a spring with a ball at the end. 

The one I have bought has a grey plastic handle I remember them having black coloured handles on the Northern line. Does anyone know what line had grey plastic handles? I am just trying to figure out what line it might of came from. 

Also when I looked the the LTM's website there were a number of advertising versions; Pepsi, Orangina, Evian, vaseline and even Cadbury cream eggs. Does anyone remember seeing these actually in use on a train?

Thanks

Alex

I seem to recall everything from 1967TS onwards had the grey knobs. 1983TS was the last fleet built with them.

[Tom]

I have two from D stock which had black knobs.

[quex]

Sept 7, 2021 8:51:07 GMT camperdown9 said:

I have recently bought a "strap hanger" if that the correct term.

It's sometimes said, by pedantic pain-in-the-neck types (e.g. me), that technically speaking, a strap hanger is a passenger, rather than the object the passenger holds. Hence the various Straphanger's Revolts through the 20th century. "Straphanger" referring to the human person makes more sense, in my opinion. However, I know of at least one LT publication (TOT Magazine) that referred to the item as a "strap hanger".

I'm not sure if there was ever an "official" name for item under discussion, but they have been referred to as grips, or sometimes grab handles.

FWIW, I'm sure I've seen a photo of advertising-branded grips in use on a '73 stock car. Can't think where though. It wasn't a new phenomenon then; it was tried on the tube in 1925.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2021 11:41:38 GMT Tom said:

I have two from D stock which had black knobs.

Originally brown bakelite they were

[t697]

Sept 7, 2021 11:41:38 GMT Tom said:

I have two from D stock which had black knobs.

Yes, just whizzed through some original interior shots on the internet and it looks like the grey ones were on 1967TS, 1972TS, 1973TS and C stock.
D78 and 1983TS reverted to a dark colour. Could be a very dark brown matching the original decor or maybe black.
I recall one would sometimes see an oddly coloured one where a replacement had been done and presumably the correct colour was nil stock at the time.

[camperdown9]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Unfortunately the seller has just sent me a message to say that he made a mistake and doesn’t have one to sell. He’s refunded my money and these things happen. But I’m disappointed 😢

Alex

[brigham]

It's the straphangers that pay the dividends!

[AndrewS]

Sept 7, 2021 21:25:23 GMT camperdown9 said:

Unfortunately the seller has just sent me a message to say that he made a mistake and doesn’t have one to sell. He’s refunded my money and these things happen.

Seems a bizarre mistake to make! More likely a better offer came in by a different route, or the seller had second thoughts about the price.

[rincew1nd]

Indeed. I bought a signed Terry Pratchett book on eBay once, two days later he died and subsequently the book never arrived. When I raised a complaint I was given an immediate 'no questions asked' refund.

[brigham]

The correct term for the piece of apparatus that a 'strap-hanger' hangs from, is a 'strap'.

[Chris M]

Sept 13, 2021 7:42:49 GMT brigham said:

The correct term for the piece of apparatus that a 'strap-hanger' hangs from, is a 'strap'.

and the plural of "strap-hanger" is "strap-hangers" not "strap-hanger's", the latter of course being the possessive - e.g. "the strap-hanger's commute"

[camperdown9]

Sept 13, 2021 13:40:42 GMT Chris M said:

Sept 13, 2021 7:42:49 GMT brigham said:

The correct term for the piece of apparatus that a 'strap-hanger' hangs from, is a 'strap'.

and the plural of "strap-hanger" is "strap-hangers" not "strap-hanger's", the latter of course being the possessive - e.g. "the strap-hanger's commute"

Sorry I'm dyslexic punctuation is just beyond me. 

[danwoodhouse]

or as I called them - "snooker balls on springs"

[quex]

Sept 13, 2021 7:42:49 GMT brigham said:

The correct term for the piece of apparatus that a 'strap-hanger' hangs from, is a 'strap'.

I'd argue this is accurate to the original devices, which were literally looped leather straps - but from the '20s onwards, metal/plastic (or contemporary equivalent) devices were increasingly included such than they no longer formed a "strap", and so "grip" would be more accurate. The 1935 Stock introduced the basic "snooker ball on spring" pattern that was to dominate for 50 odd years.* As proof that history repeats itself, the Class 378s and S Stock reintroduced the "looped strap" arrangement - but in a form of rubber this time.

*Notwithstanding a slight original design flaw - apparently they were quite easy to yank off at first, which became apparent during WWII. Suspicion at the time was at least in part they were being used as weapons. Supposedly one was found in Algiers, and LT tried to claim that Commandos were using them! Strengthened grips later replaced the original design.

[zbang]

I've always heard that a "strap hanger" is a standing passenger on a train who s holds onto the strap or overhead rail (also, as someone who commutes by train, but I think that's concentrated to the NE USA).