The Fog Of The Underground

[spsmiler]

The artist using that term somewhat peeved me - was it ever foggy - apart from when steam trains were running?

However, as a painting this is superb. See tweet below.

[slugabed]

Not fog but dust.
I've seen it like that on the Victoria Line.

[class411]

Oct 8, 2021 2:50:22 GMT slugabed said:

Not fog but dust.
I've seen it like that on the Victoria Line.

Surely, particularly on the Victoria line, if it happens once at any spot, it will keep happening until it is cleaned.

Is it something that happens when the track cleaning schedule is upset?

[norbitonflyer]

You can get fog in a tunnel. In the picture the platforms are clearly wet. The fog could simply be spray thrown up by a departing train, but if the air is near saturation point it would not take much for some water to condense out - the drop in air pressure in the slipstream behind a departing train could trigger it. This drop in pressure is the cause of con-trails behind aircraft, or above their wings (the lower pressure being what causes lift).

A small drop in temperature can also do it, which could be caused by a cold wet train entering a warm tunnel. However, since the picture appears to be of a northbound platform on the Northern Line, it is unlikely any train using it has been exposed to the weather recently, so I suspect some artistic licence has been used.

[theblackferret]

Also worth bearing in mind that in the past people were allowed to smoke on the Underground.

Not in the recent historical past that the painting's figures allude to, but well within living memory & from my distant youth(ie when dinosaurs walked the Earth ,until the publication of the Royal College of Surgeons report on it was published(1962),about 70% of people smoked,and I can remember the odd journey by Tube on Saturdays to football & even Sundays window-shopping to Oxford St. with smoke-filled carriages and misty platforms, until the train entered.

[spsmiler]

I too recall that people were allowed to smoke during their journeys. The inside of the smoking cars reeked of tobacco and the paintwork had a yellow-ish hue.

As a non-smoker I always aimed to travel in the non-smoking cars.

I recall accompanying some relatives who lived in New York on a train journey back to central London (where they were staying in a hotel) and they were delighted to find that smoking was allowed on our 'subway' (sic) as it was prohibited on the New York Subway. I this was in the 1970s.