Tubewhore ([info]tubewhore) wrote,
@ 2008-03-23 19:20:00
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Entry tags:acton depot, museum, signage

Acton Depot Open Day.
I've been waiting for this weekend with mounting anticipation since I first heard about it in July.  Once a year, the London Transport Museum's Depot in Acton opens its door to all and sundry.  The imagination runs wild...somewhere in deepest Acton there's a warehouse stuffed with all manner of transport-related heavy machinery, equipment, street furniture, signage, posters, and any other unknown bits and bobs, scale models and sundry peculiarities that have a home nowhere else. 

It was too good to miss...and from posting about it here, it seemed I was not the only one getting excited at the idea of playing with the old trains.  However, by a joyful failure of  joined up thinking, Transport for London have scheduled engineering works that takes out the  Piccadilly Line is westbound between Hammersmith and Acton Town this weekend, meaning anyone travelling to the Depot has to figure out the bus replacement service.  Just genius...

...still even with this extra hiccup I still arrive before anyone else I'm scheduled to meet.  I queue in the drizzle with all the other enthusiasts and watch the miniature steam tube  puff up and down...

Walking into the depot itself is walking into a wall of smell and memory...immediately I'm back in my grandfather's workshop as a very small child...the scent of old machines, dust and time.  The smell of heavy cast metal, gearings and grease... Inside every square inch of space is crammed with machines, or trains; or bits of trains, buses, tube carriages and trams; or bearings, gears, switching equipment, switchboards or signage, all of it piled up in what seems almost random order, plonked down where ever there was floor space when the delivery guy turned up.  There is a small stand of street lights huddling together like grazing giraffes, a wall of time card ticket punches, the stairway is covered in a variety of signage, now all directing you to nowhere.  And filling up the paths there's stall upon stall selling transport ephemera interspersed with model railways  - people selling timetables and maps jostle up  against dioramas of tiny little tramways pottling up and down tiny high streets overseen by the proud men that have spent hours hiding in the garden shed reproducing  Weston-Super-Mare in 1952 in 7mm scale.  It's all rather mad and wonderful.  I buy lots of posters, baggage forwarding labels and old tram tickets.





No, the picture isn't upside down, the sign is...  This is what I loved most about the Depot; unlike most museums, there isn't a sense of preciousness, no hushed reverential silence and things carefully encased in plexiglass and pedestals.  Things live where there's room - floor to ceiling there are shelves filled with random stuff...There are signs on some of the exhibits saying 'we have no idea what this is: if you do, please tell a member of staff'. 



Upstairs is the Repository of Lost Signs.  I want to live there...








It's another case of experiencing lost time.  I don't think I saw even a third of what's there, because I was enjoying both exploring everything in detail, and the added fun of bumping into loads of people all sporting silly grins as we played in the antique tube carriages. 



Was wonderful to met people who so far have been names on lj comments, and to catch up with old friends all equally guiltless at being able to totally nerd out in safe company.  L came up from Wales and my college friend B came in from Cambridge and was persuaded to buy a rather spiffy guard's coat - truth be told I was rather gutted that it didn't fit me...








I got to strap hang, press buttons, and pretend to be a guard...

...the appearance of two goths together did cause some consternation though.  L was rocking a very Girl Genius / Dr Watson look of purple organza and bowler hat and I was in vintage and flouncey skirts.  This was in stark contrast to the anorak and jeans of the majority of visitors as well as being in the minority being girls.  A member of staff asked 'so, who do you represent?'  Put two goths together and it seems we are an event all by ourselves. 



"Maximum power!!!"


An absolutely a wonderful day - I can't wait to go again next year.  And as we discovered on the way out, there's tube signage outside, so I'm claiming this as a special bonus stop.



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[info]severe_delays
2008-03-23 10:36 pm UTC (link)
For some reason the museum REFUSE to fit their dates into the engineering works schedule. They seem to have a mindset that they had an open day about this time last year so that's good enough for this year. Nevermind the fact that this year it's easter and naturally LUL will be taking advantage of the lighter traffic to do engineering works. It must be very frustrating for anyone trying to get to the museum!

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[info]tubewhore
2008-03-24 09:24 am UTC (link)
ahhh...so it's the Museum being numpties...that's very interesting.

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[info]failing_angel
2008-03-23 10:42 pm UTC (link)
That looks utterly fab; hopefully next time I won't be moving house

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[info]tubewhore
2008-03-24 09:25 am UTC (link)
oh, you'd love it - I barely scratched the surface so will be more than happy to go again...with a better camera I hope as my pictures of a lot of the large lumps of machinery are just murky

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[info]failing_angel
2008-03-24 03:14 pm UTC (link)
I barely scratched the surface so will be more than happy to go again
Brill, well I'll be more than happy to point and shoot for you :)

Maybe next time we'll Goth it up a bit more

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[info]spangle_kitten
2008-03-23 11:06 pm UTC (link)
The signpost is very Alice in Wonderland! The whole place was just a great museum with all it's nooks and crannys and felt so informal. I really appreciated the rather eccentric guides that were so passionate about it all...and thrilled that there were others that shared that enthusiasm rather than the reception one gets at some museums where the staff have an air of "how dare these plebs come in here" about them.

If you get a moment could you email me the rest of the photos I'd really like to see how the ones of us nerding about in the old carriages turned out :)

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[info]jessamyn19
2008-03-24 12:42 am UTC (link)
i have tried to email you a few times and me email just get bounced back :(

jessamyn19@yahoo.com

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[info]speedlime
2008-03-24 03:47 am UTC (link)
OH MY GOD SPEECHLESS WITH JEALOUSY!!! You do know I had a Tube map over my bed for years when I was a little kid, right?

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[info]rhythmaning
2008-03-24 01:37 pm UTC (link)
Damn! I was in London at the weekend, too...

It looks really wonderful.

BR used to have a depot somewhere in the hinterland behind/between Kings Cross and Euston where they would sell off surplus equipment; when I was younger, my brother and I would go and pop around, looking at stuff. We bought an "Exit" sign and a set of guards' flags - red and green, covered in oil.

I will look out for this, and might make it next year!

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[info]astras_brian
2008-03-24 06:48 pm UTC (link)
*nerdgasm*

*splort*

I'll post more coherent thoughts later :)

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[info]girfan
2008-03-25 09:27 am UTC (link)
That hallway full of signs looks so cool!
What posters did you get?
*envy*

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[info]mrsrev
2008-03-26 09:48 am UTC (link)
It was a superb day! And great to meet you :-) Sorry I had to nip off but I realised that with the replacement buses, I'd better make sure I got back to Kings Cross in time for my train. I was extremely happy that the replacement bus I managed to get was an old Routemaster!!
And I'm jealous of B because I wanted that guard's coat too but it didn't go anywhere near fitting me :-(

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