Sketchbook project 2 - Central line

I started travelling on the Central line at Oxford Circus at 10:42, and after visiting West Ruislip and Ealing Broadway in the west

and Woodford and Epping in the (north) east

got back to Oxford Circus at 16:42. (That included time for a sandwich and a bit of shopping in Woodford.) From West Ruislip to Roding Valley, the stop a couple of minutes before Woodford, the journey time is 87 continuous minutes; straight to Epping, it's 81 minutes.

The Central line is the longest line - 47 miles - with 49 stations, 20 below ground. It has a complicated history of extension from 1935 to 1957. The Central London Railway, running between Shepherd's Bush and Liverpool Street, opened in 1900; in 1937 it was renamed the Central Line. "One legacy of the line's building is that the sections under the City were built to follow the geography of the streets above, rather than underneath buildings, to take advantage of the free wayleave offered by the government. As a result there are many sharp bends and curves on the track between St. Paul's, Bank and Liverpool Street. At Bank station, the Central line platforms are so tightly curved it is not possible to see one end of the platform from the other and the traditional "mind the gap" message is particularly stressed here."

Map model

World map (cities are given three-letter "airport" codes) based on the underground map - one of many variations (see others here) by Chris Gray; available as a poster (£35) here.

Tube map

There have been 12 different Tube map covers - see them all here.

Kensal Rise to Crouch Hill - on a 1920 map