Underground, Overground… …Railway Mission involvement with London’s underground railways. For most of its history the Railway Mission did not visit railwaymen who worked on the ‘Underground’ for which excavations had begun with the Metropolitan Railway in 1860. The London City Mission (LCM) and others visited the navvies at work. The LCM’s missionaries were allocated to particular districts bringing the Gospel to all they met. Later some visited occupational groups including railwaymen above or below ground. This ministry lasted until 2014 after which it was passed to the Railway Mission in 2015 as the LCM sought to refocus its activities. Although the whole of the London Underground is referred to as ‘the
Tube’ there are two distinct types of railway, the ‘Underground’ and the ‘Tube’. The larger profile ‘Underground’ lines were built on what is known as the ‘cut and cover’ system whilst the Tube tunnels were bored with the navvies excavating within a ‘Greathead shield’. The Railway Mission had very little involvement with the ‘Deep Level’ lines that were bored from the 1890s. The District and the Metropolitan were ‘cut and cover’ railways, and the work of the Mission was concentrated on these two. The longest lived mission branches were both on the District at Acton Green and West Brompton. The latter was formed in 1878 before the RM itself and lasted until 1931. The Railway Signal of April 1885 carried the story of West Brompton. Their first
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