IT’S MORE THAN JUST A WALK IN THE PARK

14 Jan 2016 02:27 PM

Fancy a day out walking part of the London Overground line?

You would be following in the footsteps of author Iain Sinclair who strode a 35 mile route - affectionately known as the 'Ginger' line - from Haggerston via Wapping and Peckham Rye, Willesden Junction and Hampstead Heath to Camden Town.

He visited 33 stations on the day and saw the city from many new and interesting angles. He also encountered many strange and familiar places, passed prisons, stadiums and cemeteries, and discovered details of friends and heroes.

Hear about his journey and share his experiences in a talk - From Day into Night: Walking the Ginger Line - at London Transport Museum next Wednesday (20 January) at 19:00. Tickets cost £10 for adults (£8
concessions) and include special price drinks and cocktails.

More capacity
Thousands of passengers now benefit from TfL's £320million programme to increase the number of carriages on London Overground trains from four to five. It means an extra 170 passengers can travel on every train.

London Overground lowdown
London Overground launched in 2007 and consists of six routes that form an Outer London orbital network. The network's trains stop 17,000 times every day and last year 176million people used the service. Here are some other things you may not know about the network.

Undergound, Overground
At Whitechapel, the London Overground actually runs under the Underground.

Drive on time
The northbound platform at Kensington Olympia is so long - 240 metres - because it used to handle
Motorail drive-on trains. The Motorail station is now a car hire depot. Olympia was also in the running to be the original Eurostar terminus instead of Waterloo. Eurostar trains would have run through Clapham Junction and West Brompton to reach it.

Her Majesty's pleasure
The Chingford branch was originally going to be extended to High Beach to serve Epping Forest, so it was built as a through-station. It became a popular day trip destination for East Enders as it was on the very edge of town, overlooking the forest. In 1882 Queen Victoria came by train to Chingford and declared the forest open to the public forever.

Walk this way
The Hackney Interchange has been built between Hackney Central and Hackney Downs stations. It replaces the original wooden walkway, complete with its own ticket office, which closed in 1944 after bomb damage to Hackney Central station.

Ahoy there!
The original Norwood Junction station on the London Overground route to West Croydon opened in
1839 and was called Jolly-sailorstation. It was even listed as 'Jolly-sailor near Beulah Spa' on fares lists and timetables.