The London underground has turned 150 years old and there is no end to fascinating facts relating to its current state and history. Did you know that over two miles of the Central Line was converted into a fighter aircraft factory in WW2 and had its own railway system?  This was an official secret until the 1980s?  After reading these snippets, you will probably look upon your tube journey with renewed interest.

What have the engineers got to say about our current tube?  See articles from the E & T magazine:  Wifi on the tube and another air conditioning on the tube.

And what has the IET library got for you to borrow on this topic? Take a look at

Making headway on the underground, 2007 IRSE seminar and The subterranean railway: how the London Underground was built and how it changed the city forever by C Wolmar

From the IET Library’s online resource EbscoHost read these full text articles:

Geology and the London Underground  by Paul, Jonathan D. Geology

Hazmat/CBRN Incident: London's King's Cross Underground Station  by Scott Ritter

A quiet success published in the Pandrol supplement of the Railway Gazette

Remaking the roundel by: Angus Montgomery

Steam trains on the Underground in Logistics & Transport Focus

Watch this space for a future blog on what the IET Archives have in their collection on the history of the London Underground. Here is a picture from the archives to wet your appetite.  There is currently an archive display on this topic next to the lecture theatre at the IET’s Savoy Place HQ.  It is an uncanny coincidence that the architect (Charles Holden) who was a partner in the firm who re-designed the interior of Savoy Place when the IEE moved in in 1909, also became one of the major architects used by London Underground and designed many of its tube stations in the 1920s and 30s. Take a look at the display next time you are passing Savoy Place.

If you would like the library’s information staff to carry out small pieces of research on IET related topics please get in touch: http://www.theiet.org/resources/library/services/research/index.cfm