I sent to London and now I'm fascinated by the underground.

[EarlofShrewsbury]

It's fabulous.

I need to know everything about it.

Does anyone have a it as special interest that can point me in the direction of some good reading material?

[PizzaFunghi]

Have you been to the London Transport Museum?

I find the history of the underground interesting, and also just the idea of how it's all controlled and managed, so that the trains don't crash into each other and stuff like that. I like reading about the abandoned stations too. Not at special interest level, but I still find it interesting. There are various online forums and reddit groups and stuff that know the most minute details about it all! People have ways of riding the tube to every single station, or doing the loop (that I think no longer is possible) at the end of one line by staying on the train when you're not supposed to, and then coming back the other way, etc. Lots of trivia and lore about it all.

www.ltmuseum.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw7KqZBhCBARIsAI-fTKK1JdW-ESfdnd3YLlj3AU8-PK8Qo4gfLPjpKONyEsxee5Sygf6Hg3IaAu3mEALw_wcB

[BoardLikeAMirror]

@EarlofShrewsbury Not the underground, but I have a special interest in heritage diesel/diesel electric traction. What I would suggest is getting yourself to a second-hand bookshop with a good section on transport, as there are lots of books about the underground. If you happen to live near a heritage steam railway, they often have secondhand bookshops attached which you can access either free or for the price of a £1 platform ticket. You'll also find DVDs. Be prepared to sift through tons of stuff on steam locomotives, though, as that's by far the most dominant railway interest!

As for specific books, I can't recommend any as such, but I've always enjoyed the 'Working Lives' series in relation to my branch of the 'railways' special interest, and google tells me there is at least one for the underground: 'Mind the Doors - Tales of a Tube Driver since 1966' - the others I've read in that series include a lot of technical detail as well as anecdotes which is the sort of blend I like.

You might also be interested in the aborted SELNEC 'Picc-Vic' line - an aborted attempt at an underground railway through Manchester in the late 60s/70s - this is a good internet rabbit-hole to fall down, as it ticks the 'abandoned engineering' and '1970s' interest boxes as well!

Congratulations on your new special interest - it's so marvellous when you find a new one.