The original Metro

Yes, I've been keeping my hand in with pen and ink this week, and made a couple of sketches showing locomotives that once worked the Metropolitan Railway - the oldest London Underground railway and in fact the first underground/subway/ metro line in the world. 

Metropolitan Railway Electric Locomotive - Wembley Park

Metropolitan Railway Steam locomotive Baker Street.

Now, I would love to be able to say that I dashed both of these off in about half an hour. I'd love to be able to say that but it would be a lie. The electric locomotive took me about 3 weekday evenings after work, in roughly 2 hour sessions while watching the telly. The steam locomotive I did in one sitting yesterday, but it was a marathon sitting of five or six hours. 

The London Underground is a subject I love, so much so that I did once consider it as a Mastermind specialist subject. In the end I didn't take it, though. 

Why the Metropolitan? Well, not only was it the first, but it was also where the generic word Metro originates. When the Paris underground railway was built and opened in 1900 it was decided to call it the Metropolitain, after London's Metropolitan railway. Metropolitain became shortened to Metro and now many underground railways and subway systems across the world are called metros. 

The second picture took so long because of the extreme amount of shading. I mostly used a 0.1mm nib for both sketches.