From the Past - Northern line

[Nortube]

From the Past  N1

Floodgates at Bank
Through running by Northern Line tube trains between Moorgate and London Bridge stations was resumed on Sunday, May 19 when the war emergency measures at the Bank station were completed. The reopening of this section marked the conclusion of the whole programme undertaken by the London Passenger Transport Board to cope with possible risks created by the outbreak of war. This was the last of the several sections of the line closed in order that protective works might be carried out. While the Bank station has been closed, floodgates have been installed at certain points on the line. The completion of the scheme means that through train services via the City on the Morden, Edgware, and Archway sections of the Northern Line have been restored to more than 1,000,000 passengers a week. The section between Moorgate and London Bridge has been closed since September 7.
from Railway Gazette 24.05.1940/746

[Nortube]

From the Past  N2

Progress of the North London Electrification Scheme
The first part of the programme for improving the railway services in North London was completed on July 9 1939, when the Northern Line of London Transport and the L.N.E.R. tracks to High Barnet and Edgware were linked by two miles of new tunnel between Archway (Highgate) and East Finchley. Despite the difficulties of doing such work under wartime conditions, the running of tube trains to High Barnet is beginning on Sunday next, April 14, only one month later than the date fixed before the war. Owing to the necessity of giving priority to engineering works of national importance, the proposed electrification of the L.N.E.R. line from Finsbury Park
to Alexandra Palace and from Finchley Central to Edgware, together with the proposed tube extension beyond Edgware to Bushey Heath, have had to be postponed.

Passengers for the City from the High Barnet line will not therefore be provided at this stage with the through service of City trains which was planned in the original scheme, but they .will be able to change at East Finchley from tube to steam trains merely by crossing the platform, or at Euston from one tube train to the other at the same platform for Moorgate. There will be 11 steam trains (L.N.E.R. and L.M.S.R.) each way between East Finchley and King's Cross, Moorgate, or Broad Street in the peak hours. The service of steam trains between Alexandra Palace and King's Cross, Moorgate, and Broad Street will remain as at present, but when the new tube station is opened beneath the Highgate (L.N.E.R.) station in the summer, passengers from Alexandra Palace will be able to travel to the West End by changing at Highgate and descending an escalator.
from Railway Gazette 12.04.1940/529

[Nortube]

From the Past  N3

North London Electrification Progress
The continued progress, despite wartime conditions, of the North London electrification scheme which is being undertaken by the London Passenger Transport Board and the L.N.E.R., is shown by the announcement (which we recorded briefly on March 15) that the L.N.E.R. and L.M.S.R. steam trains serving the High Barnet branch will run for the last time on Saturday, April 13. This amounts to the final withdrawal of steam services to all stations on this group of lines west of East Finchley. For six months past there has been no train service on the single-line branch to Edgware, and meanwhile a special bus service between Finchley and Edgware is being run by London Transport at the request (and cost) of the L.N.E.R. It was begun on September 11 and is maintained with single-deck vehicles. From April 14 the High Barnet branch stations, namely. Finchley (Church End)— which is being renamed Finchley Central—West Finchley, Woodside Park. Totteridge & Whetstone, and High Barnet, will be served by an extension of the Northern Line tube trains of London Transport at present operating from South London through the West End to Archway (Highgate) and East Finchley. For the time being, L.N.E.R. and L.M.S.R. steam trains will continue to serve the Alexandra Palace branch and also East Finchley. Passengers will thus be able to exchange at East Finchley between the new Underground service and the steam trains.
from Railway Gazette 29.03.1940/1450

[Nortube]

From the Past  N4

City of London and Southwark Subway Company -  ordinary meeting of the company
The following is the report of directors to the shareholders at the eleventh half-yearly ordinary meeting of the company, to be held at Winchester House, Old Broad-street. E.C., on the 18th inst.:

During the past half-year the works of the subway have made considerable progress, and are now approaching completion. The work of driving through the wet bed of gravel at Stock-well has been steadily proceeded with, and one of the tunnels is now completed throughout, and the other tunnel is being rapidly advanced. The underground stations are all nearly finished, and the station buildings on the surface at Great Dover-street are roofed in, the alterations to the building at King William-street have been completed, and the company's offices are now established there. The hydraulic lifts are being erected at King William-street and Great Dover-street stations, and the rails have been laid in both tunnels from the City to the Elephant and Castle, and also for a considerable distance on the Stockwell extension.

At the depot at Stockwell the boiler-house has been completed and six boilers fixed. The engine-house is nearly ready for the reception of the engines and dynamos, and the carriage sheds are being erected. The inclined road leading from the depot to the tunnels is nearly finished. Messrs, Mather and Platt have had an electric locomotive and carriages running experimentally for some time between the King William-street and Great Dover-street stations. As the present authorised lines stop at Stockwell, about a mile short of the great centre of traffic meeting near the Plough, at Clapham, your directors have deemed it advisable to deposit a Bill in Parliament asking for power to extend the line to that point, the works for which can be carried out at lower comparative cost than the existing works, and the approval of the proprietors will be asked at a special meeting called for that purpose. They propose also to alter the name of the company to that of the City and South of London Railway Company, as being more in harmony with the present nature and object of the undertaking.

Powers are being sought in the ensuing session of Parliament by an independent company for the construction of an underground railway on the name principles as the City of London and Southwark Subway, from Bayswater along Oxford-street and Cheapside to the City, with a junction with our line at Arthur-street West, just before it enters the King William street station. The junction as at present proposed would not be satisfactory to this company, but it is possible that arrangements may be made to effect a junction between the two lines beneficial to both companies. It has also been deemed expedient to include powers in the company's Bill for the acquisition of the necessary land for the construction of a station near London Bridge terminus of the London Brighton and South-Eastern Railways.

Mr. J. H. Greathead, M. Inst. C.E., the engineer, reports that the tunnels—except a short length at Stockwell—and the whole of the underground stations are now practically finished. One of the iron tunnels has been driven completely through the bed of sand and gravel, under a head of about 35ft. of water, which was encountered at Stockwell, and the second tunnel is progressing steadily, being now, about half-way through the same bed. This work has been carried on under compressed air, and without pumping of water, though at a much slower rate than the tunnels in clay. The inclined road leading from the depot to the Stockwell end of the line is nearly finished. The satisfactory working of the line by electricity has been placed beyond doubt by the important series of experiments carried out by Messrs Mather and Platt, on the City section of the line, with one of their locomotives and The Asbury Company's carriages.
from The Engineer 02.02.1890/112

nb Great Dover Street = Borough station

[railtechnician]

For earlier info on the CoL&SS may I refer you to the Engineer issues 11.01.1889, 01.02.1889 and 07.06.1889, the latter being pure gold with some drawings!

[Nortube]

I've got the latter one somewhere, it was one of the photocopies I took many years ago (which I'll no longer need as I now have the PDF . A few of the drawings were in the plates of Greathead's 1896 paper - which weren't scanned in in the online version.
I need to look through my photocopied articles (the four I posted yesterday were typed up from them) and see what else I have. The Railway Gazette was a good source of information, but I don't think any of the old issues are online.