"Mind the gap" has died

[Nortube]

Phil Sayer, the voice that made many of the Mind the gap announcements at stations, died yesterday:

[ Click here ]

[Jim]

Not the original booming voice from Bank Central, Waterloo Bakerloo, Northern Embankment.

[Nortube]

I liked those - they will always be one of my first impressions of the Underground. Like when they remake a film, the original is usually better.

[Jim]

Apr 29, 2016 8:31:22 GMT Nortube said:

I liked those - they will always be one of my first impressions of the Underground. Like when they remake a film, the original is usually better.

I am inclined to agree with you on that a classic sound of the Underground.

This video has both versions  and there's an LBC presenter Nick Abbot who occasionally uses it as a jingle late on Friday and Saturday nights.

[railtechnician]

Those about at the time may recall the original 'Mind the Gap' announcement at Embankment Northern. I was outstationed there at the time as part of a comms installation gang updating the station telephone cabling and we had the job of installing the original auto announcer circa 1980. It used a 16 track tape recorder and worked directly off the approach and starter replacing track circuits. The first day of operation was great, the second day the timing was a little off and by the end of the week there was no synchronisation of announcement to berthed trains. The temperature changes on that platform were enough to stretch the tape giving the announcer's voice a drawl which worsened as the tape took longer and longer to rewind between trains, the problem being exacerbated in the morning rush.
I recall the tape being changed several times but it wasn't long before a SAP booth was built against the back wall about halfway along the platform for a railman / railwoman (in the days long before regrading to station assistant) to squeeze into and make the MTG announcements live as the trains arrived. Anyone who was around at the time will probably vaguely recall the strange looking SAP booth which one had to be quite small to get 'comfortably' inside, its platform footprint being little more than eighteen inches if that, it was made of a wood frame with orange panels in the lower half and glass panels in the top.
Of course the original auto announcers were installed on the 'as built' Victoria line at all stations although I can't ever recall hearing an original announcement. The Victoria line announcements were played from 8 track cartridge recorders housed in enamelled grey enclosures in the very cluttered 'broom cupbooard' type CERs in the platform concourses and cross passages. It was a few years before successful auto announcement equipment was installed and the DVA solved many issues.
The 16 track tape recorders were instead used to monitor control room voice traffic for the preservation of evidence for incidents, these taking recordings of all the line controller and regulator telephone calls on both auto and direct lines and also monitoring train radio and tunnel telephones audio. Of course by the millennium that was all achieved by solid state electronics too with monitoring of all voice channels and 'live' control rooms.

[Jim]

The recording at Bank used to pause if the starter was on and said "Stand clear of the doors please" as soon as it cleared I can't remember if the one at Embankment or Waterloo did that.