West London Line

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West London Line

London Overground service at Imperial Wharf
Overview
Type Commuter rail
Termini Willesden Junction
Clapham Junction
Stations 6
Operation
Owner Network Rail
Operator(s) London Overground
Southern
Rolling stock British Rail Class 313
British Rail Class 377
British Rail Class 378
Technical
Electrification 750 V DC third rail

The West London Line is a short railway in inner West London which links Clapham Junction in the south to lines near Willesden Junction station in the north. It has always been an important cross-London link especially for freight services.

Contents

[edit] History

The Birmingham, Bristol & Thames Junction Railway was authorised in 1836 to run from a point on the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR), near the present Willesden Junction station, across the proposed route of the Great Western (GWR) on the level, to the Kensington Canal Basin. Construction was delayed by engineering and financial problems. Renamed the West London Railway (WLR) the line officially opened on 27 May 1844, and regular services began on 10 June, but before that trials to demonstrate the potential of the atmospheric railway system had been held from 1840 to 1843 on a half-mile section of track adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs, leased to the system's promoters;[1] The WLR itself used conventional power but was not a commercial success. The low number of passengers became such a regular target of Punch magazine that the line started being called Punch's Railway; and after only six months it closed entirely on 30 November 1844.

An Act of 1845 authorised the GWR and the L&BR (which became part of the London and North Western Railway in 1846) to take a joint lease of the WLR. Passenger services were not restarted and the line was used only to carry coal.

A further Act in 1859 granted those two companies with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) companies power to fill in the canal south from the Kensington Basin to the bridge under the Kings Road, and to construct the West London Extension Joint Railway on the line of the canal to connect to railways south of the river at Clapham Junction.[2] The line opened on 2 March 1863 with a new passenger station at Addison Road slightly north of the original WLR Kensington station, and was then well used by a variety of Middle Circle and other services for the remainder of the nineteenth century

 v  d  e West London Line
Track from right Transverse track Continuation to right
North London Line to Stratford
Continuation to left Transverse station
Unknown route-map component "tTBHF" + Elevated start
Transverse track Continuation to right
Willesden Junction London Underground Down ◄ Watford DC LineEuston
Continuation to left Transverse track Unknown route-map component "hKRZ" Unknown route-map component "ABZ3rg" Unknown route-map component "ABZ3lg" Continuation to right
Down ◄ WCML ► Euston.  The junction is Willesden Jn
Track from right
Elevated end + Unknown route-map component "hKRZ"
Track to right Straight track
Continuation to left Unknown route-map component "ABZ3rf" Junction to right Track from right Track to right
North London Line to Richmond
Track to left Junction from left
Mitre Bridge Junction
Bridge over water
Grand Union Canal
Continuation to left Unknown route-map component "ABZ3rg" Unknown route-map component "KRZo" Unknown route-map component "ABZq+rxl" Continuation to right
The West ◄ Great Western Main LinePaddington
Unknown route-map component "eKDSTl" Track to right Junction from right Track to right
North Pole depot. North Pole Junction
Unknown route-map component "eHST"
St. Quintin Park and Wormwood Scrubs (1871-1940)
Unknown route-map component "exCONTr" Unknown route-map component "eABZlg"
GWR goods line to North Acton
Unknown route-map component "uCONTr" Unknown route-map component "mKRZh"
Unknown route-map component "exSTRrg" + Urban track across
Unknown route-map component "uCONTl"
Circle and Hammersmith & City lines
Unknown route-map component "eABZrg" Unknown route-map component "exSTRrf"
Link to Hammersmith & City line closed 1940
Unknown route-map component "eHST"
Uxbridge Road (1869-1940)
Interchange on track
Shepherds Bush London Underground
Unknown route-map component "exCONTr" Unknown route-map component "eABZlg"
L&SWR to Richmond. Link closed 1916
Unknown route-map component "uCPICla" Right side of cross-platform interchange
Kensington (Olympia) London Underground
Unknown route-map component "euABZrg" Unknown route-map component "eABZrf"
Connection to District line closed 1992
Urban straight track Unknown route-map component "eABZrg" Unknown route-map component "exKDSTr"
Warwick Road goods yard
Unknown route-map component "uCONTr" Unknown route-map component "uABZ3lf" Unknown route-map component "mKRZo" Urban track across Unknown route-map component "uCONTl"
West ◄ District lineEarl's Court
Straight track Unknown route-map component "uSTRrg" Unknown route-map component "uCONTl"
District line through Earl's Court
Left side of cross-platform interchange Right side of urban cross-platform interchange
West Brompton London Underground (WLL 1866-1940, re-opened 1999)
Unknown route-map component "uCONTr"
Unknown route-map component "mKRZo" + Straight track
Unknown route-map component "uSTRrf"
District line to Wimbledon
Unknown route-map component "eHST"
Chelsea & Fulham (1863-1940)
Stop on track
Imperial Wharf London River Services
Unknown route-map component "eABZlf" Unknown route-map component "exKDSTr"
Chelsea Basin goods yard
Bridge over water
Cremorne Bridge over River Thames
Unknown route-map component "eHST"
Battersea (1863-1940)
Track from right Junction to right
Straight track Unknown route-map component "ABZfg" Continuation to right
South Western Main Line to Waterloo
Straight track Junction from right Unknown route-map component "ABZ3rg" Continuation to right
South London Lines to Victoria
Junction to left Unknown route-map component "KRZo" Unknown route-map component "ABZqlr" Continuation to right
Inner South London Line to London Bridge
Junction to left Unknown route-map component "KRZo" Track from left
Junction from right Junction to right Straight track
Left side of cross-platform interchange Middle of cross-platform interchange Right side of cross-platform interchange
Clapham Junction
Straight track Junction to left Junction from left
Straight track Straight track Continuation forward
Outer South London Line & Brighton Main Line
Straight track Continuation forward
South Western Main Line to the South-West
Continuation forward
Waterloo to Reading Line

The northern section of the line, from Willesden Junction to Kensington Olympia and on to Earls Court, was electrified by the LNWR in 1915, but passenger use of the line dwindled under competition from road transport and the lines which were to become the Underground network, and passenger services were discontinued after bomb damage in 1940.[3]

One or two trains each working morning ran to carry workers at the Post Office Savings Office near Olympia from Clapham Junction and back in the evening. Normal passenger services were resumed by the mid-1990s. Channel Tunnel infrastructure work in 1993 electrified the line at 750 V DC third rail from the south to the North Pole depot and thence 25 kV AC overhead.

Platforms were reinstated at West Brompton in 1999, and new stations were opened at Shepherd's Bush in 2008 and Imperial Wharf in 2009, bringing main line rail services to a large catchment area in West London.

A 1914 map of the WLL and junctions

[edit] Train services

Southern services operate along the WLL

Local trains operated by London Overground run every half hour between Clapham and Willesden Junctions. Under recent timetable changes some London Overground peak hour trains now continue beyond Willesden Junction on to the North London Line to Stratford.

The train operating company Southern runs hourly trains between East Croydon and Milton Keynes. The service previously ran from Brighton to Watford Junction. Southern services cannot call at Willesden Junction as the mainline platforms were removed.

A twice-daily Crosscountry service operated by Virgin CrossCountry ran from Brighton via Reading and Kensington (Olympia) to Birmingham New Street, but was discontinued in December 2008.

Until the opening of the High Speed 1 railway line in November 2007, the West London Line was used to transfer Eurostar trains from Waterloo International to the depot at North Pole Junction.

[edit] The route

Line map of the West London Line, showing connections and travelcard zones
The retiring Class 313 trains in their previous Silverlink livery at Kensington (Olympia)

This description of the line gives, from north to south, former and current details including links with all the constituent railways:

............

The West Cross Route, one side of the Ringway 1 inner ring road, would have paralleled the West London Line ..........

[edit] References

  1. ^ Samuda, J. D'A (1841), A Treatise on the Adaptation of Atmospheric Pressure to the Purposes of Locomotion on Railways. London: John Weale, 59 High Holburn.
  2. ^ The Kensington Canal, railways and related developments, Survey of London: volume 42: Kensington Square to Earl's Court (1986), pp. 322-338. Date accessed: 2 September 2008.
  3. ^ "LNWR Electrification". Suburban Electric Railway Association. 2007. http://www.emus.co.uk/zone/lnwr/lnwr.htm. Retrieved 2007-02-01. 

[edit] Further reading

  • Nisbet, A F. (2006), "Punch's Railway and the Winkle Railway", BackTrack 20 (2 Feb)): 117 to 121.
  • Thomas Faulkner (1839), The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Hammersmith, pp 65–68.
  • J.B. Atkinson "The West London Joint Railways" Ian Allan 1984.
  • Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith "West London Line - Clapham Jn. to Willesden Jn." London Suburban Railways Series, Middleton Press 1996.

[edit] External links