Before the coming of the railways, Kensington was in isolated countryside. Lord Kensington determined to improve water transport between Kensington and London's docks by canalising Coulter's Creek, a minor tributary of the Thames, for around two miles between the Thames and Kensington where a canal basin was constructed. The Kensington Canal opened in 1828 but was not the hoped-for commercial success.
As both the London and Birmingham Railway and Great Western Railway constructed their lines to London, the tiny Bristol Birmingham and Thames Junction Railway was authorised in 1836, with an agreement to purchase the failing Kensington Canal Company. With its planned line from Willesden Junction on the London and Birmingham, crossing the Great Western and terminating in Kensington, it hoped to lure freight traffic from both railways to Kensington Basin for onward water transport to London and its docks, together with passenger traffic. Renamed the West London Railway, it opened its single-line route in 1844 but ran for only six months before collapsing.
In 1845, the London and Birmingham Railway (which became the London & North Western Railway the following year) and the Great Western Railway jointly purchased the West London Railway which they hoped might have a future as a freight route to Kensington. But this arrangement also disappointed.
All the major stations in central London were termini, set in a 'ring' within which railways were prohibited until the advent of underground railways. This London-centric thinking is still prevalent today but the lack of through routes was inconvenient for both passengers and freight where the destination lay on the far side of London so the owners of the West London Railway, together with the London & South Western Railway and the London Brighton & South Coast Railway proposed to fill in the Kensington Canal and use the land for the West London Extension Railway, crossing the Thames by bridge and then splitting into four branches which joined the London and South Western Railway (both eastbound and westbound) and the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (both eastbound and westbound) to the east of Clapham Junction. This work was authorised in 1859 and opened to traffic in 1863.
At last the line became an important artery for freight and passenger traffic and the detailed history became complex. Notably, both the Metropolitan Line and the London & North Western Railway provided fourth-rail electric services from the north as far as Kensington (renamed Addison Road after Kensington High Street opened and subsequently Kensington Olympia). The section 'Related articles on other web sites' (below) has more information.
The three maps below (North, Middle and South) show the complexity of the ownership and interconnecting lines of the West London Extension Railway around 1914.
W.L.E.R. North: Details of the junctions between various railways in the vicinity of Willesden Junction. This diagram was prepared by the Railway Clearing House in 1903.
Click for larger image
Click for larger image.
W.L.E.R. Middle: Details of the junctions between various railways in the vicinity of Kensington. This diagram is one of a series prepared by the Railway Clearing House in 1911.
Click for larger image.
W.L.E.R. South: Details of the junctions between various railways in the vicinity of Clapham Junction. This diagram is one of a series prepared by the Railway Clearing House in 1912.
Impressions of the West London Line
Although I can remember visiting both Clapham Junction and Kensington Olympia in steam days it was much later before I travelled on the West London Line. At that time, the West London Line was not electrified, although there was a single-line branch from the District Line station at Earl's Court to a bay platform at Kensington Olympia which only ran a 'Shuttle' service in connection with exhibitions at Olympia. I used the District Line service a number of times visiting Electronics Industry exhibitions in connection with my work.
An initiative by British Rail in 1966 introduced the 'Motorail' passengers plus car carrying trains, with a major terminal at Kensington Olympia. I never used the service, but often saw the facilities at Olympia and other terminals.The last 'Motorail' service was withdrawn about 1995.
For a time, Inter City and later Virgin Cross Country ran summer services from the north via the West Coast Main Line to Willesden Junction, where the trains branched right to join the West London Line to reach destinations like Brighton and Dover. I think the first time I used these services the motive power was Class 47 diesel-electric throughout but a later trip was electric-hauled by a Class 86 as far as North Pole Junction where a Class 47 replaced the electric locomotive.
The disastrous privatised Railtrack was set up on 1st April 1994 (an expensive 'April Fool'), the year the short-lived Waterloo International opened to handle Channel Tunnel passenger services. Since servicing of the Class 373 units was at North Pole Depot, 750 volt d.c. electrification was needed along the West London Line for empty stock movements to and from Waterloo. Railtrack collapsed in October 2001 to be replaced by the execrable publicly-owned Network Rail. Back on 2005, I did get to travel in and out of the North Pole Depot on a Class 373, as described in the post here.
Once the West London Line was electrified, there were various initiatives providing local services on the West London Line which I've used a few times. But the real developments came following the creation of TfL's 'London Overground' in 2007 which has resulted in new stations, better passenger information and a more intensive service.
Journey on Saturday, 21st September 2019
A number of posts in this blog describe journeys between Wolverhampton and East Croydon. The quickest method is usually Virgin Trains to Euston, Tube to Victoria and then a Southern service to East Croydon. Sometimes, through choice or necessity I've used different routes. The ticket I purchased using the Internet for my trip on 21st September 2019 would have allowed use of the route through Euston and Victoria in both directions but I noticed that the 07:05 departure from Wolverhampton which I'd chosen also made connection at Watford Junction with a Southern service from Milton Keynes to East Croydon via the West London Line, reporting number 2O23. It had been some time since I'd travelled over the West London Line so I decided to postpone a decision about which route to use until we were nearer Watford.
My train main good progress until north of Roade Junction, when we suddenly slowed. I was using Railcam UK to follow my train's progress (I've described this method of tracking rail movements in the post here). Railcam UK was showing clear signals ahead of my train, so I concluded that we were suffering a temporary speed restriction. This was confirmed on my return journey as the guard announced a "20 miles per hour emergency speed restriction" but I never found out the reason for the 'slack' in both directions. On the southbound journey, once over the speed restriction, normal speeds were resumed but the late running made me wonder if I'd still have sufficient time to make the connection at Watford Junction if I chose the West London Line route. Further south, my train on the Up Fast passed the train I hoped to catch (identifiable by its 'Southern' livery) batting along the Up Slow. Fortunately, when we stopped at Watford Junction, my coach was quite near to the platform exit so it was a simple connection - down the steps, through the underground passage and then up the steps to reach platform 9. In fact, I had plenty of time as trains were running a few minutes late on the Up Slow and I watched a West Midlands Trains Electric Multiple unit via Northampton going on to Euston arrive and depart before my 'Southern' service, a Class 377, followed.
Watford Junction Platform 9, looking south.
The short transfer at Watford was certainly appealing compared with the alternative long walk from the train at Euston to the 'tube', the underground journey to Victoria and then the long walk to the 'Brighton Line' platforms to catch a service to East Croydon. The disadvantage was that my 'Southern' train was virtually 'all stations' so would not be fast.
The Slow lines are to the north of the Fast Lines at Wembley and I wondered how we would cross the running lines to branch to the south on the West London Line but I did not expect my train to diverge left at Wembley Yard South Junction, apparently into the complex of freight lines at Wembley, and stop on the bridge over the North Circular Road. A DB Class 66 rumbled past on an adjacent bridge with a train of ferry wagons travelling in the opposite direction.
Wembley Yard South Junction: View from 2O23 waiting for DB Class 66 with a train of ferry wagons to clear.
The signal check was clearly because of this movement and, when we restarted I finally realised that we were taking the Relief Lines, which descend to cross under the Fast and Slow Lines before climbing up, adjacent to the main lines and offering access to the West London Line without conflicting with main line movements. I'd never travelled on the Relief Lines before and only seen them used by freight trains.
We continued, under 25 kV a.c., through Mitre Bridge Junction where the line from Willesden Junction High Level joined, then over the broad expanse of the Great Western main line from Paddington. We passed North Pole Junction where there are connections to the main line from Paddington and to North Pole Depot which was built to service the Class 373 Eurostar trains but was re-purposed after the opening of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link to St. Pancras International moved the Class 373 fleet to Temple Mills. Just south of North Pole Junction there had been the marvellously named station of St. Quintin Park & Wormwood Scrubs, lost to a fire during World War II but meticulously documented here. This is the location where the 25kV a.c. Overhead Line Equipment ceases, so my train stopped briefly, to change to 750 volt d.c. current collection from the third rail. The remainder of the line to Clapham Junction has now been 'adopted' by TfL's 'London Overground' so station facilities are now much improved, if rather characterless. My final arrival at East Croydon was within a minute of two of the arrival I might have expected if I'd taken using the Euston-Tube-Victoria option.
Books
The Railway Clearing House maps have been reprinted by Ian Allan as 'Pre-Grouping Railway Junction Diagrams 1914' (ISBN 0 7110 1256 3).
Related articles on other web sites
Kensington Canal (Wikipedia).
West London line (Wikipedia).
St. Quintin Park & Wormwood Scrubs Station 2nd site (Disused Stations website).
The Kensington Canal, railways and related developments (British History Online Website).
West London Line (Railscot website).
Related articles on this web site
The London & Birmingham Railway.
Origins of the Southern Railway: Part 1 - L.S.W.R.
Origins of the Southern Railway: Part 2: L.B.S.C.R.
Clapham Junction Station, London.
Class 373 Test Train to Grantham.
My pictures
Where necessary, clicking on an image above will display an 'uncropped' view or, alternately, pictures may be selected, viewed or downloaded, in various sizes, from the albums below.
London & Birmingham Railway.
East Croydon Area Rail.
South London Railways.
