Uxbridge Road

[Deleted]

I was just wondering if anyone had any pictures of the old Uxbridge Road station, exterior or otherwise? Not sure if any exist but worth a shot I think.

Also does anyone know the reason for the closure of the station as well as the branch linking it to Latimer Road? Was it just a wartime measure?

[Deleted]

Sorry, no photos but it was closed 19.10.40 because of bomb damage, as was the West London Line's Willesden Junction - Earl's Court service. L&NWR 'Oerlikon' and 'Siemens' stock never ventured onto the District again.

As an aside, because the L&NWR's stock wasn't ready when the Willesden - Earl's Court route was electrified in 1914, the District Railway operated the service for a month or two (or three?) with 'B' Stock.

[ruislip]

Before the service abruptly ended, wasn't it operated as merely a shuttle back and forth from Edgware Rd.

[Deleted]

This site: www.disused-stations.org.uk/ has pictures and information. My guess would be all traces of the station and link from Latimer Road have been obliterated by the motorway stub there.

[Deleted]

That was my thought too. Shame, Kensington Olympia could do with another connection. Thanks for the link, that was exactly what I was looking for.

[Tom]

Aug 31, 2008 20:30:34 GMT @cjc said:

This site: www.disused-stations.org.uk/ has pictures and information. My guess would be all traces of the station and link from Latimer Road have been obliterated by the motorway stub there.

Not completely - there is some evidence of the connection at Latimer Road and one of the track circuits is still present * - admittedly having been failing open circuit continuously for the past fifty years, but still powered up!

* - Until I get the obviously redundant wires removed as part of the Wood Lane signalling works.

[Deleted]

There are 3 photographs of Uxbridge Road in "West London Line" by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, published by the Middleton Press. It was published in 1996 and reprinted in 2003 and 2006.

There is also a photo of the 'junction' north of Uxbridge Road, where the LT service to Latimer Road (and beyond0 used to diverge.

It also has other bits of LT interest, such as at West Brompton, Lillie Bridge and Kensington Olympia.

I got my copy (today!) from the IA Bookshop for £14.95.

[slugabed]

Too late now,I suppose,but why not name Shepherd's Bush Met (H&C) as Uxbridge Road,perhaps adding "for Loftus Rd QPR"?This would be geographically accurate,at least,as well as bringing back a much-loved name to the Underground..
And in restoration of an earlier service,running LO trains from Willesden direction into Earl's Court (Middle Circle,anyone?)though,operationally it might be easier to reverse at High St. Ken.

[slugabed]

Oh,and a friend told me years ago,that when they built the M41 roundabout and its link roads,the section over the WLL (ramps down to Shepherd's Bush Grn) were built around the existing Uxbridge Rd bridge,which remains entombed within!
Was the WLL north of this point re-modelled or slewed in the 70s,as all remnants of the Latimer Rd spur,and also that to the E&SBR seemed to have been scrupulously erased by the late 70s in this area,in contrast to all the redundant kit lying around the rest of the WLL throughout that period?

[Deleted]

Nov 9, 2008 22:33:28 GMT slugabed said:

Too late now,I suppose,but why not name Shepherd's Bush Met (H&C) as Uxbridge Road,perhaps adding "for Loftus Rd QPR"?This would be geographically accurate,at least,as well as bringing back a much-loved name to the Underground..
And in restoration of an earlier service,running LO trains from Willesden direction into Earl's Court (Middle Circle,anyone?)though,operationally it might be easier to reverse at High St. Ken.

The problem with that name is Uxbridge Road could mean anywhere from there to Hayes and beyond to your average idiot. Also the nearest stations to Loftus Road are now Wood Lane and White City Would a service to Clapham Junction from Earl's Court be possible and has one ever run?

As for the M41/A3220 West Cross Route, I know that it was built along the existing WLL to ahem minimise the impact of the motorway but not 100% sure whether any of the line was changed at all, certainly looks like it was though.

[Ben]

Clapham Junction to Earls Court was toyed with in the late 80's as a district service idea. It would have required a couple of new junctions. I think it failed because the WLL itself saw pretty extreme changes in service around then and the early 90s. The 74 GLC rail plan saw the WLL reopened its full length festooned with stations at previously closed sites plus 2 more IIRC where it crossed the H&C and where it crossed the District nr. Earls Court. This was part of an OrbiRail scheme involving the NLL, SLL, WLL and...not the ELL but new construction between Silvertown and Lewisham. It was to be called 'RingRail', which sounds like a skin infection.

[slugabed]

I'd not heard of the "District branch to Clapham Jct" plan,and am puzzled as to how the connection would be made.....West Brompton? The Ringrail scheme was very ambitious and intriguing,covering many options,but was gradually watered down out of existence.....unless the current Overground plans represent its final,affordable incarnation.
Over the last ten years I have heard of campaigns to (re-)open stations at Wormwood Scrubs (North Pole),Chelsea and Fulham (both in conjunction with Chelsea FC,and as a station between King's and Fulham Rds with entrances on both,my favourite) and somewhere in Battersea (probably on Battersea Pk Rd) and,of course Shepherd's Bush (Uxbridge Rd!).
I know that the first couldn't get any funding,nor the third,the fourth is eventually open (hurrah!) and the Chelsea scheme was sunk by Railtrack (or whatever they were then called) not just for reasons of line capacity which it used to object to all the others,nor of funding (Chelsea FC offered to PAY FOR EVERYTHING in their scheme,but because (get this) TOO MANY PEOPLE WOULD USE IT!! (On match days,to be fair)
For me ,though,the mst glaring missing station in the whole of London,which would be costly to fix but must be included at the earliest planning stage,is a Central Brixton station on the SLL soon to be stage 2 of the ELLX.

[cetacean]

Nov 12, 2008 11:10:18 GMT slugabed said:

For me ,though,the mst glaring missing station in the whole of London,which would be costly to fix but must be included at the earliest planning stage,is a Central Brixton station on the SLL soon to be stage 2 of the ELLX.

Why "must be included"? There's certainly no engineering reason to include it as part of the basic scheme. If the idea is to extract money for doing the station from whoever pays for the rest of it, that might be a good idea if there was abundant funding and it was only a small relative cost, but the opposite is true.

Given they're struggling to get the scheme funded at all, I can't see how simultaneously demanding [probably] tens of millions for one station can do anything other than sink it completely.

[slugabed]

It's the "Camden Rd De-scoping" argument,isn't it?
If serving THE most important traffic interchange and destination in the whole of South London is not factored into the initial costings and done properly,first time,during the period when the line is being converted in any case,there will be constant calls for it to be done once people see brand-new LO trains sailing 30' over Brixton High Road,50yds from the door of Brixton tube (said to be the busiest outside Central London) WITHOUT STOPPING!
Only,then,in order to put a station in,they will have to re-close the line at least occasionally,to put the stop in.
It represents a major selling point for the scheme.Why should Lambeth care about LO otherwise? Clapham and Wandsworth Rd aren't money-spinners,I suspect.
And in fact,for the reasons given above,there IS an engineering reason for including it in the initial scheme,and also it may well attract infrastructure grants to the project.
I understand that it is a tricky site,and any solution will be costly,but say it DOES cost tens of millions,it's always better to get it right first time round,and then there will be a top-class urban railway taking lots of people to useful places.
Unlike,say,North Greenwich.....now how much did THAT cost??

PS:I live in North London!!

[cetacean]

But the line isn't being converted in any way. AFAIK there are no engineering works planned west of the junction by Queen's Road Peckham, unless you count sticking up some orange signs.

there will be constant calls for it to be done once people see brand-new LO trains sailing 30' over Brixton High Road

And that ultimately leads to the political will to fund the new station. Seems as good a strategy as any.

[miztert]

Nov 12, 2008 19:27:05 GMT @cetacean said:

But the line isn't being converted in any way. AFAIK there are no engineering works planned west of the junction by Queen's Road Peckham, unless you count sticking up some orange signs.

Isn't there a little bit of rejigging needed around the immediate approach to Clapham Junction? Also, what's the latest about the reinstatement of platform 1 at CJ - I read somewhere that it was off as the work was considered to be too pricey and apparently both the WLL and ELLX services can be accommodated on the single platform (sounds like a recipe for disaster to me!). Is this just a nonsense rumour, or a cost-cutting bid to ensure the project gets the go-ahead?

Nov 12, 2008 19:27:05 GMT @cetacean said:

there will be constant calls for it to be done once people see brand-new LO trains sailing 30' over Brixton High Road

And that ultimately leads to the political will to fund the new station. Seems as good a strategy as any.

Agree completely. At the moment the only game in town is that of actually getting ELLX phase 2 committed to. Battles about expensive new stations are strictly for another day.

[cetacean]

Nov 13, 2008 1:34:15 GMT @miztert said:

Isn't there a little bit of rejigging needed around the immediate approach to Clapham Junction? Also, what's the latest about the reinstatement of platform 1 at CJ - I read somewhere that it was off as the work was considered to be too pricey and apparently both the WLL and ELLX services can be accommodated on the single platform (sounds like a recipe for disaster to me!). Is this just a nonsense rumour, or a cost-cutting bid to ensure the project gets the go-ahead?

I think it's "authoritative sounding but one-off and completely uncorroborated blog comment/message board post that inexplicably becomes established fact", although I don't recall where it first appeared.

Reversing 8 trains an hour from two different routes would be pretty ambitious. There are sidings west of platform 2 that could be used to layover trains, but that doubles the number of train movements so might actually be worse.

[slugabed]

I've tried without success to track down where I read that re-opening Platform 1 at Clapham Jct was to be deferred due to the cost of "refurbishing the arches beneath the track"
The track here (platform 1 and 2) is on a massive metal deck built in c.1905 over the Winstanley Road entrance,and,until the track was lifted (late 80s/early 90s?) was used regularly by the Kenny Belle which was a loco and 4 carriages.
It would seem odd that this structure could have decayed so much that a 3- or 4-car EMU is too much for it?
However I do know that,once abandoned,the track area was used for infrastructure routing,as well as the portakabins and gas store.Perhaps this was the main reason for the original abandnment?