wrote:
On 16 Sep 2020 23:44:37 GMT
Marland wrote:
There is still some evidence of the old route, mainly the viaduct at
Hammersmith complete with repairs to WW2 bomb damage even though it was
long disused at the time though you now have to
imagine the curve around and where Grove Road Station was.
It seems a very strange decision to remove that link. What possible
advantage could there be in NOT having it?
Well it was over a 100 years ago now so the decision makers are long gone
and in the 1900’s the Met and District and the GWR and LSWR were still
competitors in the main. Perhaps if it had survived into the LPTB era it
might have been a good link to get stock to Acton works and downgrade
Hammersmith Depot but you can’t really get away from the reason that the
LSWR route to Kensington was usurped by the District Railway taking the
more direct route from Earls Court via Hammersmith who once they connected
and started running to Richmond over the LSWR and building their own route
to Acton from TG westwards proved far more attractive to passengers who
preferred a District train to stations along the embankment to a LSWR one
that eventually via Kensington Addison road ,the West London line through
Battersea and a curve North took them to Waterloo on the wrong side of the
river.
The Met and GWR services that joined at Hammersmith had already dwindled in
the early 1900’s and after the H+C was electrified the steam services got
in the way.
These convoluted routes were also up against electric trams then running on
roads still relatively uncongested ,Londons first electric trams started
from the (still standing) Chiswick depot and power house in 1901 and
covered the same ground and were more convenient to use.
There was also the proposal that was seriously considered for quite a time
to extend the Central London from its Shepherds Bush terminus in tube
including a station at Turnham Green and then link on to the Richmond route
so it wasn’t worth the LSWR investing in a line whose traffic had died
away.
In the end its demise enabled the Piccadilly extension West from
Hammersmith with good cross platform interchange with the District for
Richmond bound passengers and the express service we know today heading for
Acton Town with a few periods where they stop at Turnham Green and the
Central went off with the help of the GWR to Ealing Broadway.
Grove Road was not the only railway casualty in the area ,there was also
the Hammersmith and Chiswick which gave up passengers in 1917 though as a
kid I remember it still used for coal up till the mid 60’s.
Hard to imagine now but there were still market gardens in operation until
the 1920’s around there and though around Chiswick and Turnham Green
streets of houses had been built from the 1880’s there was still a lot of
open land.
Once the the 4 tracks were altered for the Piccadilly to run grade
separated between the District at Hammersmith and Turnham Green bringing
trains off the viaduct would have been awkward and meant retaining flat
junctions with the conflict they would have brought as well and interfered
with the busy services of the District and Piccadilly lines , it was hard
enough to accommodate the LMS Coal trains which joined at Gunnersbury from
the North London line up through their own underpass onto the east bound
Piccadilly then into a refuge loop to the east of Turnham Green from where
they could be slotted onto the District to serve Coal Yards at West and
High Street Kensington stations an operation that lasted until the mid
1960’s. They took a lot of track occupancy as with a train of unfitted
wagons they could not follow an LT train too closely especially on the
gradient down into Hammersmith.
The abandoned stations site has some good info and pictures of the routes
including some of what the routes look like in recent times.
LSWR route.
http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/...rove_Road.html
Hammersmith and Chiswick
http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/..._Chiswick.html
GH