On Mon, 4 Feb 2008, Paul Scott wrote:

wrote:
On Feb 4, 7:00 pm, "Paul Scott"
wrote:

There appears to be a disused trackbed in the Perivale Area which
passes under the Central Line West Ruislip branch in the Rydal
Crescent area.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Anyone know any more about it?

I think you might be looking at the mostly singled section of the
old GW route up from Paddington to South Ruislip and on towards High
Wycombe, but it would count as lightly used, rather than disused.

No thie route I was looking at is now grassland and fenced off and
passes under the Central and NR lines via a brick arch.

Ah right - looking at Google Earth, is that the grassed bit that crosses
Rydal Crescent at the bend at the east end, then passes the south end of
Thirlemere Ave; running sort of east/west at that point?

If so - that's a good question - can't see any reference to a railway in
either of my usually accurate London Rail references...

Checking www.old-maps.co.uk for the area (1935 map) seems to suggests a
route for a water main or something?

I F*CKING TOLD YOU SO!! Am i good, or what?

Well, okay, i said a sewer, but maybe it's a water main. That does make a
lot of sense - i was wondering where the sewage could be heading to, but
if it's a water main, it's a question of where the water could be coming
from, which is a question with a lot more answers in this part of the
world.

With a valve house a couple of hundred yards east of Thirlemere Ave, and
a line of posts heading off to the SW, and then down past Greenford and
through Southall, passing pretty near various 'works' in the general
direction of Staines...

That's it! Staines!

Okay, now the western continuation of the route is clear - i was caught up
with the idea of it having been obliterated by the A40, but that's
rubbish; a couple of hundred metres west of the last point i could see,
it's plain as day again:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...2722,-0.331593

And even before that, you can trace it in the line of the edge of an
estate:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...3328,-0.326833

It's a conspicuous ridge across Perivale Park:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...30493,-0.33968

Turns a corner at an estate:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...7716,-0.349358

Does duty as a playground, tennis courts, patch of grass, yards, zebra
crossing (!), carpark, and the ubiquitous oblong empty patch:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...23456,-0.35282

More carpark, gardens, crosses a road, resurfaces as an abandoned railway
lookalike:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...9499,-0.355731

Which turns into the gardens of some naff tower blocks, and then
disappears into a golf course. Here, we're somewhere called Dormers Wells,
so this could be a source of the water.

No, hang on, found it again masquerading as a street with a pleasantly
grassy median:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...9664,-0.361583

Which goes through a dead-giveaway tunnel under the GWML and emerges as
another green strip through an industrial estate:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...6859,-0.361379

It's just about visible as a change in the shade of the grass in this ...
place, whatever it is:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...4211,-0.361583

Ducks under the canal to become an alarmingly straight alley round the
back of the houses:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...0749,-0.362066

Crosses loads of fields, again visible by tone, most strikingly he

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...3695,-0.364024

Does duty as a linear park once again:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...1142,-0.369716

Passes under the Great West Road, and attempts to shake off the
inattentive observer by turning west a little under Harris Close, but the
eye of an expert detects it again as another alignment of path and garden:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...5219,-0.374874

It crosses a road and another sports ground, again barely visible by
colour, and then slices through an estate where a dazzle-camouflage scheme
of garden division has been applied to conceal it; you really need a ruler
on your screen to follow it:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...9054,-0.383652

It becomes a proper street, Corporation Avenue, and then another bit of
railway lookalike:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...3837,-0.389543

Crosses a field, becomes something new - a path through a wood:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...8613,-0.391753

Another bit of McTrackbed that winds up hitting the Windsor line:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...0679,-0.394703

And again almost vanishing; you can just about trace its path across some
scrubland to a couple of fragments of people's gardens:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...7645,-0.395527

Across a sports ground to a point where it turns west again, and cuts
through a strip of housing:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...4009,-0.396795

Provides a nice, wide verge:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...9935,-0.402433

It gets a bit hard to follow here. I think it curves south:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...3718,-0.405872

Runs past some allotments, crosses a road, and then provides a lovely line
of modestly-sized trees:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...1877,-0.405757

And runs into a carpark alongside a row of little concrete island
thingies:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...0001,-0.404686

And straight into a big white building, which i understand is Jobs's
Dairy. On the other side of that, it reappears very briefly:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=19...2928,-0.403935

Before disappearing under the A316. The furthest i can extrapolate it is
to the middle of that road:

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=k&z=21...8036,-0.404753

Why there, you ask?

Zoom out.

tom

--
Hier gaan over het tij, de wind, de maan en wij.