The West London Railway was conceived to link the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway with the Kensington Basin of the Kensington Canal, enabling access to and from London docks for the carriage of goods. It opened in 1844 but was not commercially successful.
In 1863 the canal was closed and the railway extended southwards on its alignment as the West London Extension Railway, crossing the River Thames on a new bridge and connecting with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway south of the Thames. Local and long-distance passenger traffic was carried, and goods traffic exchanging between the connected railways. Passenger traffic declined after 1940, but the line remained open for sporadic freight services. In recent years regular local passenger services have revived the traffic on the line.
Origins
The short "Kensington Canal" was opened on 12 August 1828, running from the River Thames a little west of Battersea Bridge to a basin near Kensington Road and Uxbridge Road, in a relatively undeveloped area to the west of London. The Times reported that "the canal runs from the Thames, near the Battersea-bridge, directly north two miles and a quarter, terminating close to the great Western road."The Times (newspaper), London, Wednesday 13 August 1828
It had been intended that the canal would be extended further north to the Grand Junction CanalLater forming a constituent part of the Grand Union Canal; this part of the canal was sometimes referred to as the "Paddington Canal". but the cost of the section built was much more than estimated. The canal was tidal, like the Thames, and the traffic and income from it were substantially less than hoped for, and the extension was dropped.
The London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) and the Great Western Railway were projected in the early 1830s. Their London terminals would be on the north-west margin of London, and at that time they considered it essential to have a connection to the London docks east of London Bridge: a railway to a canal connected with the Thames might serve this purpose. In February 1836 the canal proprietors accepted an offer for their canal from the new Birmingham, Bristol and Thames Junction Railway.Some references erroneously quote the company name as Bristol, Birmingham and Thames Junction Railway
The railway company obtained an act of Parliament, the (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. lxxix) on 21 June 1836 authorising it to build a railway from Holsden Green (later called Harlesden), under the Paddington Canal at Wormholt Scrubbs (later Wormwood Scrubs), under the Uxbridge Road (then the Oxford Road) and under the Hammersmith Turnpike.
Construction of the line was much delayed, and meanwhile the Great Western Railway (GWR) was being built across its path. A flat crossing was arranged, and by agreement of 4 February 1837 GWR trains would have precedence with signals and heavy barriers across the BB&TJR line provided under the control of a GWR man.E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, vol I, Great Western Railway, London, 1927
In 1839 the railway completed purchase of the canal for £36,000, of which £10,000 was in cash and £26,000 in their own shares at face value.British History Online, The Kensington Canal, railways and related developments, at
As the calls on shares became due some of the shareholders defaulted and arrears soon amounted to £28,000: the company was unable to pay current bills. On 23 July 1840 statutory authority to raise a further £75,000 was obtained in the (3 & 4 Vict. c. cv), and the opportunity provided by this second application to Parliament was used to change the name to the West London Railway Company.
Money was still scarce, and it was not until 1843 that the company managed to clear its bills.D. V. Levien, The Hitherto Untold Story of "Punch’s Railway", in the Great Western Railway Magazine, vol.XLVIII, 1936, quoted in British History Online Construction was further delayed, resumed in March 1843.
In 1839 Samuel Clegg and Jacob Samuda, approached the company for permission to use its uncompleted line for trials of their atmospheric system, with stationary engines exhausting air from a pipe laid between the rails; a carriage on the train carried a piston inside the pipe and the air pressure provided tractive force.E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, vol II, Great Western Railway, London, 1932
Part of the trackbed for about a half mile south from the GWR crossing was allocated to them, and they started demonstrations on 11 June 1840, having laid their own track. Trials and public demonstrations continued intermittently into 1842, and at length the railway company wanted possession of the land to lay its own railway. This seems to have involved conflict, and the company only got possession in 1843, having paid a sum in compensation. There is no suggestion that there was any intention to use the system on the line.
Opening at last The line finally opened on Whit Monday 27 May 1844, and for two days a 30-minute interval passenger service operated between Wormwood Scrubs and Kensington. Subsequently, a normal service was instituted; the passenger stations were at Kensington, Shepherds Bush, an exchange platform at the point of crossing the GWR main line, and at the junction with the London and Birmingham line. The Kensington station was immediately to the north of Counter's Bridge, and the goods connection to the canal basin was on the south side.
MacDermot gives a diagram for the "West London Crossing" in 1844; the WLR crosses under the Grand Junction Canal (sometimes referred to as the Paddington Canal) in a short tunnel; there is a "turntable for the exchange of traffic" to the east of the WLR and south of the GWR, with a siding connection from each line to the turntable but no other connection.
The timetable for 10 June 1844 shows seven Down (northbound) trains, four to the interchange and three to the GWR interchange; no train called at both, and the "Junction Station" for the GWR is on a terminal line in MacDermot's diagram. Only four Up trains are shown, two each from "G.W. Junction" and "L. & B. Junction". Connections were arranged by the other railways.
Timekeeping by trains from the L&BR was very poor, due to the crossing of the GWR; the signalman there had no telegraphic communication, and was instructed not to allow a WLR train to cross if a GWR train was expected or overdue.
The line was single track, with mixed gauge south from the GWR. There was no through running line there: access for wagons was through a siding and a wagon turntable.
The passenger operation was not well used, and in some weeks only 50 passengers travelled. The line was losing £50 a week, and notice was given to the connecting railways that the operation would be terminated; this took effect after 30 November 1844. After closure the company had considerable debts and outstanding wages due, and the directors personally advanced money for this; the amount outstanding in January 1845 was said to be £60,000.
After the cessation of passenger services, several directors resigned, and there was considerable difficulty in finding replacements. When this was done, the new directors "found the affairs of the company in a state of far greater embarrassment and difficulty than they had anticipated". Debts now amounted to £60,000, and the contractor had filed a bill in Chancery for non-payment of a debt: the line had been seized and advertised for sale.
A dormant period The line was now closed, but by agreement of 11 March 1845 the L&BR started to run occasional goods trains.
The London and Birmingham Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clvi) authorised the GWR and the L&BR to take a joint lease of the line for 999 years. The GWR had ideas of extending the line to cross the Thames to Vauxhall, but this was dropped during the financial collapse of 1848/49. The line was used only to carry coal—the LNWR used it for a considerable traffic to Shepherd's Bush and Warwick Road Basin, Kensington, which was the original canal terminal. Passenger service was not re-introduced. However they did nothing to develop the business of the line until in 1849 the WLR sought an arbitration judgment against them, which they got.
The (17 & 18 Vict. c. cciv) was obtained under which the company's operation was vested in the LNWR, as successor to the London and Birmingham Railway from 1846, and the GWR.The railway was vested in them, but the West London Railway Company itself remained in existence until nationalisation of the railways in 1948
A collision, and then first signs of progress There was a collision at the crossing with the GWR in November 1855, and the guard of an LNWR train was killed. There were "heavy barriers" protecting the GWR from trains on the WLR at the crossing, and signals on the GWR. There was another signalman to operate a distant signal a mile west, in Acton Cutting. He was to repeat the indication of the crossing signal, by visual observation. The collision took place on a dark morning, when a GWR goods train ran into a LNWR train crossing its path. The LNWR train was being propelled, as "there were no means of running round on the West London". The GWR train consisted of "68 waggons with the only guard's van next the second engine".
This may have been the motivation for the owners to consider improving the line. The GWR seems to have taken the lead, obtaining authority in an act of Parliament to double the line and extend it south over the River Thames to join the London and Southampton Railway (later the London and South Western Railway: the L&SWR), and, by the South Western Railway Act 1859 (22 & 23 Vict. c. xliv), eliminate the flat crossing at the north end.
The latter was swiftly put into effect, with a new line crossing over their main line by a bridge, and a spur line making a connection. In the northwards direction, the spur diverged to the right at the new North Pole Junction; it then swung left, crossing under the new high-level line and jointing the GWR main line in the direction of Reading. The through line to and from Willesden had previously passed under the Paddington Canal, with a 1-in-36 gradient to get down to the low level; it now crossed it by a bridge, the new alignment displaced a little to the west.
This was timely, for in 1862 the London International Exhibition of Industry and Art opened in Kensington, and the LNWR started a service on 2 June to the Kensington terminus with seven trains each way from and to Harrow. Simultaneously they started running trains from Kensington to and from Camden (Chalk Farm), where there were connections for Fenchurch Street over the North London Railway.
Crossing the Thames
The development of the suburbs meant that the time was now right to extend the line southwards to join railways on the south side of the River Thames. The (WLER) was created by the (22 & 23 Vict. c. cxxxiv), owned jointly by the subscribing companies.
The act authorised the company:
The and subscribed £100,000 each, and the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) subscribed £50,000 each.
But refers to additional subscriptions after the opening, under the (26 & 27 Vict. c. ccviii):
By the Act of July 28, 1863, four subscribing companies were authorized to furnish capital (in addition to the original capital of £105,000) to the extent of £50,000 each by the London and North Western and Great Western Railways, and £25,000 each by the London and South Western and London, Brighton and South Coast Railways; these four companies having previously subscribed £105,000 between them.
The new line opened on 2 March 1863. The and the leased the original WLR between them.H P White, London Railway History, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1971, At this time Samuel Carter served as solicitor, as he had done as early as 1845.