Windsor lines of the London and South Western Railway

The Windsor lines of the London and South Western Railway ran from Waterloo to Windsor via Richmond, with a loop via Hounslow. They started as the Richmond Railway, a simple independent branch line, but they developed a distinct identity and had their own approach to Waterloo alongside the Main Lines, and a distinct section of Waterloo station. The Richmond Railway was extended to Windsor by the Windsor, Staines, and South Western Railway and the company also built a loop line via Hounslow. Both independent companies were absorbed into the LSWR.

They formed the basis for branch lines and extensions in west London and beyond. They were on the northern boundary of the established area of LSWR territory, and they were subject to incursions by competing companies' lines and trains, seeking access to Richmond and forming north-south links for goods traffic, leading to the construction of Feltham goods yard for marshalling, opened in 1917.

The original routes are identifiable today, although the Eurostar terminal occupied the site of the Windsor Lines station at Waterloo from 1993.

First railways London and Southampton Railway

The London and Southampton Railway was opened in stages from 21 May 1838. It was a great success.Donald J Grant, Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain, Matador, Kibworth Beauchamp, 2017, , page 332R A Williams, The London and South Western Railway: volume 1: The Formative Years, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968, , page 36 At first its London terminal was at Nine Elms, and this was not convenient for passengers travelling to and from London.Williams, volume 1, page 158

Gillham observes that; Passenger steamboats left from Old Swan Pier, Upper Thames Street, not all that close to the City centre but the best that could be managed, one hour before the departure of each train from Nine Elms, and called at several intermediate piers on the way. To take one hour and only get as far as the starting point of the train was clearly not good enough, not even 150 years ago. pages 7 to 11

London and South Western Railway main line The London and Southampton Railway changed its name to the London and South Western Railway by the London and South Western Railway (Portsmouth Branch Railway) Act 1839 (2 & 3 Vict. c. xxviii) of 4 June 1839.Williams, volume 1, page 122 The company saw the strategic advantage of securing territory under its control, and took steps to build lines to the west.

Richmond Railway

An independent company, friendly to the LSWR, proposed building a line from Richmond to form a junction with the LSWR at Falcon Bridge. Falcon Road is crossed by the railway at the London end of today's Clapham Junction. The company was authorised as the Richmond Railway by the (8 & 9 Vict. c. cxxi) of 21 July 1845; share capital was to be £260,000. The route from Richmond lay through Mortlake, Barnes, Putney, and Wandsworth. The line would need a viaduct over the River Wandle and the Surrey Iron Railway, long with twenty-three arches.Grant, page 472Williams, volume 1, pages 167 and 168Ernest F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959, page 109

The promoters of the Richmond Railway appreciated that the Nine Elms terminus was a significant disadvantage to their business in view of the shorter journeys on their line. The original idea of extending to Waterloo came from the Richmond promoters; although Nine Elms was easily reached by steamers, its location was much too remote to be practical for short-distance travellers.White, page 40

They had originally planned to build their line alongside the LSWR as far as Nine Elms and extend from there to a terminus near Waterloo Bridge, but the LSWR persuaded them to allow the LSWR itself to make that part of the scheme. The LSWR obtained the necessary act of Parliament giving powers to extend to Waterloo Bridge, the London and South-western Railway Metropolitan Extensions Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxv); we know the station today as Waterloo. The extension and the new station were opened on 11 July 1848. From Nine Elms to Waterloo it was constructed with four tracks, two for the Southampton line and two for the Richmond line. As soon as the Richmond line was extended to Windsor on 1 December 1849. "These tracks have always been known as the Windsor Lines right up to the present day."

While the LSWR was building the Waterloo extension, the Richmond Railway opened its own line on 27 July 1846. There had been a directors' special run on 22 July 1846. The Richmond trains were worked by the LSWR but terminated for the time being at Nine Elms; there were seventeen trains each way daily. The business was brisk, over 50,000 passengers being carried each way in June and July 1847.Williams, volume 1, page 168 and 169H P White, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 3: Greater London, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1963, new edition 1971, , page 56

As the day of opening approached the Richmond Railway negotiated to sell their concern to the LSWR; the transfer was agreed, and was authorised by the London and South Western Railway Amendment Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. cxxxi) of 3 July 1846, taking effect on the first day of 1847.

Widening Waterloo to Barnes

The line approaching Nine Elms from the west was double track at first, for main line and Richmond line trains. The Richmond Railway had proposed laying a separate double track for its line, but the LSWR preferred to arrange this work itself. A third track, in the Up direction, was laid from Falcon Bridge as far as Vauxhall in 1848. A layout with three tracks approaching a major terminal was favoured at the time, enabling empty stock trains and light engines to wait for a platform and not obstruct approaching main line trains. In 1860, four additional platforms were opened at Waterloo for the Windsor traffic, and a fourth, down, track was opened from Vauxhall to Falcon Bridge at the same time, and most train movements were segregated: the Richmond and Windsor services used the northern pair of tracks, and they became known as "the Windsor lines". The part of Waterloo station that they used was known as the "Windsor (line) station".Tim Sherwood, Change at Clapham Junction, Wandsworth Borough Council, 1994, , pages 10 and 11White, page 41

The previous four tracks into Waterloo were increased to six in 1891, by the addition of an up main line and a down Windsor line. This widening was soon inadequate, and on 20 January 1898, the LSWR board agreed on the desirability of widening the WaterlooClapham Junction section to eight tracks as soon as possible. The first steps towards that were taken in 1902, but the process was slow due to the necessity of taking over large numbers of slum dwellings and relocating the occupants. The widening was not carried out continuously from Waterloo to Clapham Junction, but in sections, partly due to the existence of the approach tracks to the Necropolis station, and to Nine Elms goods yard. This first stage was completed in 1907, and at Vauxhall there were two up Windsor lines, but from there to Waterloo there was only one, and a new Up Main Relief Line occupied the fifth space (between the Up Main Line and the Down Windsor Local Line).J N Faulkner and R A Williams, The London & South Western Railway in the 20th Century, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1988, , pages 46, 47 and 50

Vauxhall station was a centre for London's milk supply. In 1913 it handled 1,500 churns daily. Arriving milk trains berthed in the Up Windsor Local Line platform at Vauxhall to unload, the entire ordinary Windsor line traffic being carried over the Up Windsor Through Line. Trains arriving at Waterloo stopped at Vauxhall for ticket collection; this was discontinued for Windsor line trains in October 1912.

From Falcon Junction (at the later Clapham Junction) to Nine Elms a third, Up track was installed.Williams, volume 1, page 160R H Clark, A Southern Region Record, The Oakwood Press, Lingfield, 1964, pages 45 and 103John Christopher, Waterloo Station Through Time, Amberley Books, Stroud, 2015, , section "The 19th Century Station"

When electrification of the suburban network was authorised in 1912, the quadrupling of the Windsor lines in the Nine Elms area was also approved. The work was ready in January 1916. The section from west of Nine Elms Junction towards Clapham Junction had four Windsor Line tracks from 1897 when goods lines were converted to passenger use, at first up-down-up-down, but changed in 1907 to up-up-down-down.Faulkner and Williams, page 50

Clapham Junction station continued to be a bottleneck with only two Windsor Line tracks through the station. In 1906 a new platform on the north side of the station was brought into use for the Kensington services, releasing a platform for widening the Windsor lines; quadrupling through the station was completed on 13 October 1907.Faulkner and Williams, pages 53 and 54

The volume of traffic between Clapham Junction and Barnes became intolerable, and quadrupling of that section was authorised by the South-western Railway Act 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. ccxi) on 10 August 1882. The second up line between Barnes and Putney opened on 15 June 1885, and four-line working throughout between Barnes and Clapham Junction started on 1 June 1887. The Barnes, Putney and Wandsworth stations were enlarged accordingly.R A Williams, The London and South Western Railway: volume 2: Growth and Consolidation, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1973, , page 44Clark, page 104

To link the Richmond line at Point Pleasant Junction with the Wimbledon to Fulham line at East Putney Junction, the Putney Junction lines opened on 1 July 1889. As authorised on 10 August 1882, both up and down lines were to have passed high over the double-tracked Richmond line before descending to join it on the north side. The quadrupling the Richmond line, however, made need for the Putney Junction down line to leave it from the south side and reach East Putney Junction by a separate brick viaduct to prevent down trains causing delay by crossing four tracks on the level.

Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway

Hounslow, Brentford and Staines, and above all Windsor, were attractive places to live in, and was attractive to the promoters of new railways; in 1845 a number of schemes were put forward. In the 1846 session of Parliament, the Windsor, Slough and Staines Atmospheric Railway was put forward. It would have been a broad gauge system worked on the atmospheric principle, and allied to the Great Western Railway (GWR). It was rejected in Parliament, and its promoters sought a sponsor to help them in a further attempt to get authorisation. The Richmond Railway had an affiliated company, the Staines and Richmond Junction Railway, which had also been turned down in Parliament. The two unsuccessful projects were combined under the sponsorship of the Richmond Railway, and the provisional Windsor, Staines and South Western Railway (WS&SWR) came to be formed in the latter half of 1846. The Slough connection was removed from the scheme, as was the atmospheric traction idea.Williams, volume 1, pages 170 to 174E T MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway; Volume I; 1833 to 1863, published by the Great Western Railway, London, 1927, page 196