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A Great Western Mystery


Pacific231G
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And why spend money on a line that links the GW to the WLL as in (orange on that map) when you've already built a link at North Pole Jnc that connects thew GW & WLL in the same way???

 

Cheers,

Paul

 

Going slightly OT  the GWR went to a lot of expense to create an additional link to the West London although in the event although authorised in 1905 it didn't open (for freight) until 1917.  In the event the Ealing and Shepherds Bush provided a freight route from the Relief Lines to the West London Line that didn't cross the GWR's Main Lines on the flat although a lot of trip freights continued to run to/from the yards on the Down side at Old Oak Common.

 

Obviously the E&SB had another use in the shape of CLR passenger trains to Ealing Broadway hence its electrification and continued existence as part of the Central Line but it still offered that direct link to the WLL until the non-electrified lines (as they had latterly separately become) were closed in 1965.  

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Apparantly the National Archive have plans of the proposed route of the Latimer and Acton Railway.  I'm hoping to go down there in a few weeks so could take a look and report back if you're interested?

 

Cheers,

Paul

Thanks Paul, I'd certainly be interested in anything you can dig up. 

 

Chris, I've now got the Alan Jackson book (thanks for the recommendation, it's fascinating) but looking at what appear to be parcels of land acquired for the line around Wood Lane it looks rather as if there were intended, possibly a bit later than the original plans,  for a connection to the West London Line as well as the southbound connection to the H&C round the back of what is now Frithville Gardens.

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Bless my soul!  Wherever did you find that book?  I have just spent a good half hour browsing through it because I lived in Acton as a boy.  I spotted references to the Lord Chancellor in the mid 17th century whose name was Clarendon.  The layout of that name is, of course, said to be set in a bygone Acton.  Tell me that isn't a coincidence ...

 

Chris

 

Oh, and in that connection, the well-known public open space east of Acton is spelled "Wormwood Scrubbs" but isn't now.

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Those maps are in some ways interesting for what they do not include.  The omission of Western Avenue and Westway, both creations of the time between the wars is understandable, but that of Ducane Road less so.  It is interesting to see how far Old Oak Common is from Old Oak Farm and how much of West London was already built up by the 1870s.

 

Members of the Clarendon team may wish to note the spelling of Wormwood Scrubs ...

 

Chris

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The first link identifies that The Barbara Speake Stage School was built on the site of a disused train terminus at East Acton.

 

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2113382

 

 

This second link shows the abandoned railway line Just above where The Barbara Speake Stage School is now located today.

 

You'll need to scroll down to see East Acton. You can zoom in and out. Look for the East Acton lettering on the map and just above it is the abandoned railway line. The 1900 and 1930s maps look very similar.

 

https://www.theundergroundmap.com/article.html?id=350&annum=1900

 

I was brought up in Acton during the 1950s and 1960s and worked there off and on during the 1970s. So Acton is my 'Manor' of old.

 

Was looking at a map of Acton Central Station and noticed the abandoned railway line!

 

Which eventually led me to here.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Cheers Loz

 

Edited by goyasduke
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  • 3 months later...

The link below is from the Shepherds Bush Cricket Club website.

 

Paragraph 2, about a third in, talks of a proposed railway around 1887 causing the club to find an alternative venue, at least for a while.

 

It seems the railway would have run South from where the terminus would have been, on the current site of the Barbra Speak Stage School, crossing East Acton Lane and then across what was, until fairly recently, the site of the old Shephard's Bush Cricket Club.

 

https://shepherdsbushcc.com/about/

 

Cheers,

 

Loz

 

 

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On 10/04/2019 at 15:27, goyasduke said:

 

The first link identifies that The Barbara Speake Stage School was built on the site of a disused train terminus at East Acton.

 

https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2113382

 

 

This second link shows the abandoned railway line Just above where The Barbara Speake Stage School is now located today.

 

You'll need to scroll down to see East Acton. You can zoom in and out. Look for the East Acton lettering on the map and just above it is the abandoned railway line. The 1900 and 1930s maps look very similar.

 

https://www.theundergroundmap.com/article.html?id=350&annum=1900

 

I was brought up in Acton during the 1950s and 1960s and worked there off and on during the 1970s. So Acton is my 'Manor' of old.

 

Was looking at a map of Acton Central Station and noticed the abandoned railway line!

 

Which eventually led me to here.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Cheers Loz

 

Interesting and it was finding the "abandoned railway" on that map that triggered my intial interest.     The description in the first link of the stage school being on the site of a disused station is clearly  wrong as they never got as far as building anything that was used in order to become disused. s                                    

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  • 4 years later...
8 hours ago, Turbostar said:

@Pacific231G not sure where you got to with your research but just noticed this on the London Transport Museum website. Might be worth a visit to the Acton Depot to check it out if you have not done so already.

 

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/maps/item/1995-1619

I got as far as finding this line sketched into a gazeteer but there seems to have been doubt about whether it was going to join the H&C or the West London Extension. I also found some interesting land parcels and street lines between the abandoned section from Acton and the H&C  on the 25 inch OS maps.

1884 gazeteer marked.jpg

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On 17/09/2023 at 18:55, Pacific231G said:

I got as far as finding this line sketched into a gazeteer but there seems to have been doubt about whether it was going to join the H&C or the West London Extension. I also found some interesting land parcels and street lines between the abandoned section from Acton and the H&C  on the 25 inch OS maps.

1884 gazeteer marked.jpg

Yes, part of it is clearly visible in the 1914 25" OS map

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On 19/09/2023 at 12:40, The Stationmaster said:

Yes, part of it is clearly visible in the 1914 25" OS map

Sorry. I meant to add the OS map but got distracted. 

mapcompositemarked.jpg.0e2c03ffc1b25ab7146c5aa630348f03.jpg

Here is a composite of the six inch maps covering the whole route of the Latime rRoad and Acton Railway with the line of the built but abandoned section marked in red alng with the rather obvious line where the shape of Frithville Gardens shows a route joining the H&C between its Shepherds Bush station (now Shepherds Bush Market) and the future location of the original H&C Wood Lane station .  I assume the long thin parcel of land running west to east just to the north of Frithville Gardens (where the upper Hammersmith legend is) is a purchase for a line to the WLER though that's not certain.This map must have been surveyed before 1901 as Wormwood Scrubs is marked as Her Majesty's Prison.

Despite the railway's name there's no sign of it ever having got close to Latimer Road station (also marked in red). There would  have been little point as a junction there would simply have taken it back to to the GWML which it had left at Acton.

If you want to trace its intended route in greater detail the details were in the London Gazette

London Gazette Nov 26 1886 p 5883.pdf

 

Edited by Pacific231G
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