London and Blackwall Railway

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Original bridge at Limehouse on the London and Blackwall Railway. It now carries a branch of the DLR.

Originally called the Commercial Railway, the London & Blackwall Railway was a railway line that originally ran from the Minories to Blackwall via Stepney, in east London, England.

[edit] History

It was authorised by an Act of Parliament entitled "An Act for making a Railway from the Minories to Blackwall, with Branches, to be called "The Commercial Railway" dated 28 July 1836 in the reign of William IV. A copy of the Act can be read at the Bancroft Road library in Tower Hamlets and the appendix makes fascinating reading for those historians who want to see who owned and who were the tenants of the properties destroyed.

The engineer of the line was intended to be John Rennie, but the project’s City financiers favoured Robert Stephenson, believing that they would also benefit from the knowledge and wisdom of his respected father George. Although, because of the Act, Robert Stephenson had to follow Rennie’s route, and use the obscure track gauge of 5ft 0½ ins, he was free to choose his own method of propulsion. Drawing on his experience with the Camden Incline on the London and Birmingham Railway he decided upon cable-haulage from stationary steam engines.

The line opened on July 6, 1840, and the company changed its name to the London & Blackwall Railway on completion of an extension to Fenchurch Street railway station, just within the City boundary, in 1841. A line from Stepney (now called Limehouse) linking it with the Eastern Counties Railway at Bow was opened in 1849, at which time the track was converted to standard gauge. This was joined to the new London, Tilbury and Southend Railway in 1858, allowing this company’s trains to run into Fenchurch Street.

Meanwhile, in 1850 the North London Railway linked up with the L&BR at Poplar, and Fenchurch Street became the terminus for that line too, until Broad Street opened in 1865. In 1871 another branch line, the Millwall Extension Railway opened, from Millwall Junction down to Millwall Docks to serve the West India Docks better; a year later the line was extended to North Greenwich (now the site of Island Gardens DLR station).

Passenger services east of Stepney to North Greenwich and Blackwall were stopped on May 3, 1926, and the more minor stations at Leman Street and Shadwell were closed in 1941. With the closure of the docks in the 1970s, the line east of Limehouse was abandoned, with only the Fenchurch Street–Limehouse section still in use, by the LT&SR. When the Docklands Light Railway opened in 1987, it reused much of the L&BR line between Minories and Westferry Road. Additionally, part of the viaduct at North Greenwich for the line between Mudchute DLR station and Island Gardens survived and was used, though this has since been demolished and replaced with an underground line.

[edit] Cable haulage

Minories station on the LBR, circa 1840. The winding drums and Cooke-Wheatstone “needle” telegraph instrument (left foreground) are shown.

As originally built the line was 3½ miles long, with double track. These were bi-directional and were operated independently of each other. Indeed, on the opening of the line only one track was complete and the other was not brought into use until one month later. Each track was provided with a double length of hemp rope: as an engine was winding in from one end an equivalent length of rope was being paid out at the other. Fourteen miles of rope were therefore required in all. On journeys from the terminus cars were despatched in two groups: the first group of four cars for the three most distant stations (the terminus stations, as the most important, received two cars per trip) and the second group destined for the three nearest. Each rearmost car was released (“slipped”) as the convoy passed through its destination station. “Slipping” and “pinning” (attaching) was controlled from whichever end of a car was leading, using a lever mounted on an open platform at each end.

It was obviously dangerous to use the reverse method to pick up cars on journeys to the terminus, so all the cars were “pinned” to the cable at their respective stations simultaneously with the convoy departing from the terminus (the timing co-ordinated by an early example of the Cooke-Wheatstone electric telegraph). They arrived in the end station at intervals and a new train gradually assembled itself, with the pair of cars from the far terminus becoming the lead pair for the return trip. The timetable was very simple: a train every fifteen minutes.

Power was provided by marine steam engines from Maudslay, Sons and Field. The Minories winding house had two at 110 h.p. but the engines at Blackwall were only at 75 h.p. as the overall gradient of the line fell from the west, where it was built on brick arches, to the east. When the extension to Fenchurch Street was brought into use the pair of cars for that station was slipped from the rope at Minories as before, but the brakes were not applied. If all went well, momentum carried them forward to the new platforms.

The line was converted to use steam locomotives in 1848, partly because wear on the rope proved greater than anticipated (a steel-wire replacement had been tried but this twisted and kinked ferociously) and partly in consequence of the intended 1849 extensions. A light roof over the tracks was provided where they passed near to timber stores or shipping, because of the anticipated fire risk from locomotive sparks. It then became possible to travel directly between intermediate stations, without a detour by way of a terminus!

[edit] Stations

The stations on the line were:

† = still open, served by c2c

Branch to Bow from Stepney, called the London and Blackwall Extension Railway (opened 1849, joint-operated with the Eastern Counties Railway):

• Burdett Road (opened 1871, closed 1941)
• Bow Road (opened 1892, closed 1949)

Branch to North Greenwich from Millwall Junction, called the Milwall Extension Railway:

• South Dock (opened 1871, closed 1926)
• Millwall Docks (opened 1871, closed 1926)
• North Greenwich (opened 1871, closed 1926; not to be confused with North Greenwich tube station)

[edit] References

• Gordon, W.J. (1910): Our Home Railways (volume two). Frederick Warne & Co, London, England.
• Jackson, Alan A. (1978): London’s Local Railways. David & Charles, Jackson, Vermont, U.S.A. ISBN 0-7153-7479-6