Greenford Branch Line

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Greenford branch
Legend 0.00 London Paddington Old Oak West Junction 4.25 Acton Main Line 5.75 Ealing Broadway 6.50 West Ealing Great Western Main Line 7.25 Drayton Green 7.50 Castle Bar Park 8.25 South Greenford 9.25 Greenford Connection to South Ruislip

The Greenford branch line is a 2¾ mile (4.5 km) suburban railway line in west London, England. It mainly serves the suburbs of Ealing and Greenford.

The line is owned by Network Rail and is operated by First Great Western^[1]. Trains continue along the Great Western Main Line to and from Paddington railway station and call at Acton Main Line station on the outskirts of Acton.

All services are operated using Class 165 Turbo diesel trains.

Contents 1 Connections 2 History 3 References 4 Further reading

[edit] Connections

Although it is only a short line, with journeys to Paddington from Greenford typically taking 24 minutes, a wide choice of connecting services mean that it plays a useful part in local transport. Passengers can change at West Ealing to connect with local services on the Great Western Main Line to Heathrow Airport, or at Ealing Broadway to connect with services to Slough, Reading and Oxford. They can also connect with several different London Underground lines:

• At Paddington: Bakerloo, Circle, District (Wimbledon branch), and Hammersmith & City Lines
• At Ealing Broadway District (main line) and Central Line
• At Greenford: Central Line

[edit] History

The line was opened in 1903. The opening coincided with the opening of a station at Park Royal to serve the Royal Agricultural Show which was being held in the grounds of part of the Twyford Abbey Estate^[2][3]. The Royal Agricultural Show in 1903 ran from 15 June 1903 to 4 July 1903. During these three weeks trains operated a circular service to and from Paddington via Park Royal and Ealing.

Normal services commenced on 2 May 1904 and links were put in to Greenford station on 1 October 1904.

The line and train service was referred to by locals as the 'push and pull'. This is because when the service was run using steam locomotives, and the lack of a 'run-around' siding at Greenford meant the steam loco would pull the carriages down to Greenford, and have to push them back up to London Paddington. Hence it was referred to as the push and pull, and still to this day is known as this.

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Conolly, W.P. (1997). Pre-Grouping Atlas and Gazeteer, 5th Ed., Shepperton : Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0320-3. 
• MacDermot, E.T. (1931), History of the Great Western Railway, vol. II, 1863-1921, London: Great Western Railway Co. , 654 pp.

• Mitchell, V. & Smith, K. (2000), Branch Lines of West London, Midhurst: Middleton Press, ISBN 1-901706-50-8 , 96 pp.
• Network Rail (2007). "Current Timetables, Electronic National Rail Timetable (eNRT)". Network Rail. 

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