Super Outer Circle
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The Super Outer Circle was a railway route in London operated between 1878 and 1880 over tracks which are now mainly owned by Network Rail but include parts of the London Underground. Although not actually a circle or even a complete circuit, the route circumnavigated the northern and western suburbs of the Victorian capital and the name was used to reflect its similarity to the Inner Circle, Middle Circle and Outer Circle routes.
[edit] Route
The Super Outer Circle route was operated by the Midland Railway (MR) and ran between its terminus at St. Pancras and Earl's Court via Cricklewood, South Acton and Hammersmith.
The Super Outer Circle used existing rail lines and shared operations with the other services provided by the Midland and the other railway companies over whose tracks the service operated.
The service commenced operations on 5 May 1878. It ran north from St Pancras on the mainline to Cricklewood then, turning south-west, joined the tracks of the Midland & South Western Joint Railway (now known as the Dudding Hill Line) to connect to the North London Railway south of Willesden Junction. The route passed through Acton Central and South Acton before joining the London & South Western Railway's (L&SWR's) Richmond branch via a now disused link close to Chiswick Park station. The Super Outer Circle then followed the L&SWR's tracks (now the London Underground's District Line) to Hammersmith and then over the Metropolitan District Railway (also now the District Line) to end at Earl's Court.
The route was not a commercial success as it served areas that were still relatively unpopulated and the demand for connections between outlying areas was not great. The MR ended the service on 30 September 1880. As just one of a number of services operated by the MR, the Super Outer Circle route did not appear separately on rail maps of the period.
