Staines and West Drayton Railway

Staines & West Drayton Railway
Legend
Uxbridge (Vine Street) Branch Line 1856-1962 Great Western Main Line to Paddington West Drayton Great Western Main Line to Reading M4 and M25 motorways A4 road Colnbrook Estate Halt 1961-1965 Colnbrook 1884-1965 Colnbrook Cargo Centre Old Bath Road Poyle Estate Halt 1954-1965 Poyle Halt 1927-1965 x20px M25 motorway Yeoveney Halt 1887-1962 Staines Moor Junction (WWII link) 1940-1947 lifted 1959 Staines to Windsor Line to Windsor & Eton Riverside File:BSicon exlENDE.svg Reversing point for oil trains from Windsor line Oil terminal link 1981-1991 Oil terminal Staines Staines West 1885-1949 1949-1965 Staines High Street 1884-1916 Waterloo to Reading Line to Reading Staines Waterloo to Reading Line to Waterloo

The Staines & West Drayton Railway (S&WDR) is a former railway on the western edge of London, England. It was about long and ran roughly north-south along the River Colne, parallel to the modern M25 motorway west of Heathrow Airport. It opened from West Drayton on the Great Western Main Line to Colnbrook in 1884 and reached Staines the next year.

Passengers

By 1961 it had five intermediate stations but the area is sparsely populated, as it is in the flood plain of the river Colne and there are large reservoirs on both sides of the line, and local passenger traffic failed to develop. The line closed to passengers in March 1965.

Connections

The promoters had wanted a connection at Staines to the London and South Western Railway but that company would not allow the Great Western Railway access and the S&WDR terminated at a separate station, converted from a Georgian house. A connection of sorts between the two lines developed through the sidings and turntables of the Staines Linoleum Company's factory but the first purpose-built link was a curve laid in 1940 from Staines Moor Junction some three chains south of Yeoveney Halt to an east-facing connection on the Southern Railway east-bound route to give a diversionary route should central London north-south routes be cut by bombing.

The line today

Northern section

Freight trains still run from West Drayton to Colnbrook serving an aggregates depot and an aviation fuel terminal for Heathrow Airport.

Southern section

The section south of Colnbrook to the bridge over the Southern's line from Staines to Windsor was abandoned in 1981 as part of the route was required for the construction of the M25 motorway. Between Colnbrook and Staines Moor the track has been lifted and the formation built over in several places. Part of the viaduct at Staines Moor is used as a footpath. A fuel oil terminal had been built in the 1960s at the former goods yard at Staines West. Simultaneously with the closure of the line south of Colnbrook in 1981 a new connecting line was built for it to the Staines to Windsor & Eton Line and this was used until closure in 1991.

Proposed changes

The proposed Airtrack-Lite rail link from Heathrow Airport through Staines would entail laying track near the former southern part of the S&WDR route.

Phase 2 of the proposed Windsor Link Railway would link the existing northern section to the a new interchange station at Poyle and via this to both Slough and Staines via the Staines to Windsor Line.

External links

• London's Abandoned Stations