The Eastern Counties & Thames Junction Railway: Past, Present and Future

Intro

For the railway enthusiast, London is one of the greatest cities in the world. Its network covers the city like a rash, made up of a diverse range of different types of railway. From light rail with the DLR to the world's most iconic metro network with London Underground, to the trams of Croydon and to the manic heavy rail hub that is Clapham Junction (200 trains per hour pass through it in the peak), it is a simply marvellous spectacle. London's railways have a fascinating history to tell too - they have been developed over the course of hundreds of years, with lines coming into and falling out of use, freight lines closing and passenger lines opening and operation changing ownership more times than almost anyone can care to remember. They illustrate the social and economic changes of London - one of the best is (if you hadn't read the title), The Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway.

The Beginnings

The line opened all the way back in 1846, between Stratford and Canning Town in London's East End. In those days, it was for the purpose of moving coal from down at Bow Creek before it was extended to its final terminus at North Woolwich (via Silvertown) - this allowed passenger services to connect with the Woolwich ferry, a service that still runs today! (there also opened a foot tunnel under the Thames in 1912 there, which is well worth a visit).

The Woolwich Foot Tunnel (By Kleon3 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45589703)

In 1855, the line between Canning Town and Woolwich had to be interrupted by a swing bridge due to the opening of the Royal Victoria Docks. In response to this, a new route was built to the North of the Dock via Custom House. By this point, the railway was under the control of the North London Railway who, when this new route faced the same fate as the old (southern) route due to the construction of the Royal Albert Docks, decided they needed a tunnel - the cut and cover Connaught Tunnel (we'll come back to this later!). Sixty years later, it turned out didn't dig the tunnel deep enough, so an iron casing had to be placed under the dock as ships actually scraped the roof of the tunnel. After significant damage in the Blitz, the Beckton and Gallion lines closed. The Beckton line would re-open to goods, but was closed for good (excuse the pun) in 1972.

See http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/north_woolwich/

Enough of its development though, here are some ups and downs of the line

The infamous Beeching Report had recommended Liverpool Street's neighbour, Broad Street be wound down. The grand old terminus was left to rot by British Rail in the following decades, reducing it platform by platform as each became surplus to requirements and unsafe until its complete closure in 1986. That's a story for another time though, so back to this EC&TJR. At this point, services to North Woolwich were terminating at Broad Street. This couldn't continue, so the (diesel at this time) were rerouted via the North London Railway to Camden Road. In 1980, the line was reduced to just a single line, as passenger numbers had falled. In 1985 however, the railway had a great success - third rail electrification came, integrating it with the North London Link (as Network Southeast called it) and bringing services between Richmond and North Woolwich in true orbital fashion - just what London Overground tries to achieve today. After the last diesels ran (see here), the electric services were operated by the venerable and versatile Class 313 - a train that still rattles around Southern Rail's Coastway routes today!

By Falk2 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54523818
This is a service at Kew Gardens, on its way to Richmond from North Woolwich

My own image CC BY-SA 4.0 - 313212 arrives at Bishopstone on the South Coast after extensive refurbishment from its London days

However, the success of this integration was short lives. Popularity of the North London grew, but not South of Stratford (i.e. not on the Eastern Counties & Thames Junction). As BR increased train frequencies, these trains didn't bother running to North Woolwich - they terminated at Stratford (as all do today) as the single line was also a bottle neck at this point. What followed was, just like Broad Street station, a painful, drawn out decline.

Quality and frequency of service dwindled, the track was barely mainted (see old cab-view videos) and the branch was completely unstaffed. Following the privatisation of British Rail, things only got worse. Whilst Silverlink did best with what they had and did at least try to rebrand the service, it was too late. The line became irrelevant, impractical and unreliable to use and badly maintained 3 car 313s simply not attracting anyone to use the service.

By this point, the line was in many places downright dangerous. The grand old North Woolwich station building had been closed, replaced by a hideous temporary building that was falling down at this point, the station reduced to just a single platform. On Saturday 9th December 2006, the line was finally put out its misery as the final service ran.

So, what's left of it today?

Actually, quite a bit! There's a few relics still around the network that give us clues to what once existed in East London - if you look closely at the signs for the DLR, you'll beneath the vinyl, the sign originally detailed "Trains to North Woolwich" on the southbound platform alongside signage for trains to Southend on the LTS - before National Rail was created. On a side note, there was once a loop of track that connected the LTS to the EC&TJR at Abbey Mills, facilitating North Woolwich to Fenchurch Street service. If only this had existed today...

Speaking of old DLR signs however, almost as soon as the line closed, the section between Stratford and Canning Town (much running alongside the Jubilee Line Extension of 1999) was converted for light rail operation, with new stations such as King George V DLR Station substituting North Woolwich At the original North Woolwich, the station building is still in tact. In 1984, it and and one of the disused platforms had been turned into a museum to the Great Eastern Railway. Sadly, this closed in 2008 and remains in much the same state it was left in. The horrid replacement building is thankfully gone.

The original station building (Hidden London Image)

There were plans for using a short section of track from North Woolwich to run a heritage railway, however this has been scuppered by a much larger project: Crossrail. It was approved that the line would make use of the abandoned Connaught Tunnel as part of the Abbey Wood branch of the Elizabeth Line.

The tunnel dates back to 1878 and hadn't had a train run through it since 2006. Both tracks were in poor state, one considerably worse than the other as it was abandoned following singling. They also were configured for third rail operation (whereas Crossrail has been built to use overhead wires) and the tunnel itself was too small - fine for Class 313s which were designed for the Northern City Line, but not for a mainline size Class 345. Crossrail therefore completely ripped up and lowered the trackbed, making the tunnel a single bore and replacing much of the structure under the old dock.

You therefore still can travel and see most of the old railway even today - you'll be able to see even more once the ever-troublesome Crossrail project is actually complete. Whilst some has been lost, such as the old Silvertown and North Woolwich Stations and the classic rolling stock that once operated this line and it is now impossible to travel the route as a whole (certainly not to Richmond as you once could), the legacy of the line still lives on and is responsible for fulfilling many Jubilee, DLR, London Overground and soon, Elizabeth Line journeys. Cab views are certainly a good way of experiencing the EC&TJR, this video here shows a Class 313's journey through the Connaught Tunnel in the final days of operation.

On the bright side, at least we don't have Silverlink running trains anymore, I doubt many miss them as an operator! More to come as I take a deeper dive into Broad Street, The London and Blackwall Railway and the Class 313's massive range of uses of the years.