District Railway

collapsed	yes

The Metropolitan District Railway, also known as the District Railway, was a passenger railway that served London, England, from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete an "inner circle" of lines connecting railway termini in London, the first part of the line opened using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. The Metropolitan Railway operated all services until the District Railway introduced its own trains in 1871. The railway was soon extended westwards through Earl's Court to Fulham, Richmond, Ealing and Hounslow. After completing the inner circle and reaching Whitechapel in 1884, it was extended to Upminster in Essex in 1902.

To finance electrification at the beginning of the 20th century, American financier Charles Yerkes took it over and made it part of his Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) group. Electric propulsion was introduced in 1905, and by the end of the year electric multiple units operated all of the services. On 1 July 1933, the District Railway and the other UERL railways were merged with the Metropolitan Railway and the capital's tramway and bus operators to form the London Passenger Transport Board.

Today, former District Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Underground's District, Piccadilly and Circle lines.

History

Origins, 1863–1886

Inner Circle

In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) opened the world's first underground railway. The line was built from Paddington beneath the New Road, connecting the main line railway termini at Paddington, Euston and King's Cross. Then it followed Farringdon Road to a station at Farringdon Street in Smithfield, near the capital's financial heart in the City.

The Met's early success prompted a flurry of applications to Parliament in 1863 for new railways in London, many competing for similar routes. The House of Lords established a select committee that recommended an "inner circuit of railway that should abut, if not actually join, nearly all of the principal railway termini in the Metropolis". For the 1864 parliamentary session, railway schemes were presented that met the recommendation in varying ways and a joint committee composed of members of both Houses of Parliament reviewed the options.

Proposals to extend west and then south from Paddington to South Kensington and east from Moorgate to Tower Hill were accepted and received royal assent on 29 July 1864 in the Metropolitan Railway (Notting Hill and Brompton Extension) Act 1864

Rolling stock

Steam locomotives

When in 1871 the District Railway needed its own locomotives, they ordered twenty four condensing steam locomotives from Beyer Peacock similar to the A Class locomotives the Metropolitan Railway was using on the route. As they were intended for an underground railway, the locomotives did not have cabs, but had a weatherboard with a bent-back top. The back plate of the bunker was raised to provide protection when running bunker first. A total of fifty four locomotives were purchased. They were still in service in 1905 when the line was electrified, and all but six were sold the following year.

In 1928, from November 5-11, the 60th anniversary of the railway's opening, the District Railway arranged an exhibition train at South Kensington Station, composed of various types of rolling stock, past and what was present in 1928. First in the train was engine No. 34, built in 1883 by the Bayer, Peacock and Co. Ltd., an outside cylinder 4-4-0 steam locomotive, and what was then the sole remaining steam engine in service. [9]

Electric locomotives

External links

District Line Clive's UndergrounD Line Guides
Etching of the "Works of the Metropolitan District Railway on the Thames Embankment at Westminster" published in Illustrated London News. Available from flickr accessed 8 June 2012
Print dated 1866–67 of "The construction of the Metropolitan District Railway" near South Kensington. Available from Museum of London, accessed 8 June 2012
Painting by Jack Hill of a District Railway and a GNR steam trains at Farringdon. Basilica Fields (blog), accessed 8 June 2012

References

Metropolitan Railway Projects The Times, 30 November 1863, retrieved 7 May 2012^
{{London Gazette |pages=3966–3967 |date=11 August 1874 |issue=24121 }}^
{{London Gazette |pages=4899–4899 |date=12 August 1879 |issue=24751 }}^
{{London Gazette |date=22 November 1912|issue=28665|pages=8798–8801}}

Expansion, 1874–1900

Completing the circle

Conflict between the Met and the District and the expense of construction delayed the completion of the inner circle. In 1874, frustrated City financiers formed the Metropolitan Inner Circle Completion Railway Company with the aim of finishing the route. The company was supported by the District railway and obtained parliamentary authority on 7 August 1874,[2] but struggled with funding. The time allowed was extended in 1876. A meeting between the District and Metropolitan was held in 1877, the Met now wishing to access the South Eastern Railway (SER) via the East London Railway (ELR). Both companies promoted and obtained an act of Parliament, the Metropolitan and District Railways (City Lines and Extensions) Act 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. cci), for the extension and a link to the ELR. The act also ensured future co-operation by allowing both companies access to the whole circle. A large contribution was made by authorities for road and sewer improvements. In 1882 the Met extended its line from Aldgate to a temporary station at Tower of London. Two contracts to build joint lines were placed, one from Mansion House to the Tower in 1882 and a second from the circle north of Aldgate to Whitechapel with a curve onto the ELR in 1883. From 1 October 1884 the District and Metropolitan began local services from St Mary's via this curve onto the East London Railway to SER's New Cross station. After an official opening ceremony on 17 September and trial running, a circular service started on Monday 6 October 1884. On the same day the District extended its services to Whitechapel and over the ELR to New Cross, calling at new joint stations at Aldgate East and St Mary's. Joint stations opened on the circle line at Cannon Street, Eastcheap (Monument from 1 November 1884) and Mark Lane. The Met's Tower of London station closed on 12 October 1884 after the District refused to sell tickets to the station. After opening the District service from New Cross four trains an hour ran alternately to Hammersmith or Putney, but as passenger demand was low after a month this was reduced to two trains an hour to Ealing. Four trains an hour went from Whitechapel, two to Putney, one to Hammersmith and one to Richmond. The middle and outer circle services continued operating from Mansion House at two per hour each. Initially the inner circle service was eight trains an hour, completing the 13 mi circuit in 81–84 minutes, but this proved impossible to maintain and service was reduced to six trains an hour with a 70-minute timing in 1885. Initially guards were permitted no relief breaks during their shift until September 1885 when they were permitted three 20-minute breaks.

South to Wimbledon

Several schemes to cross the Thames at Putney Bridge to Guildford, Surbiton or Wimbledon had been proposed and received approval from Parliament, although the District had been unable to raise the necessary funding. In 1886 the L&SWR replaced these plans with the Wimbledon and Fulham Railway that started on the west side of Wimbledon and crossing Thames to meet the District's Putney Bridge station. The line had intermediate stations at Wimbledon Park, Southfields and East Putney and a junction connected the line to the L&SWR's Waterloo to Reading Line just north of East Putney station. The District had running rights and extended some Putney services to Wimbledon on 3 June 1889.

Electrification, 1900–1906

Development

At the start of the 20th century the District and Metropolitan railways faced increased competition in central London from new, electric, deep-level tube lines. The City and South London Railway had been a great success when it opened in 1890. After the opening of the Central London Railway in 1900 from Shepherd's Bush to the City with a flat rate fare of 2d, the District and Metropolitan together lost four million passengers between the second half of 1899 and the second half of 1900. The use of steam propulsion led to smoke-filled stations and carriages that were unpopular with passengers and electrification was seen as the way forward. However, electric traction was still in its infancy and agreement would be needed with the Metropolitan because of the shared ownership of the inner circle. A jointly owned train of six coaches successfully ran an experimental passenger service on the Earl's Court to High Street Kensington section for six months in 1900. Tenders were then requested and in 1901 a Metropolitan and District joint committee recommended the Ganz three-phase AC system with overhead wires. Initially this was accepted by both parties.

The District found an investor to finance the upgrade in 1901, American Charles Yerkes. On 15 July 1901, Yerkes established the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company with himself as managing director and raised £1 million to carry out the electrification, including construction of the generating station and supplying the new rolling stock. Yerkes soon had control of the District Railway and his experiences in the United States led him to favour DC with a track level conductor rail similar to that in use on the City & South London Railway and Central London Railway. After arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted.

The District had permission for a deep-level tube beneath the sub-surface line between Earl's Court and Mansion House and in 1898 bought the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway with authority for a tube from South Kensington to Piccadilly Circus. These plans were combined with those of the Great Northern and Strand Railway, a tube railway with permission to build a line from Strand to Wood Green, to create the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR). The section of the District's deep-level tube from South Kensington to Mansion house was dropped from plans. In April 1902, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) was established, with Yerkes as chairman, to control these companies and manage the planned works. On 8 June 1902, the UERL took over the Traction Company and paid off the company's shareholders with cash and UERL shares.

The UERL built a large power station that would be capable of providing power for the District lines and the underground lines planned. Work began in 1902 at Lots Road, by Chelsea Creek and in February 1905 Lots Road Power Station began generating electricity at 11 kV 33 1/3 Hz, conveyed by high voltage cables to substations that converted this to approximately 550V DC.

While the power station was being built, the District electrified the Ealing to Harrow line that was not yet open. It was equipped with automatic signalling using track circuits and pneumatic semaphore signals, and trials were run with two seven car trains. In August 1903, an order was placed for 420 cars and a new maintenance depot was built west of Mill Hill Park (now Acton Town).

After the trials, the line to South Harrow opened in June 1903, from 23 June with a shuttle to Park Royal & Twyford Abbey (now Park Royal) for that year's Royal Agricultural Show. The rest of the line to South Harrow opened the following week on 28 June, with stations at North Ealing, Park Royal & Twyford Abbey, Perivale-Alperton (now Alperton), Sudbury Town, Sudbury Hill and South Harrow.

Electric services

Electric services began on 13 June 1905 between Hounslow and South Acton, using the line from Mill Hill Park to South Acton for a passenger service for the first time. Hounslow Town station was reopened, trains reversing at the station before continuing to Hounslow Barracks using a new single track curve. On 1 July 1905 electric trains began running from Ealing to Whitechapel, and on the same day the Metropolitan and District railways both introduced electric units on the inner circle. However, a Metropolitan multiple unit overturned the positive current rail on the District Railway, and investigation showed an incompatibility between the way the shoe-gear was mounted on the Met trains and the District Railway track, and the Met trains were withdrawn from the District lines. After modification the Met returned and electric trains took over on 24 September, reducing the travel time around the circle from seventy to fifty minutes. By September, after withdrawing services over the unelectrified East London Line and the LT&SR east of East Ham, the District were running electric services on all remaining routes. From December 1905 the L&NWR service was hauled by electric locomotives from Mansion House to Earl's Court, where a L&NWR steam locomotive took over.

In 1907 the weekday off-peak service was four trains per hour from East Ham to Ealing Broadway, four per hour from Mansion House to alternately Richmond and Wimbledon and two per hour from Wimbledon to High Street Kensington and Ealing Broadway to Whitechapel. Four trains per hour ran from Putney Bridge to Earl's Court, two continuing to High Street Kensington. From South Harrow there were two trains per hour to Mill Hill Park, and four trains per hour from Hounslow Barracks to Mill Hill Park, two of these continuing to South Acton.

Meanwhile, the UERL's GNP&BR tube railway was under construction, surfacing west of West Kensington and entering two terminal platforms on the north side of the District's Hammersmith station. A new station, Barons Court, was built with two island platforms, one for each railway. As there was space at Lillie Bridge Depot after the District had moved to Mill Hill Park, the GNP&BR took over part of the site for its depot. Barons Court opened 9 October 1905 and the tube railway opened as the Piccadilly line

London Underground, 1908–1933

Running an electric railway

In 1908 the UERL and the other underground railway companies in London came to a joint marketing arrangement that included maps, joint publicity and combined ticketing. U NDERGROUN D signs were used outside stations in Central London. The UERL eventually controlled all underground railways in London except the Waterloo & City Railway, the Metropolitan Railway and its subsidiary the Great Northern & City Railway, and introduced station name boards with a red disc and a blue bar.

'Non-stop' working was introduced on the District in December 1907. Usually just a few stations were missed; trains were marked NON STOP or ALL STATIONS as appropriate and panels beside the doors listed the stations the train would skip. East of Bow Road station the District shared the tracks with LT&SR steam engines and widening the railway to East Ham was considered essential. Four tracks were laid and two electrified as far as Barking, where the Tilbury and Upminster routes separated. On 1 April 1908 District trains were extended through to Barking and the work was largely finished in July 1908. After 2 May 1909 trains no longer reversed at Hounslow Town after the station was closed and a new Hounslow Town station opened on the direct route.

Since 1904, after the District had notified the Met that it would not use its running rights on the Uxbridge line with steam trains, it had not run services, although it paid the £2,000 a year that was due under the enabling act. When the District suggested running as far as Rayners Lane, the Met responded with a proposal to rebuild the station as a District terminus. The District proposed running trains through to Uxbridge, leading to negotiations about the charges for traction current before District services were extended to Uxbridge on 1 March 1910. In 1910 a platform was built at Mill Hill Park for the Hounslow and Uxbridge shuttles and a flying junction built north of the station to separate the Ealing and Hounslow traffic. The station was renamed Acton Town on 1 March 1910.

Between Turnham Green and Ravenscourt Park the District shared tracks with L&SWR steam trains to Richmond, a GWR steam service from Richmond to Ladbroke Grove and Midland coal trains. The District and L&SWR agreed to quadruple the tracks to allow a pair for the District's sole use and build a station on the District tracks at Stamford Brook. The line was first used on 3 December 1911 and Stamford Brook opened on 1 February 1912. However, the GWR had already withdrawn their service and L&SWR was to withdraw in 1916. A flying junction separating the Richmond and Hammersmith routes west of Earl's Court opened in January 1914.

From 1910 to 1939 the LT&SR ran through trains between Ealing Broadway and Southend or Shoeburyness, hauled west of Barking by the District's electric locomotives that were no longer needed for the L&NWR's outer circle service, and east of Barking by steam locomotive. From 1912 two specially built sets of saloon coaches with retention toilets were used. In the 1920s the off-peak weekday service was a train every ten minutes from Wimbledon and Ealing and every fifteen minutes from Richmond. Six trains per hour ran from Putney Bridge to High Street Kensington. Trains from Hounslow left every 6–8 minutes, terminating at Acton Town or South Acton. Six trains per hour left Hammersmith for South Harrow, three continuing to Uxbridge. In 1925 the inner circle service was ten trains per hour in each direction, but this frequency of service caused problems. A reduction to eight would leave the Kensington High Street to Edgware Road section with too few trains. However the Metropolitan had recently rebuilt it with four platforms as part of an abandoned plan for a tube to Kilburn. The District extended its Putney to High Street service to Edgware Road and the Metropolitan provided all inner circle trains at a frequency of eight trains per hour.

In 1923 the London, Midland and Scottish Railway had inherited the LT&SR line to Barking, and in 1929 proposed quadrupling the line to Upminster and electrifying one pair of tracks for use by the District. On 12 September 1932 services started with new stations at Upney and Heathway (now Dagenham Heathway) with platforms only on the District tracks.

Piccadilly line extension

In November 1912 a bill was published that included a plan to extend the Piccadilly tube tracks westwards from Hammersmith to connect to the L&SWR's Richmond branch tracks.[4] The bill passed as the London Electric Railway Act 1913 (3 & 4 Geo. 5. c. xcvii) on 15 August 1913,[5] although the advent of World War I prevented work on the extension.

Powers were renewed in 1926 for the quadruple track from Hammersmith to be extended to west of Acton Town, with the concept of the Piccadilly running non-stop on the inner pair. The proposed service split, with the Piccadilly running through to Harrow and Hounslow, was clarified by 1929. District services would run mainly through to Wimbledon, Richmond, Hounslow and Ealing, with shuttles from South Harrow to Uxbridge and Acton Town to South Acton.

With finance guaranteed by the Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act 1929 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 7), construction started in 1930. Two additional tracks were built from west of Turnham Green to Northfields on the Hounslow branch. East of Turnham Green a freight loop was built for eastbound coal trains from Richmond to Kensington. Acton Town was rebuilt with five platforms, and a depot was built west of Northfields station.

Several stations were rebuilt in a Modernist style influenced or designed by Charles Holden, who was inspired by examples of Modernist architecture in mainland Europe.

Electric multiple units

In 1903 the District tested two seven-car trains with different control and brake systems on its unopened line between Ealing and South Harrow. Access to the car was by platforms with lattice gates at their ends and hand-operated sliding doors on the car sides. Later some trailer cars were fitted with driving controls and two and three car trains operated from Mill Hill Park to Hounslow and South Harrow and later Uxbridge until they were withdrawn in 1925.

The District Railway ordered 60 x 7-car electric trains in 1903. A third of the vehicles were made in England, the rest in Belgium and France and electrical equipment was installed on arrival at Ealing Common Works. Access was by sliding doors, double doors in the centre and single doors at either end. First and third class accommodation were provided in open saloons with electric lighting. The seats were covered with rattan in third class and plush in first. From 1906 the standard formation was six cars, with an equal number of motor and trailer cars running in either two or four car formations off-peak. By 1910 the District required additional rolling stock and ordered cars largely constructed of steel. The first batch arrived in 1911, followed by more in 1912 from a different manufacturer but to a similar design. Further cars arrived in 1914 with an elliptical roof instead of the clerestory roof on the earlier designs. In 1920 the District took delivery of new cars, incompatible with the existing fleet, with three hand-operated double sliding doors on each side. In 1923 fifty motor car bodies were ordered to allow some of the original 1904–05 car bodies to be scrapped. From 1926 two stock pools were created. Main line trains were formed from 101 new motor cars supplemented by motor cars rebuilt from the steel bodied cars originally constructed in 1910–14 and 1923, and trailers modified from the original wooden bodied cars. A small pool of unmodified 'local stock' worked the shuttles from Acton Town to South Acton, South Harrow and Hounslow.

In 1932 the line to Upminster was electrified and new vehicles were purchased. After the District Railway became part of London Underground, similar cars were ordered to allow the Metropolitan line be extended to Barking and replace some of the rapidly deteriorating original wooden trailers. The 1935–40 New Works Programme fitted electro-pneumatic brakes and air-operated doors to most of the District line stock and allowed the remaining wooden cars to be scrapped. A number of motor cars were not suitable for conversion and so some trains retained their hand-worked doors and these ran until 1957.

As of March 2015 a driving motor car built in 1923 is a static exhibit at London Transport Museum at Covent Garden.[12]

short title	Metropolitan District Railways Act 1864
type	Act
parliament	Parliament of the United Kingdom
long title	An Act for authorizing the Completion of an Inner Circle of Railways North of the Thames.
year	1864
citation	27 & 28 Vict. c. cccxxii
royal assent	29 July 1864
original text	https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/27-28/322/pdfs/ukla_18640322_en.pdf

History

Origins, 1863–1886

Inner Circle

Rolling stock

Steam locomotives

Electric locomotives

See also

External links

References

West to Putney Bridge, Richmond, Ealing and Hounslow

Inner Circle

West to Putney Bridge, Richmond, Ealing and Hounslow

Expansion, 1874–1900

Completing the circle

South to Wimbledon

Completing the circle

South to Wimbledon

East to East Ham

Uxbridge

Electrification, 1900–1906

Development

Electric services

Development

Electric services

London Underground, 1908–1933

Running an electric railway

Piccadilly line extension

Running an electric railway

Piccadilly line extension

London Passenger Transport Board, 1933

Legacy

Carriages

Electric multiple units