South Acton station, Palmerston Road, W3

Originally posted to the Guess Where London group.

South Acton station was opened on 1st January 1880 by the North and South Western Junction Railway (NSWJR) although the NSWJR had been jointly leased to the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), the Midland Railway (MR) and the North London Railway (NLR) since 1871, only the NLR operated passenger services on the route between Kew and Fenchurch Street.
Between 1878 and 1880 it was served by trains running on the Super Outer Circle which was a service operated by the MR.
The main reason for opening a station here seems to be have been to try and alleviate operating problems caused by trains leaving and entering the short branch line to three small halts at Rugby Road, Woodstock Road, and Bath Road before reaching the terminus at Hammersmith & Chiswick station (originally named Hammersmith). The NLR would attach a brake coach to the rear of Kew bound trains, the brake coach would then be detached at Acton Gatehouse Junction (just north of where South Acton station now stands) where a locomotive would back onto the main line from the branch line and take the coach to Hammersmith & Chiswick. On its return, the coach would then be recoupled to a Fenchurch Street bound train. After South Acton station was opened, a line was laid from the junction to a dedicated platform on the east side of the station allowing trains to enter and leave the branch without having to use the main line. There were also two platforms built for the NLR allowing passengers to change between lines.

The Metropolitan Railway Act of 1874 allowed the Metropolitan District Railway (MDR) to build a short line, the Acton Loop Line, between South Acton and Acton Town (originally known as Mill Hill Park). When first opened in 1899, the double track line was used for goods trains only until 1905 when the MDR built a platform on the west side of the station allowing passenger trains to start running a service to Hounslow and Uxbridge via the Acton Loop Line. The service was never a commercial success which led to the loop being reduced to a single track in 1932 operated by a one-car shuttle service, normally worked by one G Stock car, between South Acton and Acton Town. The shuttle service was withdrawn in February 1959.

The passenger service on the branch line to Hammersmith & Chiswick was withdrawn in January 1917 as a war time economy measure but wasn't reinstated after the war, goods trains continued to use the branch until the final closure of the line in May 1965.
After the Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, the LNWR and MR amalgamated (along with other companies) to form the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), which then absorbed both the NLR and the N&SWJR.

The non LPTB lines were taken over by the London Midland Region of British Railways following nationalisation of the railways in 1948.
In the 1980s under 'sectorisation', the station was served by the Network SouthEast passenger section of British Rail until the privatisation of British Rail in 1994 when the remaining line was taken over by the Silverlink train operating company.

Operation of passenger services on the line were transferred to Transport for London (TfL) in 2007 and are now part of the London Overground network.

Taken in: UK / England / Ealing / Southfield (show map)

Taken on: April 11, 2013

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1 January

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Alan

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Sets appears in: • North London Line • London Overground more » • Guess Where London? • London Railway Stations « less

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