It was - coupled to an 8VEP formation for Eastleigh, dividing at Basingstoke
Only the Rutherglen- Whifflet route is electrified, although the Leven branch is work in progress.
Plus Brighton services
They went through Olympia without stopping, yes, after getting onto the West London Line at Old Oak Common and North Pole Junction using the junction subsequently obliterated by the Eurostar depot.
www.realtimetrains.co.uk
"at one stage" ? It was closed for 40 odd years!
That chimes with a distant memory from the 1980s: living and working in Stoke-on-Trent, I had to come down to London for a training course, and the train (possibly on a Sunday) stopped at Kensington Olympia. As I recall, I stayed in a hotel near West Brompton station, so presumably continued via the District line.
Not to forget that Willesdan Junction to Earls Court via Kensington Olympia had been electrified on the 4 rail system by the LNWR/LMS. Bomb damage led to its withdrawal in 1940.
Information taken from "Disused Stations" website by Nick Catford.
Yes....apologies. I had forgotten the 'electrified' stipulation due to the full thread title not being visible on my mobile screen.
No....they were routed via North Pole Junction and onto the Great Western Main Line.
To be clear the section in question is the curve between Darlaston Junction and Pleck Junction and the passenger service lasted until 2022 as one train a week, timetabled direct Wolverhampton to Walsall at an unsociable time.
I'm not sure that's correct. Memory is that it started as a (Western Region class 116) dmu service, and certainly I photographed such a working at Clapham Junction in September 1996. The critical bit would be Willesden Junction to Mitre Bridge Junction, which would not have been electrified as part of the Eurostar scheme.
Stratford to North Woolwich line is technically *re*-electrified - it was third rail before it closed, I think? And as you say now OHLE for the Elizabeth line (not sure if current DLR electrification is 3 or 4 rail system)
When I was a lad on the relief mid-late 80's the West London line had 2 inter-City services per day; Manchester>Dover and return [1O66 up, can't remember the down headcode] and also a Glasgow & Edinburgh (join/split at Carstairs back then)>Brighton and return [1S76/1O90]. The Manchester travelled via the WCML 87 hauled: locos swapped at Mitre Bridge junction. The Brighton was class 47 hauled, turned off at North Pole junction and went via Reading. I expect they swapped the 47/87 at Birmingham New Street. All of these services stopped at Olympia, Sundays excepted.
Correct, it was 3rd rail, and never converted to OHLE unlike the rest of the North London Line. The DLR is also 3rd rail, though using a different (and safer) system.
Would it date from the closure of Broad Street in the 1980s and the need to divert the Richmond trains somewhere.
Certainly the section of former (unelectrified) heavy railway line from Old Trafford to East Didsbury (via Chorlton-cum-Hardy). Also most, if not all, of the former 'Oldham Loop Line' between Irk Valley Junction and Rochdale. Suppose you could also include the on-viaduct section from Cornbrook to Deansgate-Castlefield.
I have it at 13th May 1985 for Dalston Kingsland to North Woolwich. Just overlapping by a year with Broad Street which closed 27 June 1986.
I think this makes the West London Line entirely unique in that it was de-electrified but remained in some kind of passenger use after that, which I don't think any other line has done that - let alone to get re-electrified many years later.
Yes...the North and South Tyneside lines which were de-electrified from third rail to diesel, before being de-electrified on the overhead system as part of the Metro network.
That website might say that, but it doesn't make it true !!
Oh yeah I completely forgot about that, somewhat more substantial the just half of the West London line. However there is the small caveat that it did not become "mainline".
Didn't know about this one, reminds me of Southport to Meols Cop that was de-electrified at some point but remains with a passenger service today
Indeed. But I think they came after the Dover service.
Believe the Holcombe Brook branch had an experimental 3,500v DC overhead system for a few years after 1913 and then a 1200v DC third rail system from 1918 until sometime in the early 1950s. But the line has been closed / disused for some 60 years now, so surely it has to be out of scope for the purposes of this thread.
