path of a 'ghost' railway in W London

[welshmikeymike]

Hello,

My first post and I hope someone can help me.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oe=ut...1017,-0.364244&spn=0.005999,0.021887&t=h&z=16

shows the M4 and Osterley Park. There looks like the path of an old railway that runs NE-SW across the M4. If you follow it SW there is a distinct straight path through the housing estate and then across the A4. I've traced it across the GU canal and Perivale Park upto Neasden and across Hounslow Heath down to Fulwell on Google maps and street-view.

Any ideas if this was a line and, if so, when it disappeared?

Mike

 

[flymo]

Wasn't this once a canal? I'm sure I've read something about it but can't remember where. Another theory I remember is a shallow water main so there is a 'clearway' above it to prevent damage.

 

[Dai.]

My first thought was a public bridleway. Because there is even a footbridge over the M4, if I'm in the right place - following the path outlines down?

 

[welshmikeymike]

The footbridge is not on the route I am looking at. Have a look at these links from street-view.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oe=ut...oid=meTLNGaK9Ghwf9aGPSeL3A&cbp=12,191.66,,0,5


http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oe=ut...noid=uyLk9SBJqdz_1o2AiK-u4w&cbp=12,52.66,,0,5

wherever the 'track' crosses a road it is guarded by the same style vertical posts with arrowhead caps.

Corporation Ave here

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?oe=ut...noid=qEeAbSyyue0_GZY4zk5MEw&cbp=12,16.44,,0,5

is the only street built directly on the track.

Mike

 

[MidnightFlyer]

From what I can see (by zooming out on the maps you provided on Osterley, looking towards the M4, and using the second edition of Joe Brown's excellent London Railway Atlas), I doubt it is a railway. The closest disused track/railway there (I got it to be SE of Southall National Rail station and NW of Osterley LUL station) is the old GWR branch down to Brentford (which is now cut short at Brentford, though still in situ for freight), but this passes just west of Boston Manor LUL station, so sorry mate, but I don't think this was ever railway land...

 

[4SRKT]

There's definitely never been a railway here. I consulted the authoritative Ian Allan Sectional Maps of Britain's Railways as at 1982, which shows every line that's ever been, and there's nothing here.

 

[welshmikeymike]

Fair enough.

This is another street view taken further north along the green path after its crossed Perivale golf course and under the Greenford-Drayton bridge line. There definitely a bridge under the Central line visible when you zoom out.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=hou...id=6MD8zItVu1qSS5L9PCfucA&cbp=12,61.7,,0,6.18

I know this means that from Hounslow it crosses the A4, the Grand Union Canal, under the GWML (appearing on the north side at Lyndhurst Avenue where I think there is a bridge portal), then West Middlesex GC and onto thw view shown above.

Further south there looks like a cutting across Hounslow Heath

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=hou...56173,-0.391216&spn=0.006725,0.01929&t=h&z=16

if not a railway any ideas on what town planning legislation would halt building leaving a distinct track?

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Nothing for either link I'm afraid...

 

[bangor-toad]

Hi,
As other's have said there's not been a railway along that route either built or planned.

If you follow the route southwards though you can see where it crosses the old Feltham depot site. There's a gap in the houses where it crosses the A312 and you can see it skirts alongside roads near Hanworth Park.
The route then terminates at Sunbiry Sewage Works.

My guess? It's a sewage or water pipe that is buried quite shallowly. This will prevent much development on the route of the pipe but if the correct foundations were prepared doesn't actually prevent building at all. This is why some of the route is now actually the route of quieter residential streets.

This isn't the definate answer - just my theory.
Good luck finding what it really is!
Jason

 

[John Webb]

There never was a canal in this area other than what became the Grand Union - I've checked in 'Lost Canals and Waterways of Britain' and all the canals in West London were short sections of waterway connecting with the Thames. Most of these have now disappeared.

My guess would be that there is a buried major watermain here. There are about three places where fenced-off buildings appear on top of the line and could be valve or pump houses? Interestingly near Neasden there seems to be a road 'Conduit Way' along the line of this feature. So was it once an open conduit similar to the 'New River' from Hertford to the City on the NE side of London?

Some features of this cross-country marking can be seen on the 25,000:1 London North OS map, but the Google pictures enable much more of it to be seen.

Addition: If it ends up at a sewage works as Jason indicates then it may be the NW London equivilent of the 'Northern' and 'Southern' outfall sewers which terminate East of London and whose final few miles are very distinctive and easily traced on maps and Google.

Further Addition: It would seem to end up at a waterworks by Kempton Park Racecourse - so I would go for a water main myself.

 

[welshmikeymike]

Watermain is starting to make sense...

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=hou...1.514582,-0.359405&spn=0.001679,0.004823&z=18

I've played golf at West Mid and have wondered what that building on the 13th you drive over was.....

 

[swt_passenger]

Watermain from Hampton, via Cricklewood, linking into the new river water system.

I think it was the subject of a thread in usenet group uk.transport.london back in early 2008, as someone originally thought it might have been rail related, but eventually someone chipped in who had been researching it:

http://middlesexcountycouncil.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=9&id=17&Itemid=35

There are about 4 pages describing the route, the last one is the area around Osterly etc.

 

[will1337]

Thank you, swt_passenger, I have wondered what it is as it's local. In lots of places along it are the same railings that welshmikeymike talks about.

 

[welshmikeymike]

Mystery solved

Thanks, I can go home and chill with a hot toddy tonight