Piccadilly line between Northfields and Acton

[sjoh]

Could anyone explain why this section of the Piccadilly (and before it, the District) line is four-tracked? I can see no obvious capacity benefit from a cursory look at the track maps over on carto metro.

 

[geordieblue]

Could anyone explain why this section of the Piccadilly (and before it, the District) line is four-tracked? I can see no obvious capacity benefit from a cursory look at the track maps over on carto metro.

Stock transfers?

 

[rebmcr]

Access to Northfields Depot and to the Ealing Broadway branch, parallel with moves to/from the other destinations.

 

[swt_passenger]

I think there was a period in its very early years when the Piccadilly terminated at Northfields, and the District ran to Hounslow West so it was presumably engineered that way to keep Piccadilly and District on their own tracks and platforms through the whole area.

The last District through running seems to have been in the 1960s, I guess it’s been effectively over engineered ever since...

 

[kev1974]

The outer track towards Acton Town used to have a load of spray nozzle pipe work alongside for testing wet weather behaviour, I don’t know if it’s still there, don’t live that way any more.

 

[100andthirty]

The outer track towards Acton Town used to have a load of spray nozzle pipe work alongside for testing wet weather behaviour, I don’t know if it’s still there, don’t live that way any more.

Yes. Those are still there.

 

[MatthewRead]

I think there was a period in its very early years when the Piccadilly terminated at Northfields, and the District ran to Hounslow West so it was presumably engineered that way to keep Piccadilly and District on their own tracks and platforms through the whole area.

The last District through running seems to have been in the 1950s, I guess it’s been effectively over engineered ever since...

District line services on that line ceased in 1964!

 

[Domh245]

The Northfields - Turnham Green quadrupling happened as part of the Piccadilly line extension west in the early 1930s from Hammersmith (which saw the quadrupling of the lines there too) with the aim to "take over the District services to South Harrow & Uxbridge" and "provide some services to Hounslow"*. There's no explicit reason given for why the 4 tracking was continued down to Northfields, but it would indicate either a mixed (or high) traffic style railway as far as there (with Piccadilly line trains running fast and Districts slow), or possibly another factor such as uneven platform/track heights which were subsequently rebuilt


*Going Green - The story of the District Line