District connections.

[liverpoollou]

I've been reading elsewhere about connections from the District to other lines and NR. My recollection is this, there was a connection at Ealing Broadway which I understand has been removed, incidentally this would have been the only place on the Central to have a trainstop and possibly a tripcock tester after the introduction of ATP.

The other connection I'm interested in is at Upminster. I recall there being talk at the time of the A stock refurbishment that the long disconnected link to NR was to be reinstated, as far as I know this never happened, or did it? While on this subject, and I'm making an assumption here that the missing link was indeed restored, did any 59TS ever leave Upminster for scrap, surely Ruislip would have been more suitable?

[Seven Kings Kid]

The connection at Upminster was to be 'remade' for the D Stock refurbishment. Work did start to connect platform 6 with 51 road.
The problem came when it was noticed the track was 'obstructed' by the final pylon structure of the Overhead line and was therefore abandoned. The works undertaken are still there from what I remember, including the 'policeman' trainstop out in on platform 5 to protect the movement of trains over the crossover.

The connection at Ealing Bdwy has indeed been removed. There used to be little black boxes on the track on each District platform that illuminated to say something like 'code available', they're probably still in situ.

[Nortube]

Although not particularly relevant to your query, the District used to have many connections with the NR at one time, especially between Barking and Campbell Road junction, the last junction between the District and NR, where they parted company.

Of course, there are still connections with the NR today at:
Barking
Wimbledon (Wimbledon north junction)
Wimbledon Park (Wimbledon Park junction)
East Putney (East Putney junction)
Gunnersbury Gunnersbury Junction)
(LO tracks counted as NR as NR can run over them.

Franklin shows these, and the disused connection at Ealing Broadway, and will be adding some more information in the next version of his map.:
[ Click here ]

Perhaps they should run the District to Windsor and Southend again

[Seven Kings Kid]

I'd forgotten about the connection put in at Barking!
Put in so GBRF could get their trains across to allow speedier track replacement up the east end of the District Line.
All hand worked points connecting the Gospel Oak line to the E/B District at the west end if platforms 1&2.

[Nortube]

In fact, if you want to see all of the original District / NR connections at 1936, see Harsig's excellent diagram:
[ Click here ]

[GentlemanJim]

When I was a Controller at Wood Lane the District-Central link was there but as I recall it was never used.

With regard to the Upminster link, I'd heard the story that it was to be reconnected so LU stock could be refurbed at Ilford Dt. but it never happened, as for Northern Line 59ts being carted all the way to Upminster for disposal I'd never heard of that one, I think we can safely say 'it didn't happen'.

Nice maps by the way.

[railtechnician]

Jul 9, 2013 20:43:36 GMT GentlemanJim said:

When I was a Controller at Wood Lane the District-Central link was there but as I recall it was never used.

With regard to the Upminster link, I'd heard the story that it was to be reconnected so LU stock could be refurbed at Ilford Dt. but it never happened, as for Northern Line 59ts being carted all the way to Upminster for disposal I'd never heard of that one, I think we can safely say 'it didn't happen'.

Nice maps by the way.

The District Central link at EBY WP/EAB was used but there was something wrong with regard to control of the slots to move over the crossover. AFAIK the non-safety control circuitry never worked correctly from some time following resignalling of the Central line. On the District side the slotting worked correctly, for some reason the Wood Lane end didn't and we were hampered in investigating the issue because we could never get into 10B to see what the Central LC/signalman was up to when a train was booked to run over to the Central. 
We had several trains over the route in the late 90s/early noughties and we had to do it all on the ground locally from Ealing Broadway District IMR and Central SER. I never understood why nobody on the Central was interested in sorting out the problem although I got the impression that the Central LC/signalman firmly believed that his end was okay and the problem was at Earls Court! As an Acton/Earls Court signal lineman at the time I knew the problem to be at the Wood Lane end.

My vague recollection is that some of the earlier moves of 83 stock from South Harrow sidings were via Ealing Common and Ealing Broadway but getting stock over to the Central was hassle. Thereafter 83 stock went via Acton Works which necessitated attending South Harrow to replace and remove siding track fuses to get the train past the South Harrow E.B starter and then a dash by road to Acton Town in time to see the train into the Works which also required replacing and pulling track fuses!

It all seems so long ago now and the once sharp memories have been fading away, last time I worked at Ealing Broadway was on routine night signal maintenance, frame and contact cleaning, circa 2004. I guess the last time I saw a train over the crossover there would've been in 2000/1 as medical issues took me off the track permanently from late 2001.