London and Blackwall Railway
The London and Blackwall Railway ( L & BR) was a railroad in the British capital London. It led into a west-east direction from the edge of the City of London to Blackwall and thereby opened up the western part of the Docklands. The track was in operation from 1841 to 1926, a branch line until 1949. Until 1848 trains by means of ropes were pulled. A large part of the route belongs since 1987 to the route network of light rail Docklands Light Railway.
History
The building permit for the first designated as Commercial Railway track was issued on July 28, 1836 by Act of Parliament. Executive engineer John Rennie would have to be, but the financiers of the City of London Robert Stephenson pulled out. They hoped to thereby benefit from the knowledge of his father George Stephenson. Due to the Act of Parliament, Robert Stephenson had to keep exactly to the specified Rennie route and also take the unusual track gauge of 5 feet and a half inches ( 1537 mm), the choice of the drive remained, however, left him. Because of its experience in track construction on the London and Birmingham Railway, he opted for a cable car with stationary steam engines.
Construction began in 1838, was opened the route on July 6, 1840. The following year the line was extended to the other side of the road Minories. The company was called from now on London and Blackwall Railway. 1849 was created in collaboration with the Eastern Counties Railway branch line the London and Blackwall Extension Railway Stepney (now Limehouse station ) to Bow. In the same year the track has been converted to the standard width of 1435 mm.
The 5.6 km long stretch of origin Minories after Blackwall was double track. The two tracks were traveled operationally independent from each other in both directions. At the opening of only one track was completed, the second followed a month later. Each track equipped with a hemp rope twice the length, the running route on both ends by a planet gear. The tractive force delivered eight steam engines of Maudsley, Sons and Fields. The four machines at the west end were 110 bhp, those at the eastern end only 75 hp, there was a slight slope in west-east direction. The track was in 1848 converted to conventional operation with steam locomotives, as the stress on the ropes on duration was too strong.
Opened in 1850, the North London Railway (NLR ), a further connection route that led from Stratford off after Millwall Junction. The original terminus Minories more 1853, the expansion of the neighboring Fenchurch Street railway station. 1871 another branch line was put into operation, the Millwall Extension Railway (1871 Poplar to Millwall Dock, 1872 to North Greenwich ).
Passenger Stepney to North Greenwich and Blackwall was set on 3 May 1926, its stations Leman Street and Shadwell closed in 1941. With the closure of the docks in the 1970s ended and the freight, only the portion Fenchurch Street Limehouse remained in operation. The Docklands Light Railway, opened in August 1987 uses to a large extent the former viaduct route of the L & BR between the stations and Tower Gateway West Ferry. In addition, they took at the beginning between the stations Mudchute and Iceland Gardens also part of the route of the Millwall Extension Railway; this section, however, was aborted when building, which opened in 1999, partly underground running DLR extension to Lewisham.