The Royal Docks Heritage Railway, endorsed in 2006 by

Newham London Borough Council Newham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Newham. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council is unusual in that its executive function is controlled by a dir ...

, was proposed to open during 2007, taking over the

North Woolwich Old Station Museum The North Woolwich Old Station Museum was a small railway museum in North Woolwich, in Newham, East London. Located in the former Great Eastern Railway terminal station building at North Woolwich railway station, the museum opened in 1984. It ...

and the closed section of the

North London Line The North London line (NLL) is a railway line which passes through the inner suburbs of west, north-west, north, and east London, England between Richmond in the south-west and Stratford in the east, avoiding central London. Its route is a rou ...

between and railway stations. Rather than concentrating on the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

, it would have shown the heritage of local and suburban

National Rail National Rail (NR) is the trading name licensed for use by the Rail Delivery Group, an unincorporated association whose membership consists of the passenger train operating companies (TOCs) of England, Scotland, and Wales. The TOCs run the p ...

lines in London and the south east. The idea was to re-double the track between stations and run heritage train services and training trains. At closure, North London Line services used only one track, but the second track was in place for much of the route. The line might have been Britain's first mainline electric preserved railway. The 1980s station building was to be the public entrance to the museum site. The official website (11/4/22 - this link leads to a unrelated link which contains an unplayable video) includes details of the visions for the museum plus pictures of the line, taken from a special train run the day after the last public service ran.

RailSchool

The Royal Docks Heritage Railway was associated with a separate training organisation called RailSchool. The

British Rail Class 50 The British Rail Class 50 is a class of diesel locomotives designed to haul express passenger trains at . Built by English Electric at the Vulcan Foundry in Newton-le-Willows between 1967 and 1968, the Class 50s were initially on a 10-year leas ...

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

No. 50033 ''Glorious'' was to be lent to RailSchool by

Swindon Steam Railway Museum STEAM – Museum of the Great Western Railway, also known as Swindon Steam Railway Museum, is housed in part of the former railway works in Swindon, England – Wiltshire's 'railway town'. The museum opened in 2000. The site The museum is ...

List of Stations along Royal Docks Heritage Route

Custom House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting c ...

*Connaught (Halt) *

Silvertown Silvertown is a district in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, Becontree Hundred, hundred of Becontr ...

*Albert Road (Halt) *

North Woolwich North Woolwich is an area in the London Borough of Newham in East London. It is located on the northern bank of the River Thames, across the river from Woolwich. It is connected to Woolwich by the Woolwich Ferry and Woolwich foot tunnel. Des ...

End of the project

Later approval of the

Crossrail Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...

project, re-using most of the proposed heritage railway route, effectively killed the scheme.

References

External links

London's Abandoned Stations - North Woolwich
{{Heritage railways in England Proposed railway lines in London Heritage railways in London Transport in the London Borough of Newham Museums in the London Borough of Newham