Watford and Rickmansworth Railway
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The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway (W&RR) ran services between
Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...
and
Rickmansworth Rickmansworth () is a town in southwest Hertfordshire, England, about northwest of central London and inside the perimeter of the M25 motorway. The town is mainly to the north of the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) and t ...
in
Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The company was incorporated in 1860; the line opened in 1862. The Rickmansworth branch was closed in 1952, and the remaining line was gradually run down and eventually closed in 1996.


Lord Ebury's railway

The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway was a
business venture Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
of the Whig politician,
Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury Robert Grosvenor, 1st Baron Ebury PC (24 April 1801 – 18 November 1893), styled Lord Robert Grosvenor from 1831 to 1857, was a British courtier and Whig politician. He served as Comptroller of the Household between 1830 and 1834 and as Treas ...
(1801–1893), at a time of great competition among railway companies vying to construct new, lucrative passenger routes. In July 1860, Lord Ebury obtained powers to construct a 4.5 mile single track line between Watford and Rickmansworth which opened in October 1862. It was nicknamed the "Ebury Line" after the railway company's founder and first chairman. The Rickmansworth terminus was located opposite the church to the south of the town where interchange sidings were provided with the nearby
Grand Union Canal The Grand Union Canal in England is part of the British canal system. It is the principal navigable waterway between London and the Midlands. Starting in London, one arm runs to Leicester and another ends in Birmingham, with the latter st ...
. The line had two other stations,
Watford Junction Watford Junction is a railway station that serves Watford, Hertfordshire. The station is on the West Coast Main Line (WCML), 17 miles 34 chains from London Euston and the Abbey Line, a branch line to St Albans. Journeys to London take between 16 ...
and Watford High Street. The depot was situated on Wiggenhall Road in Watford. Lord Ebury's vision was to construct a railway running southbound from Watford to on the
Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
's
Uxbridge branch The Uxbridge (Vine Street) branch line was a railway line to Uxbridge in the historical English county of Middlesex, from the Great Western Railway main line at West Drayton. It opened in 1856 as a broad gauge single line, long. It was converted ...
, eventually providing a new route from Watford to via Uxbridge and . The GWR offered to put up £20,000 towards the project and in 1863, Parliamentary authorisation was obtained to construct an extension from Rickmansworth to Uxbridge. The GWR later withdrew its offer of funding and the scheme foundered. Lord Ebury's ambition to link Watford and Uxbridge was never realised, and the W&RR was to remain a short branch line for its entire operation. Despite hopes that the railway would bring further economic development to Rickmansworth and would serve the small factories and warehouses which had developed along the Grand Union Canal, it was Watford which actually grew at a faster pace and drew business from Rickmansworth. The construction of the railway was dogged with financial problems and a further Act of Parliament had to be passed in 1863 to authorise the issue of further shares to the value of £30,000 (£40,000 worth of shares had already been issued). The initial daily service consisted of five trains each way from Rickmansworth to Watford. The line was worked from the outset by the
London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...
(LNWR), which shared Watford Junction station with the W&RR. For the first 19 years, the LNWR operated services and paid the W&RR 50% of the gross earnings of the line. Attempts were made to remedy the W&RR's financial problems by opening several freight branches; a branch was driven along the edge of Croxley Common to serve Dickinson's paper mills and the Grand Union Canal at
Croxley Green Croxley Green is both a village and a suburb of Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. It is also a civil parish. Located on the A412 between Watford to the northeast and Rickmansworth to the southwest, it is approximately northwest of centr ...
, and another short branch near Watford High Street served the warehouses of
Benskins Brewery Benskins was the pre-eminent brewery in Watford, and Hertfordshire's biggest brewer until its acquisition by Ind Coope in 1957. While Benskins has not existed as an independent company for over half a century, the brand continues to be well kno ...
. The line ran close to the
watercress Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf ve ...
beds of the
River Gade The River Gade is a river running almost entirely through Hertfordshire. It rises from a spring in the chalk of the Chiltern Hills at Dagnall, Buckinghamshire and flows through Hemel Hempstead, Kings Langley, then along the west side of Watfo ...
and a steady trade developed in transporting hampers of watercress to Watford Market, resulting in the W&RR trains being nicknamed ''"Watercress Trains"''. The
Official Receiver An officer of the Insolvency Service of the United Kingdom, an official receiver (OR) is an officer of the court to which they are attached. The OR is answerable to the courts for carrying out the courts' orders and for fulfilling their duties ...
was called in four years after opening. Despite all attempts to make Lord Ebury's railway into a commercial success, the company faced bankruptcy and in 1881 it was absorbed by its operations partner, the burgeoning LNWR.


Extension to Croxley Green

In the early 20th century, suburban railway competition was on the increase and the growing
Metropolitan Railway The Metropolitan Railway (also known as the Met) was a passenger and goods railway that served London from 1863 to 1933, its main line heading north-west from the capital's financial heart in the City to what were to become the Middlesex su ...
was steadily expanding in north-west London. Although the Metropolitan did not reach the town of Watford until 1925, the LNWR was keen to act against emerging competition and in 1908 began work on a new branch line to . The extension involved the construction of a substantial bridge over the
Grand Junction Canal The Grand Junction Canal is a canal in England from Braunston in Northamptonshire to the River Thames at Brentford, with a number of branches. The mainline was built between 1793 and 1805, to improve the route from the Midlands to London, by-p ...
. Passenger services on the new route commenced on 15 June 1912, with freight services starting on 1 October. The following year, the LNWR built a new stretch of track from Watford High Street over the River Colne to Bushey & Oxhey railway station, with another connecting line turning south towards Rickmansworth. This new, triangular junction not only created a connection between the former W&RR lines and the LNWR's ''"
New Line New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
"'', but also enabled passenger services to run directly from Croxley Green to for the first time. The semi-rural location of the Croxley Green terminus gave added credence to the LNWR's slogan "''Live in the Country''". In March 1913, Croxley Green station was burned down; it was suspected that the fire had been started deliberately by
suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...
s.


Electrification and pre-war years

Electric services were introduced over the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway on 16 April 1917 worked by tube trains of the
London Electric Railway The London Electric Railway (LER) was an underground railway company operating three lines on the London Underground. It was formed in 1910 and existed until 1933, when it was merged into the London Passenger Transport Board. History The LER wa ...
(LER) running through from Queen's Park to Watford on weekdays only until a daily service was introduced in July 1919; this was done to cope with the voltage drop caused by the branch being supplied only from the Watford end. These services were supplemented by LNWR trains from Broad Street during peak periods and steam trains from Euston. The Croxley Green branch was electrified on 30 October 1922, with Rickmansworth following in September 1927 as part of the LNWR's New Line Project. With the vesting of the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway in the
London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...
(LMSR) in 1923, the nine joint LNWR/LER electric tube cars became known as "watercress trains" due to the volume of
watercress Watercress or yellowcress (''Nasturtium officinale'') is a species of aquatic flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Watercress is a rapidly growing perennial plant native to Europe and Asia. It is one of the oldest known leaf ve ...
gathered in the
Chess Valley The River Chess is a chalk stream that rises near Chesham in the Chiltern Hills, and flows for through Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire to its confluence with the River Colne in Rickmansworth. The Chess, along with the Colne and Gade, gi ...
that the trains often carried in their luggage compartments. The stock was finally withdrawn in 1939 with the introduction of emergency war timetables and replaced with main line size electric stock.


Rolling stock


Decline and closure


Rickmansworth branch

Notwithstanding the introduction of electric services, the Rickmansworth branch suffered in the face of the more direct services to London provided by the Metropolitan. Traffic was also eroded by the increased bus competition and private car ownership. Passenger services ceased in 1952 and most of the branch closed entirely in 1960 although track remained in place for a number of years afterwards. Rickmansworth (Church Street) railway station and the tracks leading to it continued to be used for goods services until 1967 when it was completely closed and the line cut back to one of the intermediate freight sidings. It served a papermill near Croxley Green between circa 1940 and circa 1984, as OS maps of the time show. Today the track has been removed and the platforms and station buildings have been demolished. A considerable length of the trackbed is now used as the Ebury Way Cycle Path.


Croxley Green branch

Although identified in the
Beeching Report Beeching is an English surname. Either a derivative of the old English ''bece'', ''bæce'' "stream", hence "dweller by the stream" or of the old English ''bece'' "beech-tree" hence "dweller by the beech tree".''Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames' ...
for closure, consent was refused and a peak service was run for many years along the Croxley Green branch. In the 1980s, attempts were made to revive the fortunes of the Croxley Green branch: a special football station, , was built in 1982 for the use of football supporters visiting
Watford FC Watford Football Club is an English professional football club based in Watford, Hertfordshire. They play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club’s original foundation is 1881, aligned with that of its antecede ...
, although it was only used when Watford were playing at home. In 1988, a twice-hourly daytime service was introduced to further revitalise the line, but this was abandoned in May 1993 and services were reduced to one 6.00am return working from Watford Junction on weekdays — a
parliamentary train A parliamentary train was a passenger service operated in the United Kingdom to comply with the Railway Regulation Act 1844 that required train companies to provide inexpensive and basic rail transport for less affluent passengers. The act requ ...
, run specially to avoid the costly process of officially closing the line. The facilities at the two principal stations along the route, and Watford West were significantly downgraded in the late 1980s and early 1990s.The covered platform at Croxley Green was removed in 1989 and replaced with a temporary scaffolding platform with no protection from the elements. Watford West's booking office was demolished leaving an open concrete concourse and gate. At both stations the covered staircases were demolished and replaced with open stairways. In March 1996, services to Croxley Green ceased when the construction of the new dual-carriageway Ascot Road severed the route between and Croxley Green. As the line was mothballed rather than formally closed the stations, along with the track, street-level signage and the remaining station facilities, were abandoned rather than demolished, and, apart from the scaffolding platform at Croxley Green, remained in situ for many years. The branch was not formally closed until 2003.


Metropolitan line extension

A proposed scheme known as the
Croxley Rail Link The Croxley Rail Link, or the Metropolitan Line Extension, is a proposed railway engineering project in the Watford and Three Rivers districts of Hertfordshire, England, that would have connected the London Overground and the London Undergrou ...
was announced in 2010 by the
Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...
which planned to extend the
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent ceremonial counties of England, counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and He ...
Metropolitan line The Metropolitan line, colloquially known as the Met, is a London Underground line between in the City of London and and in Buckinghamshire, with branches to in Hertfordshire and in Hillingdon. Printed in magenta on the tube map, the line i ...
to Watford Junction by re-opening a section of the Croxley branch of the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway, with two new Tube stations, and . The scheme was cancelled in 2018 due to funding problems.


References


Sources

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External links


CartoMetro map of the Watford area
{{Railway lines in London Early British railway companies Rail transport in Hertfordshire Croxley Rail Link Railway companies established in 1860 Railway lines opened in 1862 Railway companies disestablished in 1881 London and North Western Railway Rickmansworth 1860 establishments in England