Watford and Rickmansworth Railway

The Watford and Rickmansworth Railway Company (WRR) was a short-lived company that ran services between Watford and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, England. It was incorporated in 1860 and the line actually opened in 1862.

Lord Ebury's railway

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. 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. [Cite book | author=Welbourn, N. | authorlink= | coauthors= | title=Lost Lines London | date=1998 | publisher=Ian Allen Ltd | location=Shepperton, Surrey | isbn=0-711026-23-8 | pages=p. 110] The line had two other stations at Watford Junction and Watford High Street and its depot was situated on Wiggenhall Road in Watford. A further Parliamentary authorisation was obtained a year later to construct an extension from Rickmansworth to Uxbridge to connect with the Great Western Railway's Uxbridge branch, but this was never realised. [Cite book | author=Davies, R. | authorlink= | coauthors=Grant, M.D. | title=Chilterns and Cotswolds (Forgotten Railways) | date=1984 | publisher=David St John Thomas | location=Newton Abbot, Devon | isbn=0-946537-07-0 | pages=p. 35]

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). [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D. (1984), p. 35.] 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 (LNWR) who paid the WRR 50% of the gross earnings of the line. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D. (1984), p. 36.]

The railway was never particularly financially successful and the Official Receiver was called in only four years after opening. [Welbourn, N. (1998), p. 110.] Attempts had been made to remedy their financial problems by opening several freight branches, the most notable being to the Croxley printers and to the Grand Union Canal at Croxley Green. The company was eventually absorbed in 1881 by the burgeoning LNWR whose station it shared at Watford Junction.

Extension to Croxley Green

Anxious of the growing influence of the Metropolitan Railway in north-west London, the LNWR added a short branch line to Croxley Green. Works commenced in 1908 and the new route opened in June 1912. The semi-rural location of the Croxley Green terminus gave added credence to the LNWR's slogan "Live in the Country". The extension involved the construction of a substantial bridge over the Grand Union Canal. In March 1913 Croxley Green station was burned down by suffragettes. [Welbourn, N. (1998), p. 111.]

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 (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. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D. (1984), p. 37-38.]

With the vesting of the Watford and Rickmansworth Railway in the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSR) in 1923, the nine joint LNWR/LER electric tube cars became known as "watercress trains" due to the volume of watercress gathered in the Chess Valley 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. [Davies, R. and Grant, M.D. (1984), p. 38.]

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 afterward. A considerable length of the trackbed is now used by the Ebury Way Cycle Path. [Welbourn, N. (1998), p. 112.]

Croxley Green branch

Although identified in the Beeching Report for closure, consent was refused and a peak service was run for many years. In 1988, an attempt was made to revive the fortunes of the Croxley Green branch by running a twice hourly daytime service; this was abandoned in 1990 and services were reduced to one 7.00am return working from Watford Junction on weekdays only. [ [http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~gsgleaves/brm.htm North London Electrification] ] In 1996 a new road cut the route between Watford West and Croxley Green and services were replaced by a bus, and then by an occasional taxi.

Future

There are current proposals (with much discussion but so far little physical evidence of a practical end) to incorporate most of the Croxley Green branch into a diversion of the Watford branch of the London Underground (LU) Metropolitan Line to Watford Junction station.

It was envisaged in 2005 that the link would be operational by 2010, [cite web
url=http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/4137.aspx|title=Croxley Rail Link project on track|publisher=Transport for London|date=2005-02-10|accessdate=2008-07-28] but difficulties in securing funding caused the project to be postponed. [cite news|url=http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/2153485.croxley_rail_link_hits_the_sidings/|title=Croxley Rail Link hits the Sidings|date=2008-03-29|publisher=Watford Observer|accessdate=2008-07-24]

ervices that never happened

As well as current plans involving extension of the LU Metropolitan line, there have been other propositions involving the WRR:-

As part of the proposals for the unbuilt Watford and Edgware Railway, the line could have been extended onwards from Rickmansworth in the direction of High Wycombe. At one point there was also a plan to create a west London bypass railway from Staines to Watford, via West Drayton and Denham.

References