[Source: Nick Catford] Uxbridge Belmont Road Station: Gallery 2
c1904 - 1934 old2.jpg)
A somewhat whimsical view, likely a painting used for a postcard scene from the hill on Belmont Road. There is a lot of artistic licence here. The oil lamps are not present and electric lighting has been installed, yet the track is devoid of current (conductor) rails. Wagons sit on the Down running line adjacent to the signal box and the station approach road appears to miss the station building entirely. The two lamps alongside the approach road are positioned the wrong way round. Park Road bridge stands in the left background and although much rebuilt, trains still pass beneath it today to and from the present station and sidings.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection old10.jpg)
This tranquil view, with the only sign of life being a horse and cart, was taken close to the junction of York Road and Belmont Road. The station entrance is on the right, at the end of a fairly lengthy, 100 yards or thereabouts, approach road. Steps were also provided from Belmont Road, being the structure with white fencing beyond the advertisement hoarding. A few more clip-clops and the horse and cart will pass Mead Road which, due to camera angle, is all-but invisible. The Metropolitan Railway poster has not been identified but it is reasonably clear what it is promoting - the new electric trains bursting out of a tunnel into the countryside. The bottom poster appears to be timetable information.
Photo from John Mann collection old14.jpg) The fencing on the right looks to be in quite shabby condition but allowances have to be made for the varying quality of photographs of this age. The view is thought date from around the time electric trains took over from steam. Both oil and electric lighting is present, suggesting the steam-to-electric transition, and the photograph implies the far end of the canopy has become soot stained. The fencing on the right would soon become home to advertising. Wagons can be seen in the goods yard along with the goods shed. The site of what would become the present Uxbridge station is largely out of view in the right background. The vantage point is the hill on Belmont Road and the station approach road, centre right, can be seen at street level in another view.Photo from John Mann collection old19.jpg) A vista from aloft across the station and part of the goods yard in 1929. For orientation purposes this view faces north with Belmont Road passing diagonally across top left and York Road diagonally from left toward the bottom right. Not immediately obvious is that a train has just arrived at the Down platform, the main telltale being the scattering of people walking away from the station along the approach road. Dominating the scene is the warehouse of Messrs. Alfred Button & Sons Ltd., wholesale grocers. Button referred to these premises as their 'Metropolitan Depot' and they also had retail premises at 33 High Street, Uxbridge. The 'short cut' steps down from Belmont Road can be seen top, left of centre and a number of road motor vehicles including what were probably two taxis beside the station building can also be seen. The coal depot, bottom right, has a nameboard on its roof. The second part of the name appears to be 'Ramsey' but no trace of a coal merchant by that or a very similar name has been found. Click here for a larger version.
Photo from Britain From Above, reproduced with permission old20.jpg) Facing south-east, again in 1929. with Belmont Road running left to right across the bottom of the picture. This time we can see the goods yard in its entirety. The electrified siding running behind the signal box can be discerned and this siding also served Button's warehouse where some wagons can be seen alongside the awning where there would have been a goods platform. The current rails on this, No. 1, siding end short of the warehouse at the barrow crossing. Why this siding was electrified is unconfirmed but probably for rolling stock stabling overnight. Just outside Button's warehouse is a crossover connecting Nos. 1 & 2 sidings and it is thought likely Button's traffic used No. 2 siding, which has a goods loading gauge, upon which shunting and uncoupling could be performed away from the current rails. At left centre can be seen a yard crane on a circular plinth. The capacity of this crane is unknown. To the right of the crane is the Metropolitan goods shed, a fairly typical brick-built structure which likely would have contained another crane, perhaps of 1½ tons capacity. The design of the second shed, towards top right, indicates that it was quite obviously used by a coal merchant but also suggests not only coal was handled. Many such businesses were coal and corn, or coal and some other commodity, merchants. A rake of coal wagons is on the siding serving this shed; most wagons are private owner but two LMS wagons are also present. Behind the LMS wagon, fifth from right, is a horse-drawn road van - the only horse-drawn vehicle which can be seen among various types of motor vehicle. BP (British Petroleum) had a small facility at Belmont Road and this can be seen towards the top and left of centre. There are two rows of two storage tanks each with a hut at their west ends. There is a single tank wagon, coupled to an open wagon, stabled opposite. Click here for a larger version.
Photo from Britain From Above, reproduced with permission old17.jpg) Once again in 1929 and this time facing east, we have a good view of the station approach from Belmont Road. The arched sign above the entrance reads 'METROPOLITAN RAILWAY' and would have been in serif font. One curiosity appears in these aerial views which is especially obvious in this one. The track into the Up platform is either unused or little used and the polished railheads of the crossover and track into the Down platform strongly suggest all or most trains were using this platform. The idea had been for Metropolitan trains to use the Down platform, i.e. that with the station building, with the somewhat short-lived District trains and then Piccadilly trains using the Up platform. The apparent disuse, or only occasional use, of the Up platform would explain why one photograph on these pages shows a Piccadilly train at the Down platform. One can only assume service frequencies permitted use of the Down platform for all trains, which would have been more convenient for both passengers and staff. All that is known about this is what can be seen in photographs although some photographs, taken from 1933 onwards, do show trains in both platforms. Click here for a larger version.
Photo from Britain From Above, reproduced with permission old3.jpg)
A train of Standard Tube Stock, destination Wood Green, waits at Belmont Road sometime in 1933 after, of course, the Piccadilly Line had replaced the District service to Uxbridge. The problem of tube trains using platforms designed for normal height trains is evident. The train is a 3-car unit formed Driving Motor - Trailer - Control Trailer (DM - T - CT) with 'Control Trailer' being Underground parlance for what everybody else called 'Driving Trailer'. Click here for a more detailed caption.
Photo from John Mann collection old4.jpg)
This photograph is dated, inconveniently, to 1933 and we have no way of knowing if this was before or after the creation of the London Passenger Transport Board (London Transport) although the train on the right still carries a Metropolitan Railway Coat of Arms. This train is formed of '1904 Stock' but in rebuilt form. This stock was originally end loading with gated but otherwise open platforms, in other words 'Gate Stock'. This arrangement was also used on early tube stock but on the largely open air Metropolitan it proved most unsatisfactory. Quite why this problem was apparently not foreseen at the design stage is a mystery. From 1906 this stock was rebuilt with enclosed passenger vestibules and hand-operated sliding doors roughly midway along the body sides as seen here. The 1904 Stock was sometimes lumped-in with the successive 1905/6 Stock but these later batches had, for the time, a rather more modern appearance. Just one car, a trailer, of 1904 Stock has survived by virtue of it being sold to the Army. At the time of writing it awaited restoration by the London Transport Museum, having suffered fire damage. Even when allowing for age, this photograph is in poor condition and the Piccadilly Line Standard Tube Stock unit on the left looks like it has had much of its roof crushed. Damage has also rendered the destination plates of both trains unreadable but with some degree of trouble it has been possible to determine the Piccadilly train is heading for Arnos Grove and of the Metropolitan train only the second word is readable, 'Lane', so presumably Rayners Lane.
Photo from John Mann collection old5.jpg) For enthusiasts of the Underground system this view from 23 October 1933 is more interesting than it may initially appear. This was the first day of Piccadilly trains to Uxbridge, they having taken over from the District service as an extension from Ealing Common which the Piccadilly had reached from Hammersmith on 4 July 1932. The District Railway service to Uxbridge had began in 1910 as shuttle from South Harrow, using single motor cars with two ordinary trailers. This meant the motor car, in which the driver was located, was pushing in one direction. This most unsatisfactory arrangement ceased abruptly when the Board of Trade found out, following which sets with trailers sandwiched between two motor cars were used. At Belmont Road Metropolitan trains used the Down platform and District/Piccadilly trains the Up platform, this being evident in this photograph. The Piccadilly train is a 7-car Standard Tube Stock formation. In the early London Transport period these trains were given 'PICCADILLY LINE' branding on the sides of the motor cars above the motor bogies. This branding does not appear to present in this view but the 'UndergrounD' branding is present midway along the bodyside. This would in due course be replaced by 'London Transport' branding. 'Underground' came from the title of the London Electric Railway's parent, Underground Electric Railways of London. Note the destination plate of the tube train displays 'East Barnet', a name which never appeared on a station. The actual station is now Oakwood. This station was built in what was at the time an undeveloped area and there was much debate about what to call it. Two contenders were 'East Barnet' and 'Enfield West' the station being opened as 'Enfield West' before being renamed 'Enfield West (Oakwood)'. In 1946 it was renamed again to simply 'Oakwood'. These destination plates were manufactured well in advance, which explains the existence of 'East Barnet' plates. 'Enfield West' plates were also produced. The reason for the displaying of 'East Barnet' in the photograph can only be guessed at. The Metropolitan train is formed of converted Ashbury steam-hauled stock. At the time of electrification the Metropolitan Railway found itself with a surplus of still-perfectly-serviceable steam stock so set about converting some for electric operation. These conversions were known as M (7-car) and N (8-car) Stock, not to be confused with the later M and N Stock which was ultimately absorbed into the Q Stock fleet. Eventually, in 1941, some of the Ashbury stock was converted back to hauled stock and was used, steam hauled, on the Chesham branch until this was electrified in 1960. Four Ashbury cars entered preservation on the Bluebell Railway and have been seen in London for special events such as the 'Met 150' celebrations in 2013.
Photo from Edward Burgess collection old24.jpg) Piccadilly, left, and Metropolitan Line, right, trains pose at Belmont Road during London Transport days. The train of Standard Tube Stock is bound for Cockfosters, which station had opened on 31 July 1933 with the London Passenger Transport Board coming into existence of the first of that month. In comparison with the photographs from 1933 it will be seen, behind the tube train, that a different design of roundel has been installed. The early batches of Standard Tube Stock were not fitted, when new, with windscreen wipers. This would not have been a problem at the time tube lines were predominantly in tunnel but once lines extended on the surface it was a problem which had to be dealt with. The somewhat clumsy wiper arrangement seen here was probably experimental. Later arrangements were altogether neater and wipers, when not in use, were concealed behind vertical steel plates. Until the latter half of the 20th century tube trains were 'handed' and that is the purpose of the letter 'A'. The other end of the train was the 'D' end and units could only couple A end to D end. As with the '15' displayed on the Met. train, '13' was the train number used by staff to identify specific trains in accordance with the Working Timetable. The Met. train is one of the units of M/N Stock converted from steam-hauled stock. The Driving Motor car is at the other end and thus we are here looking at the Driving Trailer end. How the conversion was undertaken is quite obvious, the driving cab merely occupying what had been a passenger compartment. Note the much neater windscreen wiper arrangement and the air whistle at the bottom corner of the driver's windscreen, also the safety chains fitted to both units. Air whistles are still fitted to Underground trains to this day, with their familiar and somewhat 'watery' sound. The staff member posing for the camera wears a London Transport cap badge of a style suggesting he was of higher rank than that of motorman (driver), perhaps inspector or stationmaster.Photo from John Mann collection old6.jpg)
The station building seen from the forecourt in January 1934. The scene is surprisingly quiet and the photograph was probably taken deliberately at such a time to obtain an unobstructed view. The lorry on the right bears the hallmarks of being ex-First World War military surplus with enclosed cab added.
Photo
from London Transport Museum
old7.jpg) A similar but closer view to that of January 1934, this one dating from April 1934. What was possibly the same lorry as in the earlier view can be seen on the right but this time a second lorry, or van, is present, its nearside rear being just visible. There appears to be a proliferation of the same advertisement on all but the board on the side wall, which latter probably displayed timetable information for trains as well as for trams and omnibuses. At this time Uxbridge was served by tram route 7 from Shepherds Bush, replaced by the 607 trolleybus on 15 November 1936. Not immediately obvious from this view is that the 'Metropolitan Railway notice board headers have had 'London Transport' plates (or stickers) placed over them.Photo from London Transport Museum Click here for Uxbridge Belmont Road Station: Gallery 3
1934 - July 2005
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