Uxbridge Vine Street station in July 1960, showing the platform canopy which had replaced the dilapidated trainshed in 1933. Two of the angled BR totems can be seen on the right with further examples beneath the canopy; the stranger arriving at Vine Street by train in BR days could make no mistake over where he or she was. On the platform, what appears to be a large pile of mailbags waits on the platform. The short platform on the right was never used by passengers and seems to been used mostly for parcels traffic; in later years one of the Gloucester Motor Parcels Vans could often be seen at the platform. There was a corresponding platform on the left, but this was cut back as part of the 1933 alterations. The remains of it are here hidden by the railcar, which is one of the 1941 cars assembled at Swindon. It is said that this batch of railcars broke away from the streamlined styling of the original design due to wartime constraints but may have as much to do with the fitting of proper buffing and drawgear which was lacking on the streamlined cars with the exception of No.18 which in essence was an experimental one-off which although to the earlier streamlined style (No.18 was built in 1937) did have a slight hint of what was to become the 1941 style about it. With the possible exception of No.1 which was somewhat underpowered having but a single engine, the GWR diesel railcars were highly successful, that is unless they were catching fire - something they had a penchant for doing, and the final examples lasted in service until October 1962. The railcars shared Vine Street duties with the BR-built railcars and it was not uncommon to see a BR single unit crossing an ex-GWR railcar at Cowley. The number of the railcar seen in this view was unrecorded but by knowing the date of the photograph and which railcars were still active at Southall shed at this time it would be one of four; Nos. 21, 27, 30 or 31.
Photo from John Mann collection
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