The Twickenham Museum
Exhibitions : Road Rail and River

Railways
The London and South Western Railway Company arrived in Twickenham in 1848

Twickenham station opened in 1848 when the railway was extended from Richmond to Windsor. Originally the station was on the west side of the bridge, as here, but was rebuilt on the east side of the bridge in 1954

In 1848 the London and South Western Railway Company arrived in Twickenham. Using its powers of compulsory purchase it had acquired a stretch of land from the Cole family of brewers. This land stretched between the River Crane and Amyand Park Road from Winchester Road to London Road for the line. It also bought six cottages on the western side of London Road for an access road (now Railway Approach) to the station, originally situated on that side of the London Road.

The staff at Teddington Station lined up with a milk churn and freight ready to load onto a train

The branch line to Hampton Court opened on 1st February 1894. In 1863 a line from Twickenham reached Kingston and Teddington, and Hampton Wick stations opened. The Thames Valley line (or Shepperton branch) opened on 1st November 1864 and stations included Fulwell and Hampton. Initially it was single track but was doubled when Kempton Park opened to race traffic in 1878. A station was added to the Kingston branch at Strawberry Hill and opened on 1st December 1873. The station at St Margaret's opened in 1876. The inhabitants of Whitton had to put up with Hounslow station (then called 'Hounslow and Whitton') from 1850 until the new Whitton station was opened in 1930.

Shunting carriages at Teddington Station in July 1950

Construction was massively disruptive. In Teddington, for example, this divided the village for over two years until the mound and a road bridge over the railway track was built linking High Street to Broad Street again. The completed railway brought many people to Teddington to buy or rent property. Passengers could now travel to Waterloo and the City. This combination of available land and good transport links saw the population rise by 240% in the decade to 1871.

A view of an electric train at Hampton Court station. The line had been electrified in 1916

The increase in population led to the expansion of the tramways, and trams arrived locally in 1902 and 1903. Electrification came locally in 1916 and 1917. Transition to the Southern Railway in 1923 and to British Railways in 1948 had little effect on passenger services but freight facilities were largely withdrawn in the 1960s. Privatisation introduced South West Trains.

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