JRS: In article , dated Mon, 13 Dec 2004
14:54:09, seen in news:uk.transport.london, Paul Terry
posted :
In message
ailgate.org, Troy
Steadman writes

Immediately to the north of the current line from New Malden to Raynes
Park is a "ghost" line, bridged and laid out as if for rails and now
connecting IMMSMC the former Water Works at Berrylands to London. Do you
know anything about that one?

On 19th-century maps it is an embankment marked "Lambeth Water Company"
- see http://www.old-maps.co.uk/ and look up New Malden.

I suspect it is simply a water main from the riverside reservoirs at
Surbiton (Long Ditton) up towards the company's reservoirs at Streatham
and Brixton - and that it just happens to be above ground at this point.
I can't see any sign that there was ever a railway on top of this
embankment - rather the railway and water main were built side-by-side.

There is indeed a water route along there; pipes can be seen at Elm Road
level crossing. Water can generally be seen escaping into Coombe Road
just north of the railway bridge, and from time to time appears in bulk
there, instead of in the local plumbing.

IIRC, there is a fair-sized aperture under the A3, just to the north of
that used by the main line - adequate for at least one track.

But I don't recall there being room for more tracks on the trackbed
under the Alric Road - Dukes Avenue footbridge, though there is land
between the trackbed and the properties to the north.

--
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