On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:55:34 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

This seems to have been promoted by a separate company,
the 'Tooting, Merton & Wimbledon', but sold out to the
LSWR and LB&SCR jointly before opening. It originally had
two routes between Wimbledon and Tooting, the current one
used by Thameslink via Haydons Road, and one that took the
Tramlink route to Merton Park then looped via Merton Abbey
to Tooting. From Tooting the route to Ludgate Hill was the
Thameslink route via Streatham, Tulse Hill, Herne
Hill and Elephant & Castle to Ludgate Hill.

But why was the now abandoned route ever built at all?

To make a terminal loop for operational efficiency?

--
Peter Lawrence

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.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. DOS 3.3, 6.20; Win98. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links.
PAS EXE TXT ZIP via URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/00index.htm
My DOS URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/batfiles.htm - also batprogs.htm.

"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:55:34 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

This seems to have been promoted by a separate company,
the 'Tooting, Merton & Wimbledon', but sold out to the
LSWR and LB&SCR jointly before opening. It originally had
two routes between Wimbledon and Tooting, the current one
used by Thameslink via Haydons Road, and one that took the
Tramlink route to Merton Park then looped via Merton Abbey
to Tooting. From Tooting the route to Ludgate Hill was the
Thameslink route via Streatham, Tulse Hill, Herne
Hill and Elephant & Castle to Ludgate Hill.

But why was the now abandoned route ever built at all?

To make a terminal loop for operational efficiency?

I doubt that - it wasn't done anywhere else. In particular, a terminal loop
with multiple stations means that passengers are unhappy if the train waits
a long time on the loop, meaning that trains would have to spend most or all
of their recovery time at the Central London terminus instead, and their
isn't room for that unless you have huge Central London termini where land
is very expensive.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:39:51 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:

"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:55:34 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

This seems to have been promoted by a separate company,
the 'Tooting, Merton & Wimbledon', but sold out to the
LSWR and LB&SCR jointly before opening. It originally had
two routes between Wimbledon and Tooting, the current one
used by Thameslink via Haydons Road, and one that took the
Tramlink route to Merton Park then looped via Merton Abbey
to Tooting. From Tooting the route to Ludgate Hill was the
Thameslink route via Streatham, Tulse Hill, Herne
Hill and Elephant & Castle to Ludgate Hill.

But why was the now abandoned route ever built at all?

To make a terminal loop for operational efficiency?

I doubt that - it wasn't done anywhere else. In particular, a terminal loop
with multiple stations means that passengers are unhappy if the train waits
a long time on the loop, meaning that trains would have to spend most or all
of their recovery time at the Central London terminus instead, and their
isn't room for that unless you have huge Central London termini where land
is very expensive.

The LBSC I believe ran London Bridge to London Bridge services via
Crystal Palace and via Selhurst. And the LSWR had (and their
sucessors still have) the Hounslow and Kingston loops. So both
companies had som experience of loop services.

Alternatively their aims may have been different, LSWR wanting a
connection to the City and the LBSC wishing to serve more suburbs like
Merton.
--
Peter Lawrence

"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 18:39:51 -0000, "John Rowland"
wrote:

"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message
...

To make a terminal loop for operational efficiency?

I doubt that - it wasn't done anywhere else.

[...] London Bridge to London Bridge services via
Crystal Palace and via Selhurst
[...] the Hounslow and Kingston loops.

blush Forgot about them.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes