METROPOLIITAN RAILWAY CENTENARY

To mark the opening of the Harrow and Uxbridge Railway in the summer of 1904, the Company issued a booklet entitled a
"Descriptive Sketch" of the line. To mark the centenary of this event we print some paragraphs from this commemorative booklet.


  The Harrow and Uxbridge Railway is intended  to be worked electrically, and has the 
  distinction of being one of the first sections of standard railway in Great Britain 
  laid out from the outset for electric traction.  The power will be obtained from the 
  Metropolitan Company's extensive generating station at Neasden, which is rapidly 
  approaching completion; but as current will not be available immediately on the opening 
  of the new line, the train service will be worked for a short time by steam traction 
  with ordinary rolling stock.

  The Harrow and Uxbridge Railway leaves the Baker Street to Aylesbury line of the 
  Metropolitan Railway about half a mile west of Harrow.  Rayner's Lane Junction is a mile 
  from here, and at this point the line is joined by the branch connecting with the District
  Railway at South Harrow, which is also a mile in length, mostly laid on viaduct. Uxbridge
  Station is five miles distant from Rayner's Lane Junction, Ruislip Station being about
  equidistant between these two points.   The total length of the Harrow and Uxbridge line is
  thus seven miles, the main line from Harrow Junction to Uxbridge being just six miles.

  It may be interesting to briefly describe the chief attractions connected with the undertaking.   
  At Uxbridge the station buildings are ample, commodious, and withal artistic.  A spacious
  carriage-way leads down to the station, and access to the platform is gained by means of a 
  spacious booking hall, opening out of which on the one side are the ladies' waiting rooms, 
  and on the other the booking and parcels offices.  The usual waiting rooms, lavatory, station
  master's office and porters' and store rooms open on to the main platform, which will be able
  to accommodate all the trains that will use the station under ordinary conditions of working.   
  The main platform is well sheltered by the usual verandah type of roof, with glass skylights, 
  and there is an additional platform, provided with a shelter, for use in case of necessity.  
  A commodious refreshment room has been included in the station buildings; and the red brick 
  used throughout in the construction imparts to the station a particularly pleasing appearance.

  To the right of the passenger station a very large goods-yard with extensive sidings has been 
  laid out.   A small covered goods station has also been erected, designed so as to be easily 
  extended if required.   Access to the goods-yard is obtained from the highway by a cart road 
  quite separate from that leading to the passenger station.   Goods and passenger traffic is 
  provided for, and the latter is capable of very great expansion, and this will no doubt take
  place as the surrounding country is developed into new residential districts. As regards goods 
  traffic the system will, by means of the Metropolitan Railway and its connections with the 
  Midland Railway at Finchley Road, the Great Central Railway at Quainton Road, and the London 
  and North-Western Railway at Verney Junction, be brought into direct communication with all 
  parts of Britain.
     

  With the exception of the long viaduct on the South Harrow branch, the only heavy work on the
  line was the cutting, which is entered just after leaving Uxbridge. Only one retaining wall 
  has however been found necessary.  The construction of the Park Road bridge, which spans this 
  cutting, was a somewhat difficult work.  The bridge, which carries one of the main roads out 
  of Uxbridge over the railway, is four-arched and of handsome appearance.

  Near Ruislip Station is situated the one sub-station necessary for the working of the railway.   
  It was built by the contractors, Messrs Bott and Stennett, and the sub-station machinery 
  with all electrical plant has been supplied and erected by the British Westinghouse Electric
  and Manufacturing Company Limited of Norfolk Street, Strand, London, and Trafford Park,
  Manchester. Provision has been made at both Uxbridge and Ruislip Stations for electric lighting,
  and as soon as the power station at Neasden is working, the stations, as well as the goods yard
  at Uxbridge, will be lighted by electricity.

Click this image to read invitation
Click on image to read

The new railway, which will be opened for public traffic on Monday, July 4th 1904, forms an important link connecting West Middlesex with London, and should prove a great boon to the inhabitants of Uxbridge, a town of some consequence standing fifteen miles from London on one of the principal highways leading direct to the metropolis. A splendid district is opened up, which should rapidly become popular as a delightful and healthful suburb of London. Uxbridge stands just outside the Buckinghamshire border, being divided from that county only by the river Colne, and the country around is picturesque.
* Our thanks to Ruth Simpson for making this original invitation available.

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