History
The EC&TJR opened in 1846, from Stratford to Canning Town, to transport coal to the mouth of Bow Creek. A year later it was extended to North Woolwich via West Silvertown, allowing connections with the Woolwich Ferry; the same year it was taken over by the Eastern Counties Railway.
The original line went south, but when the Royal Victoria Dock opened in 1855 the line between Canning Town and North Woolwich had to be equipped with a swingbridge over the entrance to the dock, which slowed down journey times. In response, the line was rerouted north of the dock through two new stations, at Custom House and Tidal Basin. The south loop remained in service for local factories and was renamed the Silvertown Tramway.
After the construction of the Albert Dock, with the same problem envisaged on the route to Silvertown, in 1878 the railway built the new 600 metres (2,000 ft) cut and cover Connaught tunnel (aka Silvertown tunnel or Albert Dock tunnel), at the new docks entrance; it emerges on the eastern side just short of the old Tate & Lyle factory. In 1935, after it was discovered that larger ships entering the docks were scraping the roof of the tunnel, an iron casing was placed along the section which passed under the dock.
Several branches were opened in due course; in 1872 the Gas Light and Coke Company opened a branch running north-east to Beckton (not the current site of Beckton DLR station) to serve its gasworks there; in 1880, as the Royal Albert Dock opened, an extension to Gallions opened, running due east along the north edge of the dock, all the way to the shore of the River Thames on the far side of the dock. Both of these branches left the main line at Custom House. At the same time, the line was connected to the Palace Gates Line to Palace Gates (Wood Green) in North London, and regular services between North Woolwich and Palace Gates operated. The line was quadrupled between Stratford Market and Tidal Basin in stages by 1892, though the western pair of tracks gradually became less used over the years.
Read more about this topic: Eastern Counties And Thames Junction Railway
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