[4] The engineer of the line was intended to be John Rennie, but the project's City financiers favoured Robert Stephenson, believing that they would also benefit from the knowledge and wisdom of his respected father George.

Although, because of the terms of the act of Parliament, Robert Stephenson had to follow Rennie's route and use the obscure track gauge of 5 ft 1⁄2 in (1,537 mm),[5][3] he was free to choose his own method of propulsion.

Drawing on his experience with the Camden Incline on the London and Birmingham Railway he decided upon cable haulage from stationary steam engines.

The railway was on brick arches as far as the West India Docks, and then on an embankment before entering a shallow cutting near the Blackwall terminus at Brunswick Wharf.

[6] The line opened on 6 July 1840, and the company changed its name to the London and Blackwall Railway on completion of an extension to Fenchurch Street, just within the City boundary, in 1841.

To save money railmotors acquired from the Great Western Railway were introduced in 1922, but nonetheless passenger services east of Stepney to North Greenwich and Blackwall were ceased on 3 May 1926 as a result of competition from trams.

[Note 2][9][10] John Betjeman (1906–1984), in his book First and Last Loves (published 1952), wrote of a journey on the L&BR (most likely in the years just before closure): Those frequent and quite empty trains of the Blackwall Railway ran from a special platform at Fenchurch Street.

The junction at Stepney was disconnected in 1951, so that the only remaining access to the Blackwall Branch was from the LBER via the Limehouse Curve, and this was abandoned in 1963 (last train ran 5 November 1962).

[Note 3] When the Docklands Light Railway opened in 1987, it reused much of the L&BR line between Minories (renamed Tower Gateway) and Westferry Road.

"Slipping" and "pinning" (attaching) was controlled from an open platform at whichever end of a car was leading, using levers connected to iron grips (acting vertically against blocks beneath the carriage floor).