Uxbridge (Vine Street) branch line

Uxbridge had enjoyed the benefit to its trade of a location on the London to Oxford coach route before the railway came.

[1][2] The Great Western Railway was appealed to for help, and the following year, on 22 July 1847 the GWR obtained powers to take over the 1846 scheme itself.

The branch line was to be short, but work did not proceed promptly, and it was not until powers for a deviation of the route near Uxbridge were obtained in 1853 that a start was made.

[3] The GWR undertook the conversion of the gauge of its railway in the area in 1871 and the branch itself was closed from Friday 6 to Monday 9 October 1871; a road service to and from West Drayton was provided during the closure.

The local trips on the branch were worked by push and pull trains, mostly giving good connections at West Drayton.

[1][2][4] From 1901 a street-running tramway service was operated from Uxbridge to Shepherd's Bush, and this made serious inroads into the business of the branch.

[2][3] It was reduced to a single freight only track on 18 October 1962 and was closed to all traffic north of the Grand Union Canal on 13 July 1964.

[2] A short (approximately 745 yards) section from West Drayton Station to the Middlesex Oil and Chemical Works in Yiewsley continued in use until 8 January 1979.

[3] The stretch of land alongside Brunel University where the track ran was sold by the local council upon the line's closure to the college as it was at the time, for £65,000.