Gas Factory Junction
Gas Factory Junction in Bow is where the LTSR's 1858 cut-off route to Barking was opened from the London & Blackwall Railway's 1849 Bow branch to reduce the payment of tolls for LTSR trains running on GER metals (Eastern Counties Railway before 1862) between Stratford and Forest Gate Junction. A local passenger service over the Gas Factory Junction to Bow Junction section, where the line from Stepney met the GER line from Liverpool Street, ceased in 1949 including the closure of Bow Road station, although the nearby LU station remains open. This section is now singled but has been electrified to provide an all-electric link between the Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street lines and can be used for emergency diversions of present day C2C trains. The first railtour I went on, on 21st October 1967, was an East London Railtour organised by the RCTS that started at Fenchurch Street and travelled along this section, passing through the old Bow Road station that had at that stage been shut for 18 years. Its platform remains and stairwells on a high embankment are still there today while the former ticket office at street level now operates as a betting office. This view is from a C2C service to Fenchurch Street, about to join the part of the Bow branch still in regular use as it approaches Gas Factory Junction with the line through Bow Road going off to the north on the left.
Location: Gas Factory Junction
Original line: Stepney to Bow Junction Line (Blackwall Railway)
Photographer: David Bosher
Contact photographer: David Bosher
Date: 08/07/2021
Image number: 77626
