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Last updated 01/11/2006

R.o.B Industrial Railways
The Hampton and Kempton Park Waterworks Railway

Including:

The LSWR Metropolitan and Thames Valley Railway
(SR Thames Valley Line: Strawberry Hill to Shepperton)
Kempton Park station

Water is essential to everyday life today but at one time it was not considered to be as much so as it is now. By 1851 over half of the population of Britain lived in towns or cities, the nation going from agriculture to industry the latter requiring large amounts of people to keep the mills and factories working farming requiring less with the changes brought about by the agricultural revolution. The only problem was the larger the town or city the lesser the life expectancy due to disease. People would rarely wash themselves or even their clothing with disease being commonplace throughout the country. This was exacerbated by dirty water taken from polluted wells, pumps and rivers without prior treatment and people using this often dirty water for cooking and drinking and the making of alcohol which most people drank due to its essentially having been treated by the distillation process. Though it had always been acknowledged that dirty water was a large cause of Cholera and other diseases it was not necessarily known what could be done to improve it, IF there was even the want to improve it for the lower classes by the ruling classes. By 1880 it was acknowledged something had to be done about hygiene and water with hygiene lessons becoming obligatory in British schools the case for water improvement having been pushed by the reformers also well known for their concern over other social issues caused by the industrial revolution. In London things had had to change earlier than this when in 1831 Cholera was introduced to the population from Asia affecting all classes not just those of the poor and working classes. Toilets were just cess pits and holes in the ground covered by huts in the back yards of houses where up to 4 or 5 families lived sharing rooms and wells and with most of London built near the river the sewers soon started filling with raw sewage rather than the rain water they were made for when the river flooded, the water companies then drawing their water from the polluted river before it was transferred to the water pumps.

Kempton Park Pumping engine house


In 1852 the Water Act was passed making it illegal for water companies to draw water from the Thames below Teddington Weir, resulting in the establishment of several water treatments and pumping works around the village of Hampton west of Kingston upon Thames. Following the passing of the act three companies established their works close together in the area to be able to provide London's population with clean water, the West Middlesex, the Grand Junction and the Southwark & Vauxhall water companies later joining together to form the Staines Reservoirs Joint Committee in 1897. Each company had established filter beds and reservoirs near the river in what is now the Surrey Borough of Spelthorne these reservoirs and aqueducts, used to carry the water from the reservoir to the processing plants are still in use today and over time built eight engine houses for the pumping engines that sent water all round north London. Today the engine houses are used for storage purposes and at the time of writing November 2006 the windows that once gave light in to the engine rooms are being bricked up, somewhat spoiling the look of these grand buildings. Kempton Park works was opened in 1897 by the new river Company with two reservoirs and twelve filter beds. To pump the water from the river to the reservoir and then through the Thames water main five Lilleshall triple expansion steam engines were used with six boilers to provide steam the processed water being pumped to Cricklewood. As a process of development under the Metropolitan water board, established in 1904 as a means to centralize water processing and provision under the 1902 Metropolis water act, a new engine house was built in 1928 to house two, new, more powerful triple-expansion steam engines similar in size to the ones used on the RMS Titanic, the engines having a power rating of 1008hp. Each engine was able to pump 19 million gallons of water a day and ran for 24 hours a day 7 days a week with steam provided by 8 boilers, in 1963 the works provided 86 million gallons of water a day and were only superseded by modern pumping methods in 1980. The two remaining engines are looked after by the Kempton Great Engines trust and one has been restored to working condition and is steamed at times during the year. The original engines were decommissioned and scrapped in 1968 being replaced by electric pumps.



 

As you can imagine these steam engines needed a lot of coal for their everyday operation and until 1914 the 760 tons of coal per day was delivered by river barge to Hampton for the works there or by Southern Railway for the Kempton works, though it was not uncommon for coal to be delivered from the river by means of horse and cart. In 1912 the Metropolitan water board chief engineer proposed the construction of a narrow gauge railway from the river wharf at Hampton, between Hampton and Lower Sunbury with a main line and branches to the Hampton engine houses and the engine house at Kempton Park. The proposition of the Chief Engineer was due to his concern over the reliability of the coal supply from the river due to strikes by river-men and flooding of the Thames. The other reason for his report was down to the basic nature of coal unloading from the barges which involved a crane and manual labour not only slowing work down but also causing the coal to break up so as to not be of much use when burnt. So the proposal also included the erection of a new unloading station with a feeder bunker the coal dropped in to this and kept until the arrival of a train to take coal away the wagons being directly fed from the bunker. For the railway to get from the river to Hampton and Kempton works it was proposed that level crossings would be sited on the Lower Sunbury road and on Kempton Park lane with the railway passing under the Upper Sunbury Road the road carried over the railway by a bridge. The overall length of the railway was to 5350yds with a gauge of 2 feet the whole estimated to cost 17,000 pounds. The Board agreed to the proposal and in 1913 the Metropolitan Water Board Act was passed authorizing the construction of the railway and the unloading station. The act specified that:


Looking down on the Wharf at Hampton 


The gated crossings at the lower Sunbury road and at Kempton Park Lane were also authorized to have level crossings. The one at the Lower Sunbury Road from the river wharf to the works at Hampton to be kept constantly closed across the railway on both sides of the road except during the time when the board shall require to use the railway for the passage of locomotives, trucks or carriages across the road. And at Kempton Park Lane the crossing was to be open to the railway at all times and only closed when traffic wanted to cross the railway a person having to be at both crossings when the railway was in operation to operate the gates. The railway was built using 200 tons of 35lb/yd flat bottomed rail, 1000 fishplates, 8 x 40 foot lengths of British Standard No.1 Tram rail the latter to be set in to granite setts. The coal storage bunkers at Hampton Wharf were designed so the wagons and engines to be able to pass underneath and were able to load 15 wagons in 20 minutes, each train normally only consisting of eight or ten wagons. The locomotives were built by Kerr Stewart to the Metropolitan Water boards own design though it seems that Kerr Stewart did advise some changes such as the use of side tanks rather than the original design of well tanks. The trailing wheels were also changed to pony trucks rather than rigid between the frames allowing the engines a smoother ride. Other changes included the fireboxes, valve gear and steam-chest. The engines were not completed until the end of 1915 possibly due to war time economies and essential war work taking precedence, and were works numbers 2366, 2367 and 2368 named 'Hampton', 'Kempton' and 'Sunbury' by the board respectively. When the engines arrived on the railway they were initially kept under the road bridge of the Upper Sunbury Road before a pre-fabricated sheet metal shed was provided as a more permanent home next to the West Middlesex engine house at Hampton. Initially 8 wagons were provided by Wantage Engineering Company works. The remaining wagons delivered at later dates came from a variety of places some coming from the Houghton Bridge works in Darlington at a cost of  23 pounds each and as with the engines were to the designs of the chief engineer the total number of wagons in use at the railways height being 108. These had doors on the sides of their V shaped bodies with a 10 ton capacity weighing 15cwt (3/4ton) each with a 2 feet 3 inches wheelbase the wheels mounted on roller bearings with one loose wheel per axle to allow easier movement around tight curves. There were normally only two engines in use at any one time.



One of the engine swith a que of wagons

 

At Hampton the railway the line from the wharf to the north eastern part of the works turned to the right just before the level crossing of the Lower Sunbury Road and climbed an embankment running parallel to the road and sandwiched between the road and some filter beds before reaching a trailing junction with another branch from the wharf which ran parallel for some of the way with the river running along the wharf where there were traveling cranes. The line after the trailing junction ran on a low embankment before swinging right to pass behind 'Morelands' engine house where the line was double with crossovers to allow the shunting of wagons, the branch ending at 'Riverdale' engine house where there was a sharp curve in to the engine house itself. The northern side of the Lower Sunbury road had a triangular junction half a mile from the level crossing allowing the railway to make its way towards the Upper Sunbury Road or continue straight ahead to the West Middlesex engine house and the locomotives engine shed before turning a sharp right to pass behind more engine houses and workers houses, the latter losing some of their gardens for the construction of the railway. Branches from this line allowed wagons to be delivered to the boiler rooms though the radii of the curves were to tight to allow use of the engines some curves being of 15 or 20 degrees wagons taken in to these by hand, the main line ending in a Y serving the Southwark and Vauxhall engine houses. The line to the left of the triangular junction took the railway parallel to Kempton Road, which today has been fenced off as a measure to ensure the security of the water supply though it is still identifiable, before passing under the Upper Sunbury Road on a 1:20 gradient with a rising 1:20 gradient through a cutting parallel to the race course on the opposite side. Once the line had passed through the cutting it ran behind houses on Oldfield road in Hampton and along the edge of Hyde's field, which was used as a storage site for piping etc. The line then passed along the edge of Red House reservoir, before passing under the LSWR line running parallel to an aqueduct, still in use today and clearly visible from passing main line trains between Hampton and Kempton Park stations. At Kempton Park the line ended at a 90 degree angle to the main line (Works main line) the latter passing under the standard gauge siding with another siding running parallel to the standard gauge line to allow the interchange of coal by means of hoppers from standard gauge to the narrow gauge. The main line then continued to the boiler houses where sidings branched off to each boiler for the delivery of the coal the engine then using a run round release of the arrived train and get ready to take waiting empties back to the wharf.


The track bed parallel to Red house resevoir


With the opening of the new works at Kempton coal requirements for Kempton reached 230 tons each week part of the delivery being by the Southern railways Thames Valley Line. In 1861 the Metropolitan and Thames Valley railway proposed a new railway from Isleworth to Chertsey via Twickenham and Shepperton using existing GWR and LSWR lines (this may have actually had its GWR origin at Brentford where there was a GWR line to Brentford dock) as its source. The intention was to allow London workers to get to a cleaner unpolluted area of the River Thames for relaxation. Due to financial disagreements the GWR soon pulled out of the scheme the LSWR all too happy to provide the extra capital required to stop the GWR gaining a foot hold in to its operating area. The act of parliament for the Thames Valley line was passed on the 17th July 1862 with a route from Strawberry Hill to Shepperton, Strawberry Hill being the junction for a new LSWR line to Kingston Upon Thames opening on the 1st July 1863 and continuing through to New Malden on the LSWR main line to Woking, on 21st May 1838, the 6 1/2 mile Thames valley railway opening to Shepperton in 1869. The original plan for the Thames Valley line was for it to continue from Shepperton to Weybridge, on the main line to Woking. A previous proposal for the line was for it to continue to Chertsey Bridge, neither of the proposals coming to fruition leaving Shepperton designed and built as a through station though in actuality a terminus. The Thames Valley line opened on the 1st November 1864 with stations at Hampton, Fulwell and Sunbury, train services running 7 times a day with 4 on Sundays. Services soon improved with complaints from passengers that services were too irregular, the journey to Waterloo taking an hour. As the line was originally single track from Strawberry Hill and with the increase of traffic it was decided that the line should be doubled under the LSWR who had gained an act of parliament to buy the line outright on the 5th July 1865 the doubling being completed to Fulwell in 1867 and finally to Shepperton on the 9th December 1878. A new curve was also installed at Strawberry hill when a new curve was laid from just east of Fulwell to allow trains access to Teddington on the Strawberry hill to Kingston section of line in 1894. A new halt was built at Upper Halliford to cater for the growing residential housing in that area in 1944, the station being made from concrete slabbing resting on concrete legs and sited under a main road bridge with the M3 passing by on the up side. The Thames Valley line was one of the first to be electrified using the 3rd rail system reaching Shepperton on the 30th January 1916 with suitably altered steam hauled coaches as electric multiple units formed in to 3 coach sets with one motor bogie on each of the driving cars. The use of 3rd rail power supply was somewhat at odds with the London Brighton and East Coast Railway which was already looking at the use of Overhead power Supply on their local lines to Croydon and Crystal Palace. Sited at Shepperton today is a former Pullman coach, 'Malaga' which was purchased by Ian Allan publishing in 1963. The coach had seen service on the BR southern region and in 1949 it was used by King George VI, though most of its life was on services from London Victoria to Brighton.


A South West Trains, class 455 stands at Shepperton looking towards Chertsey


The standard gauge works line, mentioned above, was built to better improve coal deliveries to the works and as insurance should there be any problem with coal being delivered by the river. A connection was made to the Southern line just east of Kempton Park station which had opened in 1878 members of the proposed Kempton Park race course having on two occasions petitioned the LSWR to open a station there specifically for visitors to the race course. Originally the station was only one platform on the down side but in 1879 with the popularity of the race course another platform was installed on the opposite side of the up platform. The station remained a 'race day only' station until WW2 when it was temporarily used by the War Department (now MoD) for the processing of captured prisoners of war from the African and European campaigns, the prisoners then being transferred to other locations around the country once interrogation was complete, special trains operating with corridor coaches to the station, the use of corridor coaches instead of the normal suburban stock was due to the lesser number of doors on the corridor trains. The station returned to 'race day only' in 1946 and remained so until June(?) 2006 when Kempton park station was opened for all services after 0900hrs between Shepperton and Waterloo and return. To handle the huge numbers of excursion traffic that race days produced an extra bat platform was installed on the up platform with coaches stored along the running line towards Shepperton where there are also siding, the line between Kempton Park and Shepperton then operating as a single line. This bay platform also allowed the coal trains access to the Kempton Park and Hanworth Road works, the latter sited slightly to the south and east of the Kempton works. In 1871 a pumping station, filter beds and reservoirs were built just off the Hanworth Road in Sunbury on Thames with another pumping station built by the river in Fordbridge Road by the East London water works, with the reduction in need for the powerful stem engines the works housed, they were closed and demolished in 1955, the engines being scrapped, leaving the Kempton works. The boards standard gauge connection for Hanworth works was by means of a facing set of points at the end of the up platform trains from the main line gaining access to this by using a crossover between the down and up lines, there is still today a crossover at Kempton park station trailing from the down to the up line though whether it was installed for the works or the bay platform I do not know. The siding for Hanworth works ran parallel to the bay platform for a short distance before swinging west crossing the Hanworth road on the level to the works where there was a triangular formation and wagon turntables to allow the wagons to be delivered in to the boiler room's, this line fell out of use in the spring of 1945. The branch to the Kempton works ran from the Hanworth works siding and ran parallel to the main line for half a mile, a head shunt was sited at the end of this section, the line then running on embankment to the works terminating just short of the Hanworth/Sunbury road where a small brick engine shed was built in 1927 to house a new petrol (later converted to diesel) locomotive which the board purchased to save having to relay their siding for the use of the heavier Southern locomotives. It seems that there were at least two connections from the Kempton Park works branch to the main line in that half mile section. In 1964 the Board ceased deliveries by the main line Lorries from then delivering the coal by road.


Kempton Park station looking towards London

 

By 1921 after 7 years of hard work the engines were in need of overhaul some of which was done at the works with spare parts delivered from Kerr Stuart but it was in 1935 that some major work had to be done to the engines 20 years after their starting work when one of them needed work doing to its firebox. The boiler was lifted from the frames at Hampton and then shipped off to the locomotive works of Hunslett who had purchased the company. By the April of 1937 the other two engines had also had work doe to them most likely of the same nature. The little railway operated for another 9 years from to about 1946, the exact end date of operation not being known. The reason for closure being that improvements and economies in the way water was pumped and worked as well as how the coal was delivered to the separate works sites were changing. 1934 saw the re-modeling of Kempton works completed so eyes were turned to Kempton where it was decided that all of the original engines, still in use, would have to go and be replaced by more modern engines at a central pumping facility which would be more economical and reliable. More filter beds were planned for the water to be refined even further before transfer to the main beds with a new engine house to the right of the railway after it passed over the Lower Sunbury Road. The new works were to be fed by a conveyor in a tunnel from the river wharf storage bunkers. The work saw the railway close temporarily towards the wharf though it is doubtless that the railway was used to aid in the moving of some of the materials for construction, coal delivered to the works by the Southern railway connection. By the beginning of WW2 in 1939 some of the eight turbines were in place for the new works though some were also removed in 1940 as damage prevention should bombs land on the works these not being returned until 1945 the last of the new turbines not installed until 1947. Today little remains of the railway itself though there are supposed to be sections of track still in situ under the mud caused by works vehicles, one benefit being that the track bed is almost entirely in situ, sadly the engines were sold for scrap. For some time there was talk of the railway being re-opened as a heritage railway but sadly I cannot find anymore information on this, though if you do know anything it would be great if you could let me know my e-mail address: Nathan_darroch@msn.com or leave a message on the MSN member site board.