The Central Line at White City
One of the most interesting sites on London
Underground is on the Central Line between Shepherds Bush and East Acton in west
London. The lines through White City station are the wrong way round for a
British railway - being right hand running instead of left hand running. There is a
story behind this anomaly which concerns the stabling yard there called White City Depot
and the two running tunnels of the Central Line which weave their way round this
area. This page looks at this area and tells of the unusual routes and the reasons
for them.
Contents
Right Hand Running
- The Central London Railway - Wood Lane Depot - Multiple
Unit Operation - Wood Lane Station - The Moveable Platform - White City
Station
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The normal layout for operation for British railways is left
hand running, the same as left hand driving on British roads. At White City station
on the Central Line however, the tracks are arranged for right hand running.
This occurs because the tracks cross in the tunnels between Shepherds Bush station and
White City and then cross again between White City and East Acton to regain the normal
left hand running. The layout is shown in small scale in the following diagram.
Fig. 1: A sketch of the present layout of the Central
Line tracks between Shepherds Bush and East Acton. If you are travelling westbound
from Shepherds Bush, the line goes west for about 100 metres (300 feet) and then turns
north via a sharp curve. This is called the Caxton Curve since it runs below Caxton
Street and it has a 200 foot radius. It is the sharpest running line curve on the LU
system. The curve takes the Westbound tunnel over the Eastbound tunnel. After
a straight section of 300 metres on a rising gradient of 1 in 44, the line appears in the
open for a few metres and then passes into another tunnel with a long but tight S curve.
At the end of this curve it reappears in the open and enters White City
station. Beyond the station, the line proceeds north for a short distance and then
curves west. As it passes Wormwoord Scrubs, this westbound line passes over the
eastbound track so that normal, British left hand running is regained. As can be
seen in the diagram, the Eastbound line follows a different route between White City
and Shepherds Bush, proceeding directly south from White City Station past the BBC TV
Centre but in tunnel. It then turns east, passing under the Westbound tunnel and
then into Shepherds Bush station. As it enters Shepherds Bush station, there
is a severe reverse curve where the old crossover was located.
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The Central Line began life as the Central London Railway.
It was opened between Bank and Shepherds Bush on 30th July 1900. The
depot was built on the site of the present White City depot but it was larger in those
days because it had to house the whole of the original fleet of 28 locomotives and 168
cars.
 Trains were hauled
by electric locomotives which had to be changed at each terminus.
Click to enlarge and view description.
At Shepherds Bush the original station layout appeared as
shown in the next diagram below. The provision of crossovers at both ends of the
station gave the flexibility needed to change locomotives or run them round the train.
A reversing siding was also provided. The crossovers were removed in 1938
when the platforms were extended to accommodate 8-car trains (from the previous maximum of
7-cars).
The tunnels at each end of the present Shepherds Bush station
still show the location of the crossovers. At the west end, there is a severe curve
in the Eastbound track where the tunnel is diverted to bring it closer to the Westbound
for the crossover (now removed) and then it diverts away to enter the platform
tunnel. At the east end of the platform, the 1938 platform extension was built very
close to the crossover tunnel. This can still be seen from the platform.
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The Central London Railway Depot was built alongside Wood
Lane, Shepherds Bush (London W12) on the site of a large house called Woodhouse Park.
 The original
layout is shown in the diagram in Fig 4 (left), but it includes the extra stabling shed
added in 1903. It shows the depot with east at the top and north to the left.
Click to enlarge.
Trains entered the depot via the depot access road on a 1 in
44 gradient up to the tunnel portal, where the line curved sharply west and ended in a
siding with the buffer stops adjacent to Wood Lane. Trains had to be shunted back
into the sheds from this siding. Documents from the period suggest that this was
usually done by fly shunting the train. When it arrived in the siding, the
locomotive was uncoupled and then pushed the train back until it had sufficient speed to
coast into the shed, where it was stopped by the guards using handbrakes. This was
done because there were no current rails in the yard apart from on the tracks leading into
the loco shop.
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 In 1903, only three years
after the opening of the line, the passenger car fleet was converted to multiple unit
operation and the locomotives were replaced by new motor cars, photo left.
Click to enlarge.
The vibration caused by the locomotives caused so many
problems to properties along the route that this radical action was considered the only
solution. To accommodate the extra cars, a new shed, called the "Wood Lane
Sheds" in official literature, was built west of the existing sheds and, as suggested
in the title, next to Wood Lane (see Fig. 4 above). The new shed was reached via the
loop road which ran round the outside of the main sheds. All sheds were 360
feet long and were designed to take 7-car trains. However, 6-car sets were the norm
for the line. By this time, current rails had been laid in the yard and trains could
move around under their own power.
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The next development to the site at Wood Lane was the result
of the building of a large exhibition in 1908. On land to the west of Wood Lane, on
the other side from the depot, a huge exhibition site and gardens were built to house the
Franco-British Exhibition. The buildings were finished in white stucco, which is how
the name White City arose. Examples of the buildings are shown below. Copies
of prints from contemporary postcards kindly supplied by Wilf Grove.
 
Click to enlarge
The site covered 140 acres and included the White City
stadium, which opened in 1908 for the Olympic games, which were staged in London that
year. Some 12,000 people were employed during the construction of the site and it is
recorded that the Franco-British Exhibition attracted 8 million visitors. As the
exhibition was opened for 7 months between April and October, this amounts to an average
of 40,000 per day. The Central London Railway extended the line from Shepherds Bush
to a new station called Wood Lane, especially to serve the exhibition.
Over the next few years, a number of public exhibitions were
held on the site and, after the first world war, trade only shows were regular events up
to 1937. After 1945, the area was turned over for public housing and some rather
utilitarian blocks of flats were built. The BBC took over part of the site for the
BBC TV centre in the late 1950s. The White City Stadium was closed in 1988 and
replaced by new BBC offices which opened in 1990.
 When the Central
London Railway Opened the new station at Wood Lane for the first exhibition in 1908, it
was built on the site of the reversing siding in the depot (see diagram left). Click
to enlarge.
The original depot access road became the westbound line into
Wood Lane Station. Shepherds Bush was no longer the terminus. Although Wood
Lane was the last station on the line, it was designed on a loop. Trains left the
station via a new line which ran beside Wood Lane (the road) below ground level and in
tunnel and then curved round the meet the end of the siding at Shepherds Bush, . A
new access fan was provided at the north end of the Wood Lane Sheds so that trains could
access the depot without wasting time reversing in the station. The new fan also
gave access to the depot loop road.
The new Wood Lane station was built on a sharp curve and had
one track with a platform on either side. It was intended that all trains would
unload onto one platform and load via the other. Huge crowds appeared for the
exhibitions and, after the end of the First World War in 1918, for greyhound and cycle
racing.
 However, the
layout was changed again in 1920. This was required for the opening of the extension
of the Central London line to Ealing Broadway, as shown in the next diagram left (Click
to enlarge), which shows the layout of the depot and station at Wood Lane after the
opening of the Ealing extension in 1920. Two more platforms were added so that the
station now had a triangular form. Train services were divided into two
groups. One group operated the Ealing service, using the two new platforms, while
the other operated a Wood Lane to Liverpool Street "Tunnel" service. Both
the new platforms were built below ground level.
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 Wood
Lane had another unusual feature - a moveable platform (photo left). Well, it was a
section of platform - 35 feet of it, made of wood and installed at the east end of the
loop platform just outside the signal cabin. It was installed in 1927 as a result of
the conversion of the rolling stock from gate entrances to air operated doors. Air
door trains needed a longer platform face to allow all entrances to be used and to assist
with crowd handling at Wood Lane, it was essential to keep the inner platform operational
after trains were converted to air doors. The extension was operated by a miniature
lever in the signal cabin and was electro-pneumatically powered. It could also be
operated by hand if necessary
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Wood Lane station was closed in 1947 when White City station
was opened on a new site to the north. A new westbound track was built to by-pass
the old Ealing line westbound platform, which became one of the depot entrance roads.
The depot was largely demolished, apart from a section of the car running shed now
used for stabling and the old lifting and loco shops. The loop platforms have gone
but the Ealing platforms remain, the eastbound being visible from passing trains to those
who know where to look.
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