TRAINZland - Central London Line

Central London Line

Set in the Summer of 2011, before London Bridge Station roof had been torn down and the Shard skyscraper completed. The route runs from Finchley Road to London Bridge.

This route is based on a 'what if' scenario of one mans vision, namely Sir Edward Watkin, Chaiman of the Great Central Railway and director of a number of other railways including the Metropolitan and SER. Watkin wanted a mainline that ran from the Midlands, through London to eventually reach a Tunnel under the English Channel.

Of course the Channel Tunnel wouldn't be built until 90 years later, but the Central London & Metropolitan Railway was the next phase in his grand plan, the first phase being the Great Central Railways extension to London. The Central London & Metropolitan Railway would form a direct connection from the GC, through London to the SER, so trains from the Midlands bound for the South Coast and the proposed Channel Tunnel wouldn't need to run via the circuitous Metropolitan and East London Lines.
Construction commenced in 1898 and was completed by 1902. With half the line being built by the cut and cover method and the other half constructed on viaducts. The largest piece of civil engineering was Temple Bridge which carries the line across the Thames. The line was worked from the outset, jointly by the Metropolitan and Great Central Railway, although some of the other companies such as the SER, GWR and LNWR had running rights.

By 1905 the Metropolitan Line between Neasden and Gower Street (now Euston Square) was congested with GC traffic so the line between these points was widened, known as the GC widened lines the work commenced in 1907 and was completed by 1910.
This involved some extensive work including the rebuilding of Great Portland street Station, building a flyover and realigning the track there, as well as some extensive tunnelling between St Johns Wood and Finchley Road.
During this time the line was also electrified to 4th rail DC, as far as Waterloo East where the Metropolitan electric locomotive would be swapped for an SER steam locomotive.

The Great Central Railway and SER during grouping in 1927 respectively became part of the LNER and SR, also with the formation of the LPTB (London Transport) in 1933, ownership of the line passed from the Metropolitan, jointly to the SR and LNER. The SR then embarked on a program of converting the line from 4th to 3rd rail DC electrification as far as Harrow.

Upon Nationalisation in 1947, the line was transferred solely to the Southern region as far as Neasden Junction. In 1961 the third rail was extended from Harrow to Aylesbury and into Marylebone Station, to eliminate steam on suburban workings in the area. During the 60s the amount of express and freight coming off the GC onto the line declined until the GC was closed in 1966, leaving commuter traffic as the main source of revenue although some frieght and express passenger traffic from the WCML continued to run
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By the mid 70s the line was in a very rundown condition, so a scheme of refurbishment and service extensions took place, with new services from Tring and Watford to Dartford and Sevenoaks was instated using new Class 313s. Stations were extensively refurbished and new signalling equipment installed. In 1986 with sectorisation the line came under the remit of Network Southeast, who replaced the EPBs operating the Aylesbury services with Class 319s, ordered as an additional batch to the Thameslink units.

In 1994 the line was privatised with services operated by Silverlink and Connex South Eastern. The few cross country express services from Birmingham to Ramsgate that travelled via the Central London Line, operated by Virgin Cross Country came to an end in May 2001. In 2006 First Capital Connect took over operations, things remained fairly stagnant apart from the Watford services being replaced with extra services to Tring and taking on extra Class 313 sets made spare from London Overground to boost capacity.

In 2014 TSGN was instated as the new operator, some significant changes are p