Do trains still operate on the chord from Hanwell to Drayton Green?

[GTR fail]

I was thinking that a service operated by Chiltern Rail from Heathrow to Birmingham Moor Street using this chord and the new north mainline joining the chiltern mainline at South Ruislip would be profitable and would also ease the capacity issues at Maylebone.

 

[swt_passenger]

No they don’t, and they couldn’t be pathed without conflicting on the flat crossing.

This is also why the GWR Greenford service no longer runs though beyond West Ealing.

 

[itfcfan]

I wonder if there has ever been a regular scheduled passenger service that used this chord?

I know the chord is useful for turning trains but I'm thinking about passenger services. I struggle to imagine a useful West to North passenger service when the lines were built.

Nowdays, Heathrow could be argued as a useful source of traffic. I think trains running from Chiltern to Old Oak Common are more likely for this purpose.

 

[Nippy]

During the Paddington remodelling in the early 90s there was an occasional weekend service from Greenford to Hayes.

 

[swt_passenger]

I wonder if there has ever been a regular scheduled passenger service that used this chord?

I know the chord is useful for turning trains but I'm thinking about passenger services. I struggle to imagine a useful West to North passenger service when the lines were built.

Nowdays, Heathrow could be argued as a useful source of traffic. I think trains running from Chiltern to Old Oak Common are more likely for this purpose.

As you say, they already have a reasonably worked up plan for Chiltern to Old Oak Common. Heading west onto the GW reliefs would have major capacity issues at the junction, sufficient to prevent it, and would need new bimode stock; I’m assuming short DMUs would be laughed out of Heathrow even if they could get there...

 

[Non Multi]

I recently watched a video of Paddington from the late '80s or early '90s, the destination board at Pad had a Paddington-Hayes & H. train.

Calling at: South Greenford, Castle Bar Pk, Drayton Green, Hanwell, Southall, Hayes & H.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

In the aftermath of the Ladbroke Grove crash a service operated from Greenford to Hayes via the spur, providing a link to central London via the Central Line.

Freight uses the spur, notably the Northolt- Severnside binliner

 

[bluenoxid]

The only realistic Birmingham to Heathrow service that I can envisage would be one that utilises Western Rail Access to Heathrow but I don’t think it is being built with west facing termination of trains or how welcome a diesel train would be in the Heathrow tunnels.

 

[Class 170101]

The only realistic Birmingham to Heathrow service that I can envisage would be one that utilises Western Rail Access to Heathrow but I don’t think it is being built with west facing termination of trains or how welcome a diesel train would be in the Heathrow tunnels.

Could be bi-mode trains between Birmingham and Paddington to get around your diesel in tunnels issue. Electric Paddington to Didcot then Diesel to Birmingham Moor Street.

There is a video somewhere on You tube I saw of Freight trains using this route filed from both ends of the chord.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

In the aftermath of the Ladbroke Grove crash a service operated from Greenford to Hayes via the spur, providing a link to central London via the Central Line.

Back in 1973 after the Ealing derailment and crash, there was an emergency service using the spur. That ran all the way to Paddington. The Greenford Branch had triangular junctions at both ends.

 

[Siemens Staines]

I recall on some Sundays, in the late 80s and early 90s, Cross Country trains were diverted that way between Reading and Banbury when there was engineering work somewhere around Oxford. In November 1990 this included the Brighton - Glasgow Sussex Scot which ran via the North Downs to Reading and then the 47 had to run round before taking the route via Hanwell and Drayton Green to Banbury. In so doing it ran through Slough in the opposite direction to that normally taken by the Sussex Scot.

 

[Trailfinder]

The bin-liner trains from Brentford use the route, also aggregate trains to the Park Royal terminal.

 

[Nippy]

The Park Royal traffic does not use the curve between Hanwell and Drayton Green.

 

[djpontrack]

I remember travelling on that bit of line many years ago on a Sunday morning going from Swindon to Paddington. We took a right turn before Greenford then rejoined the Great Western main line at Old Oak.