Dolphin junction

[ess]

East of Slough. Why is it called that?

 

[Joseph_Locke]

90% likely to be a pub ... my guess, anyway.

 

[takno]

90% likely to be a pub ... my guess, anyway.

Seems likely http://wexhamcourt.org.uk/TheOriginsofSlough2.htm says that there was a coaching inn called the The Dolphin on the Langley Road Junction

 

[MarlowDonkey]

90% likely to be a pub ... my guess, anyway.

A local history site appears to confirm

http://wexhamcourt.org.uk/TheOriginsofSlough2.htm

The Bristol Road was renamed the Bath Road when Bath became the great pleasure resort. In 1711 a new stage coach service from London to Bath was introduced. The state of the Bath Road left a lot to be desired, but stones and gravel were carted to fill the pot holes (no changes there then! - this still seems to be happening all around Slough), the road was widened at Salt Hill and various other places, and flat bridges were built over the streams which crossed the road. Slough was now an important thoroughfare village, sharing with Colnbrook the role of the second stage from London. It had some thirty or so houses, including at least seven inns and alehouses - the Crown, Reindeer, Red Lion, White Hart, Bear, Black Boy and the Pied Horse. By the end of the 18th century its houses had begun to spread along the Bath Road towards Langley and a new coaching inn, The Dolphin, was built at the Langley Road junction. Slough now had several small businesses and its population had reached about two hundred.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

1) *East* of Slough
2) https://whatpub.com/pubs/SWM/426/dolphin-inn-slough ('Demolished in 1999 to make way for a Premier Inn')
3) It took me some time as a more or less local from the far side of town to realise that they raced dogs, not dolphins, at the Dolphin Stadium (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough_Stadium)

 

[EM2]

Definitely was a pub. Next door was the Dolphin Stadium, an early home for Slough Town FC and then used for greyhound racing. It's the 'Football Ground' on the right-hand side of this map:
https://maps.nls.uk/view/97143671

 

[snowball]

3) It took me some time as a more or less local from the far side of town to realise that they raced dogs, not dolphins, at the Dolphin Stadium (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough_Stadium)

I like to imagine that vole racing takes place at the Manchester Voledrome.

 

[Joseph_Locke]

*smug*

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There used to be a Wheatsheaf branch of the GWR at Wrexham, named after a local pub.
It left the Shrewsbury-Chester line at Wheatsheaf Jn and ran steeply uphill to Westminster Colliery and eventually Brymbo steelworks.
The Wheatsheaf was a pub (which is still there) which the line passed at the bottom of the rope-worked incline.
All the railway infrastructure has gone today, but you can still make out the original bridge over the line behind the pub (which was the main Mold-Wrexham road at the time).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatsheaf_Junction

 

[Roger100]

Why Junction I wonder? The only lines off the GWML here were short tracks going to the Gas Works and the Paint Factory. Maybe there were some other lines here in the early GWR era? Nothing shown on the 1900 map.

The only existing Junction in Slough is just to the west of the station. This goes to Windsor, and was also where the 81B engine shed was. In my memory there was another a bit further west, which had short lines serving the Slough Trading Estate station and the factories on the estate. These lines were installed just after the First World War and lasted into the sixties. Slough Estates had some steam locos for shunting and a couple of these, operating on some heritage lines, is all that is left.

 

[Joseph_Locke]

Not all junctions were with branch lines or other routes - Castlethorpe Junction and later Hanslope Junction are just running junctions, allowing interchange between parallel tracks (I'm an LNWR man, hence the examples; other, lesser, junctions exist)

And so it was: signal box diagram

 

[Cricketer8for9]

Norwood Junction started life as Jolly Sailor and Forest Hill as Dartmouth Arms. And of course the Swiss Cottage gave its name to a station and a district.

 

[GW43125]

Norwood Junction started life as Jolly Sailor and Forest Hill as Dartmouth Arms. And of course the Swiss Cottage gave its name to a station and a district.

There's a Blue Anchor Jn south of London Bridge.

 

[NormyFGW]

When I was route learning to Paddington many years ago, I also asked where Dolphin Junction got its name from, and was assured by my 'trainer' that it was because when viewed from space via satellite, the line layout resembled the shape of a dolphin! I'm loathe to confess that being a newbie at the time, I believed this for quite some time without question, until someone had a word in my ear. Embarrased or what?!!