Epping Ongar Railway

Epping Ongar Railway

Central Line

The Epping Ongar Railway opened to traffic in 1865. The line was an extension of the Liverpool Street to Loughton Line, The Line between Loughton and Ongar at this time was Single track. A extra Track was added later to Epping.

London Transport took over the line as part of the new works programme, The line was joined to the Central line at Liverpool street in a pair of single boar tunnels which ran as far as Stratford. The line then dives again into tunnel as far as Leyton. Steam trains still continued to use the old connection at Stratford for some time. This was due to the fact the Epping to Ongar branch was not electrified. These special trains ran until 1957 when the line was electrified. A passing loop was installed at North Weald so 2 trains could work the branch although London Transport had decided to feed the electrical supply from Epping, which meant that only one train could pull away at one time.

As the years passed the lines service dropped and so the passing loop was removed. This was mainly due to that when a LT line was extended urbanisation would follow. This was not the case with the Epping Ongar line. so the service was reduced to peak hours only with 3 trains in the morning and 4 in the evening. Still the line fell into decline.

So London Transport had little choice to close the line which happened on the 30th September 1994. After this time the Ongar railway preservation society looked after the line on the hope London Transport would hand them the line so they could run trains. ORPS hoped to run Steam and vintage electric trains on the line. London Transport did not give ORPS the line so as the next part of the story goes you will see that ORPS ran a negative campaign against the railways new owners.

Pilot as they were known then undertook some work to lower the track height under the M11 Bridge outside Epping, Pilot first thought that they could run there trains into the LT station at Epping, But LT told them they couldn't I think this is because of several reasons. Firstly the Stock would have to be fitted with ATP which stops the Central line trains from passing signals at Danger, there was nothing stopping a runaway train from passing though the station and onto the Central line. Also the trains would not be compatible which Central line ATO.

Now the lines owners hope to start a service between North Weald and Ongar. Blake Hall station would not reopen. Quite a lot of work has happened on the line with most of the work being at Ongar, Firstly the a display of rolling stock so give a nice sight to passers by . Also a small covered pit road is being constructed as well.

As of the 10th October the line Is reopen Between North Weald and Ongar Running on the Hour from Ongar on the Half Hour from North weald on Sundays.

Two Vintage Buses are currently running between Epping and Ongar

Service A: Between Epping and North Weald

You can see the Groups website at the following web address Epping Ongar Railway

Epping

Epping with a train for central London has just arrived train on left is for Ongar is ready to depart