Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway

Railway in east London

The Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway in east London connected the Royal Docks with the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR). Authorised in 1844, it opened in 1846, and was absorbed by the ECR in 1847. The ECR amalgamated with other railways to form the Great Eastern Railway in 1862.

The EC&TJR was incorporated on 4 July 1844. It opened on 29 April 1846 from Stratford to Bow Creek to transport coal from a pier on the mouth of the River Lea. A year later it was extended to North Woolwich via Silvertown, allowing connections with the Woolwich Ferry; the same year it was taken over by the North London Railway. When the Royal Victoria Dock opened in 1855 the line between Canning Town and North Woolwich had to have a swingbridge over the entrance to the dock, which increased journey times. In response, the line was rerouted north of the dock through two new stations, at Custom House and Tidal Basin. The southern line remained in service for local factories and was renamed the Silvertown Tramway. After the construction of the Albert Dock, with the same problem envisaged on the route to Silvertown, in 1878 the railway built the cut and cover Connaught Tunnel (also known as the Silvertown Tunnel or Albert Dock Tunnel), at the new dock's entrance; it emerges on the eastern side just short of the old Tate & Lyle factory. In 1935, after it was discovered that larger ships entering the docks were scraping the roof of the tunnel, an iron casing was placed along the section under the dock. In 1872 the Gas Light and Coke Company opened a branch running north east to Beckton (not the site of Beckton DLR station) to serve its gasworks; in 1880, as the Royal Albert Dock opened, a branch line to Gallions was opened by the London & St Katherine Dock Company, which ran due east along the north edge of the dock to the River Thames on the far side of the dock. Both of these branches left the main line at Custom House. At the same time, the line was connected to the Palace Gates Line to Palace Gates in North London, and regular services between North Woolwich and Palace Gates operated. The line was quadrupled between Stratford Market and Tidal Basin in stages by 1892, though the western pair of tracks became less used over the years.

The lines to Beckton and Gallions closed after bomb damage during the Blitz, as did Tidal Basin station. The line to Beckton reopened for goods (by products from the gasworks), closing in 1972.