Watford West Station

the_delta_force · Oct 20, 2008

Part 2/2 for The Wannice and I on explore no.2.

After Croxley Green we continued to Watford West Station.

From the road, you could almost be mistaken that the station is still in use. Watford West Station is located on Tolpits Lane. Part of the Croxley Branch that was closed by the SRA in 1996 to allow for a road widening scheme which required a railway bridge to be removed between Watford West and Croxley Green Stations.

There was a chance this station may have been re-opened as part of an extension of the Metropolitan Line but according to TfL, this looks very unlikely.

Twelve years on, nature has really taken over, but we did find a few reminders of its past.

Enjoy...

Street level. The skip was part of a housing development next door.

Looking down the steps to platform level.

Across the road from the station entrance, looking towards Croxley Green.
Try and note the buffer stops bottom left, probably to prevent any trains (should they run) from running out of track where the bridge had been removed

DOO mirror

Watford West, Network SouthEast

Looking along the platform

the_delta_force waits patiently for the next train

Way Out

British Rail trolley

Semaphore signal

Towards Croxley Green

Part of an old telephone handset

Kaputnik · Oct 20, 2008

Weird that they left the street level signs up, the undergrowth seems to be doing it's best to hide the place well!

LiamCH · Oct 20, 2008

The reason they left the signs up is because the station never officially closed. In fact, you can still buy tickets online for it, and a number of rather silly people have.

Is it just me, or has that sign been cleaned since my visit? How very odd.

TK421 · Oct 20, 2008

Really liking your Croxley Green and Watford posts, I work for the railway and had completley forgotten about this line being mothballed, its a fascinating reminder of how quickly nature begins to take over.

skittles · Oct 20, 2008

Did the train ever come?

nature has taken over quickly, you would not think it was only 12 years

Is their no buildings

nice pics

RedDave · Oct 20, 2008

Didn't know this line existed. Nice find! I might have a look myself some time.

spacepunk · Oct 21, 2008

I used to live in London and travelled on this line. Great find.

the_delta_force · Oct 21, 2008

Thanks.

All the stations were unstaffed so no buildings. I gave up waiting after a while.

skittles said:
Did the train ever come?

nature has taken over quickly, you would not think it was only 12 years

Is their no buildings

nice pics

LiamCH · Oct 21, 2008

the_delta_force said:
All the stations were unstaffed so no buildings. I gave up waiting after a while.

Originally, there was a building. It's amazing how they spent all the money demolishing this building and replacing the brickwork for an unmanned station, when it would close just a few years later.

http://www.lostlines.fotopic.net/p24722131.html

sqwasher · Oct 21, 2008

Really enjoyed your couple of reports of these abandoned stations guys! :mrgreen:

Nature is really taking over-it would be interesting to see it again in winter with less vegatation maybe?

thompski · Oct 21, 2008

Agreed with what's said, its interesting to see recently redundant railway remains then the usual 1960s closures and relics of the steam era.

Goldie87 · Oct 21, 2008

Nice one, interesting to see all that stuff laying around

the_delta_force · Oct 21, 2008

That's going back a bit, I completely forgot about this website. Thanks for posting the link.

LiamCH said:
Originally, there was a building. It's amazing how they spent all the money demolishing this building and replacing the brickwork for an unmanned station, when it would closed just a few years later.

http://www.lostlines.fotopic.net/p24722131.html

orientfan16 · Sep 21, 2009

Apparently this station has more tickets purchased to it than a couple of stations are still in use, with real trains calling at them!

It has had Bus replacement services for the last 13 odd years.... still Devon transport is worse!!

krela · Dec 18, 2011

Thread re-opened for TDF to add some more information.

the_delta_force · Dec 19, 2011

Thanks Krela.

As posted in the Croxley Green thread, the government have approved plans to re-open the line as part of the Metropolitan Line to Watford Junction.

Watford West is set to be demolished and not re-opened.

Get down there before it all goes

http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/9417151.Croxley_Rail_Link_plan_approved_by_Government/

rillington · Jan 19, 2012

sqwasher said:
Really enjoyed your couple of reports of these abandoned stations guys! Nature is really taking over-it would be interesting to see it again in winter with less vegatation maybe?

Came across this picture taken three years earlier which shows the station taken in 2005 without all the vegetation.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgeezer/5772153403/in/set-72157626709571249/

rillington · Feb 4, 2012

Have just come across pictures showing the station as of a few weeks ago and both DOO mirrors have crashed to the ground and seemingly have both been removed. One of the stantions has vegetation growing up it.

http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/Croxley_Green_line_2.html

rillington · Mar 5, 2012

The stations on these lines were massively scaled down in the final years and pictures of the scaled down stations taken in the final few years before the 1996 mothballing of the line show the stations in their final years. The pictures for Watford West give us the comparison between the original station and the scaled down station as well as a few pictures of the station after abandonment showing how nature has taken its toll on thei site over the years.

http://www.westwatfordhistorygroup.org/watfordtocroxleygreen.htm

photos at:

http://www.westwatfordhistorygroup.org/apps/photos/album?albumid=11837664

Watford West Station

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