IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Moor Lane, UPMINSTER, RM14 1EB

Looking north east from the bridge on Front Lane, Upminster.

Looking north east from the bridge on Front Lane, Upminster.

The line between London and Tilbury was opened on 13th April 1854 by the London Tilbury & Southend Railway (LTSR) on their new line to Tilbury, which split from the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) at Forest Gate. The London, Tilbury & Southend Railway (LTSR) direct line from Bow to Barking (avoiding Stratford and Forest Gate) was constructed from west to east in 1858. The route to Southend, however, was not direct, taking a considerable diversion from Barking via Dagenham Dock to serve the port at Tilbury. Between 1885 and 1888 a new direct route from Barking to Pitsea was constructed, and the line here east of Upminster opened on 1st May 1886. This is now the C2C line. This view is from the bridge carrying Front Lane over the railway.

At the very front of the depot was a labelled real-life diagram of the four-rail track configuration used on the London Underground network. The leftmost rail and penultimate rail on the right are the running rails whilst the penultimate rail from the left and rightmost rail are the positive and negative supply rails, where the electrical current from the underside of the train feeds into and powers the train along. View taken looking east-southeast, with the bus stand and car park in the background.

Looking north.

Notice that the upper-deck emergency exit window of this RLH double-decker is divided unlike that of the Routemaster to the right of it. There is also no facility for a rear destination blind; this was because the RLH-class was not originally intended for London Transport. But the RLHs did carry rear number stencils in the rear lower-deck window. View taken looking south.

A second RLH came to join the fray of buses at the depot, this one retaining its original destination blinds from when it was on Route 248.

Upminster depot, which serves the District line, was built between 1956 and 1958 and opened in 1959. It was the first depot to be built after the Second World War. It is situated beyond Upminster station which is the eastern limit of the District line and is to the north of the line to Basildon and Southend. This view is from Front Lane.

The D Stock is due to be replaced in 2015 by this. This is a mock-up of the new stock. Strangely, the "box-shaped" concept of sub-surface stock hasn't been retained and looks more like deep-level tube stock. I thought at first this was the 2009 stock that has just been introduced on the Victoria line, but it isn't (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_2009_Stock ). I'm unsure of the exact geographical location of this image - it was in a smaller shed on the other side of the depot and I remember the c2c railway running along behind it, but I don't think it's shown as a building on the OS map.

A good re-enactment of the classic Reg Varney sitcom On The Buses here (one of the busmen actually shouted "Get this bus out!", just like Blakey out of On The Buses). I reminded him of this and he laughed and agreed with me! These Routemasters were on the special runs transporting train (and possibly bus) enthusiasts to the event. A few RMs and PTs (also pictured here on Geograph) also turned up. View taken looking towards the c2c railway line (behind the trees beyond the buses).