IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
The Farmlands, NORTHOLT, UB5 5EZ

Firmly in suburbia now with any farms long gone.

Alongside the busy Central Line station's tracks are the remains of the former Great Western Railway's "cutoff" from Old Oak Common to Banbury, an attempt to seize a better share of traffic between London Paddington and the West Midlands in the first years of the 20th century. In 2012, the Old Oak Common-Northolt line is scheduled to see just one passenger train each way on weekdays, though since the 1990s the old GW line has seen a massive resurgence services, but from London Marylebone via Wembley.

Composed of 1992 stock, bound for West Ruislip. The three electric tracks here are westbound on the right, eastbound on the left, and in the middle a reversing siding for trains terminating at Northolt. Beyond the cables on the left is a single Network Rail unelectrified track, plus another disused and much overgrown.

On the Central Line.

Looking west along the Central Line eastbound side of the island platform.

Passengers are walking down the platform from the access from Mandeville Road at the east end.

The line through Northolt was built between 1903 and 1906 from the Great Western Main Line at Old Oak Common to the Chiltern Main Line at South Ruislip. A full history of this line can be seen at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acton-Northolt_Line In no area at a comparable distance from London was development so slow. In the hamlet of West End at Northolt only three houses were built between 1837 and 1935. It was not until the late 1950s that most of the area out to West Ruislip had become built over. The Great Western Railway provided a number of halts in addition to Greenford and West Ruislip and served them by infrequent trains right up to 1947, in spite of the rising tide of suburban development after 1935. They constructed a halt at this location named Northolt Halt in 1907, on their New North Main Line to Birmingham. It was renamed Northolt (for West End) Halt, before gaining station status under its original shorter name. It was closed in 1948. The present station was built for the Central line extension of the 1935-40 New Works Programme of the London Passenger Transport Board which was designed to improve transport in London. An extra pair of tracks were built to the south of the old tracks from Acton to Denham for the exclusive use of Central line trains. The widened lines were opened to Greenford on 30th June 1947 and on to West Ruislip on 21st November 1948. The section to Denham was not proceeded with because of the introduction of the London Green Belt after the Second World War. The former tracks were singled and the remaining track (to the left here) is only served by freight trains and a once-daily passenger service provided by Chiltern Railways, apart from empty stock workings. Northolt opened on 21st November 1948. Here a westbound train for West Ruislip awaits departure.