 Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm standing outside the only house in Britain which was later converted into a railway station Of course, there's many railway stations which have been converted into houses even without the railway actually having to close But this building here was a Georgian house It was later built bought by the railway converted into a railway station. The railway has since closed in its now offices We're going to go to the junction station and we're going to explore that railway line back to here There we are West Drayton This was the junction station for that railway the line we're going to explore in today's video is the old Staines West railway now This is the Great Western Mainline that way is looking towards Bristol and That way is looking towards London now This isn't the original site of West Drayton station it when it opened in 1838 it was somewhere else It was recited here when they built the line down to Staines West and then later on I think it was so it was 1884 the state this station opened on this site along with the Staines West branch It was in 1856. They added the Uxbridge branch from here. There was a bay platform as you can see There still is a bay platform I think some Elizabeth line trains do stop here But the majority of them going to Abbey Wood would stop over there But the line we're going to explore the first part the line is still in use you get freight trains going down to Conebrook and Forney Mill and That is you'll get them coming out of here. If you have a look here you can see They've actually skewered the track slightly so the old bay platform that that's the line of the old bay platform looking A little bit of a mess actually at the moment all this bad lia and everything But so I'm stood this would have been I've been on the track and The passenger trains stopped running down here. I think it was in 1965 But they they're apart from the old rail tour. There was one day back in 2014 where passenger trains returned. Look at this picture 150-002 Was working a train down the branch Great Western just for one weekend They ran trains up and down and just for people like me trackbushers to get to do that bit of line So I'm quite pleased to say I have actually caught a train here and gone down towards Staines West now Staines of course is in that direction the line as you can see the bay platforms on the north side of the line So what happened up there the line turns and it goes down and burrows under the Great Western main line And before it borrowed under there they've been the junction with the Uxbridge branch So what I'm gonna do I'm gonna find my way out the station I'm gonna drive to Conebrook so I said the next the first part line is still in use for good trains So we can't really walk that part of the line But the more interesting part line is further down so we're gonna have a bit of a walk Part of the lines has been covered over by the M25 so that's gonna be a bit difficult But that's why we're gonna use my car to do a couple of parts of the old Staines West line We're gonna go and explore this line thoroughly right now So just outside West Traiton station I found my larder maybe one of the last times to take it to West Traiton because at the time of filming you Less hasn't yet been implemented But very soon it may well be and I might not be able to take my car and to London anyway I'm not gonna get political the railway line still does run just along there There's a big incinerator there, which you probably have seen from the M25 You may also be able to hear planes taking off from Heathrow and that's kind of why the line still survives But about there somewhere was Conebrook a state hole now This was the shortest lived hole on the railway it opened as late as 1961 and the line closed in 1965 Probably wasn't many people really living around here It was the serve people who worked in these factories so for four years They could commute to these factories by train. I'm gonna jump in the larder now We're gonna go to Conebrook village and we'll go and find Conebrook station So I'm now on the Barth Road that way is looking towards London and That way of course is looking towards Barth now as for Conebrook station. We're nearly there It's just along here. There was actually a level crossing here once this building here was the station master's house Now as you can see there's no level crossing trains Don't go beyond this road. If you want to know how far trains do go That's your answer I'm quite pleased to see this class 66 sitting here. So this might have brought down the train I can just see look you can just see some tankers. So this is as far as Trains go where this class 66 is parked. So the station would have been here With it will more down there the actual platforms of the station would have been so open with a line in 1884 It closed in I think March 1965 But they say it hung on for goods for another 10 months into 1966 I suppose that's as a station to pick up good as you can see Hasn't actually closed yet for freight trains. They still go to here You can quite clearly see the buffers are just there so they no longer go across the road this building here This is a nice survivor. This is the station master's house. So that survives I think the track would have been slightly more over here So used to be a signal box around here somewhere. So there was a signal box here and the railway line If you look going by this you can see see these old level crossing Lights, I think the track would have been more where I'm standing would have gone across and Down down there. Let's just have a look at the station master's house So here is the main survivor look actually says station cottage. So the station master's house survives curiously Although it was Conebrook station and look it's still known as Conebrook rail terminal. Technically, this is poil Conebrook is Down there the village of Conebrook is down there, but I think right now We're gonna go across the road now and what we'll do We'll leave the station behind So we'll just have another look at the level crossing. We're gonna go down down there because that's a public footpath following the route the railway so One final look at the station complete with class 66 and we're gonna follow up down that footpath and find the next station So I've now come a couple hundred yards down the railway the footpath has moved to this side of the old railway formation There's a very shallow embankment here. We're gonna now head along here. It's a bit of a not the nicest of places Look, there's all that razor wire down there on the ground. We're just walking past this bit palisades fence But I've seen quite a few people walking down here. So it's clearly used footpath, but we get to here How's this? There's a bridge this bridge takes us over the poil channel So this is there's there's all sorts of rivers around here Conebrook is a river There's River Cone and then there's the Conebrook the two split and then they go their own courses and join the Thames This is as I said the poil channel, but this comes off the Raysbury River and runs from the Raysbury River Into the Conebrook. So it's effectively a river that doesn't have a source that comes out the ground It's a river that comes off enough river a bit like railways really You know, it's not all railways are branch lines end to end you get ones, you know Like say Alesbury to Princess Rizbra. It's been like a branch line, but it's got a short junction station It's in so this is the poil channel and we appear to be on the original railway bridge I'm gonna follow this footpath up here and we're gonna go and find the next station. It's not too far just up here There's gonna be anything left. I don't know. We're gonna go and find out I'm following the old railway lines. So I'm actually on the track bed the footpath We're on turned off into this industrial state just over there So I haven't seen anyone. I think all the people I saw using the footpath all the people who worked there So it's quite lonely now. It really is just me and the sound of aircraft and sound of factories I can also smell a burger bowl somewhere, which is making me quite hungry. I think Somewhere around here. This is where poil a state hold would have been now poil a state hold a bit like Conebrook a state hold was one of those short-lived ones But not quite as short-lived as Conebrook a state hold. It opened in 1954 and Obviously it was for the workers of these factories. So they would have come here by train So again, I think many one actually lived here that would have used it But they'd have come by train in the latter years It had been a diesel a class 121 probably or a 122 single rail unit Which I do remember on the Prince Richard Wales branch Remember going up and down on them so they used because they finished in 2017 So it had been those units running up and down here and somewhere around here There's just been a little hole just a platform a little concrete platform I can just see Down there. There's like a concrete boulder. Whether that's anything to do with the hole, but I can't see anything I've been looking around. I can't see any posts or Just no evidence at all not even you know a bit of fence post that there was a hole here But I'm fairly sure right now. I'm standing on the site of poil a state hold I'm gonna follow this lonely path down there You can see here can see the embankment that you know, so it's a shallow embankment and it's going to find the next hole or Where the next hole was So after finding poil a state hold the path got rather overgrown. So I walk back to my larder. I've parked here We're now at the other side of the very vast Poil industrial estate now the next hole we're going to look for was called poil for Stanwell more now If you look up here, you see it's quite busy the motorways Near here as well the railway would have gone Up there where those vehicles are waiting the traffic lights, but this hole would have been just down here So we're going to go down this particularly inspiring inspiring looking footpath We're gonna walk just down here remains a motorbike so really of all the nice places I've been I wouldn't say this is one of the best Stuffing but it's going to get better once we get to the stains more part of the railway So this would have all been in Stanwell wall this area here It's there's not a lot here now, but you can actually follow this path all the way through for stains So if you ever do want to walk the old railway, you could get a bus to buses from Slough to Houndslow Stop on the a4 outside the old Conbrook station If you could walk all through that industrial state would be a bit boring and you can walk down here That is where the hole would have been so the rail and I would have come across here somewhere None of this embankment would have been here This is all modern for the roads with a big junction with Heathrow airport on the m25 So the whole would have been there over the 1927 So again a later addition to the line a bit earlier than the last two Hults, which you know opened in one of them as late as 1961 Another one in the 50s opening 1927 to serve a few farmhouses There was still a few factories in that time even that long ago. There was an explosive search in the area So people, you know, you'd have kind of a mixture of commuters And people just you know who've lived on the farms trying to get up to London or maybe down for stains I'm going to walk I might just have a look around there just to see where the path goes But then I'm going to go back to my larder or drive to stains We'll find the final two holes on this old railway I've parked my car on the edge of stains and I'm now out on stains more a very Vast and I would say quiet area, but you can hear the sound of the motorway and the aircraft But there's no one about and here's the River Colm the railway though. We're looking for Runs Roughly over the other side. So I'm effectively doing a circular walk to get to the railway So I'm gonna now go over The River Colm the railways effectively being cut in two by the m25. So we were outside the m25 Now we're inside the m25. So you can walk all the way. There is a path But it wouldn't be along the old alignment. So my plan is to make my way Continuing in that direction across stains more and we'll eventually Rejoin the old railway line Just a tip if you're thinking of doing this walk. It's the height of the summer As you can see it's very wet. Look, you can't even see my feet They've disappeared into the marsh. So if you are thinking of coming this way I suggest where well is certainly if you're not doing the summer. We get to here. Look, it is a boardwalk So That's good. But we could have done with a boardwalk all the way across the moor So I'm going to continue up that way in the distance over there That's one of the reservoirs that the railway line would have come across there. The m25 is just there. You probably can hear it I'm hoping I'll follow the railway line back across that way into stains and being on an embankment It should be not quite as wet as this Well now across stains more it really feels like Just so sort of archaic having to walk across this moor and getting your feet wet and everything. But I've got to here and I think in this Load of bushes I should find the old railway line. So the public footpath continues along here. It was interesting I was looking on some old maps and an old map from 1911 it shows this footpath existing And just south of here is a halt called Yavani Halt We get to here now look The palisade fence if it's ever useful for once the fact it's going up and down it quite clearly emphasizes The shallow embankment which has been a feature of this railway. So we're back on the railway again and um Look at this it's almost makes it the palisade fence in Bit pointless the fact there's a style in the middle of it. We get to here. So that is looking Towards west straighten. I'm just going to go down here. We will go down there because I think that halts down there I just want to show you a couple of other things over here. So there appears to be another public footpath going that way Very overgrown looking public footpath. But if we go through here through this kissing gate We come out to here And we come to this path here now this is fairly substantial looking path When I was at the last halt Where I said, you know, you could continue along if you continued along You'd have come to here and it would probably take me about the same amount of time if I walked along here It's a good mile along there and you can continue along the path that way if you wanted a less energetic way Back right. I'm going to go. Let's go on to the railways formation And uh, we will attempt To see if there's anything left of the Avarni halt whether there is or not I don't know at this stage Um, sorry about that. I literally just got attacked by by this I've probably now got um I've got a thorn in my hand. I pulled it out when I finished recording this take. Anyway, let's go Along the old road. Look, there's a sign actually Board it says this style I think needs mending An old railway for nature's commuters says a bit of interpretation We're going to find out what's down there Well, the footpath along the railway was a bit too overgrown to walk along So I'm walking along a not quite so overgrown but still pretty overgrown footpath along beside the old railway Um, I'm literally getting caught up in brambles Just about every other step I make we're looking for the site of the Avarni halt Now, this is another strange one like what seems to be the common theme didn't open with the line But it opened well it first appeared in 1887 didn't appear until also 1892 now I've just noticed these two concrete ballards here and quite conveniently There's a hole in the fence. So if we go through here You can see the shadow embankment I think this hole must have been around here somewhere and there's another Another piece of um Concrete there so the hole must have been here now It's a bit of an unusual one this hole and said didn't open with the line as the common theme Wasn't really used by anyone who worked here or by anyone who lived here because there's not much around here There still isn't much round here apart from the motorway. It was used by people Going shooting they closed the rifle range at Wimbledon. They opened one out here I think at one point it might have been known as as runny mead rifle range up from looking on the old map So but it was officially called the Avarni halt and then it closed in 1962 So actually closed three years before the line closed. I'm going to continue along I hope I can continue along here if not, I'll have to go back and walk along The other path which follows the motorway and hopefully we'll eventually Come to the edge of stains once again I've now found my way back onto the old railway track bed that footpath did continue but looking very overgrown But it appears someone's been along with a streamer and streamed the old railway track bed So I've now to walk along here now. We've been gradually climbing We were you know on the very shadow embankment. Look, we're at the height of a bridge now above the grounds and the reason for that is Somewhere up here It would have had to across the Windsor line. So it needed to go up or they obviously didn't want a flat crossing So it's climbed up. We will continue down there towards stains But let's go down here First just because we can and we'll have a look at the one piece of architecture that we've come across so far We have we've been over mead of bridge earlier on over the river, but we've not seen any sort of substantial brick Brick bridges, so I thought it'd be nice to come down here and see that now we get to down here And there's the bridge just there. So what I'm going to do is obviously a public foot bath But I'm going to go back up those steps and follow the track bridge I'm just about 50 yards on from that bridge And we're getting to the point where it crosses the Windsor line the Windsor line is only just there Very overgrown. So I'm not going to go right up to where it crossed it But we'll see if we can see it from somewhere else There's a bit of a path going off down there if I was to follow that that would take me Back to where I started. So I'm going to go back to that railway bridge and follow my way out that way I'll explain why soon somewhere around here. There was a link finally with the two lines So I'll use this opportunity to explain about that the two lines were originally separate because this was the great western one And then there was obviously the other one in stains The two lines weren't ever going to connect but in 1942 a spur was put in about here to connect with the Windsor branch And then once this line became severed another spur was put in on the other side I think as late as 1981 to serve an oil depot But what we'll do we'll look at where that other spur was with the Windsor line I've got an idea where that'll be when we get closer. So I'm now heading back towards west rason But that bridge is just here. So I'm going to go down underneath the bridge and follow the footpath around that way I'm now back on the road. I followed that foot path which went under the railway bridge to the end It took me over the Windsor line and out onto this road here now. I've come to here And um, there's this nicely Mowed flood defence bank and there's since I can't walk along here So I thought I was going to go and have a look along here so you can see another one of the river channels and just up there The Windsor line goes over a bridge over this river. What perhaps I'll do And whatever Windsor line seems to be featuring a bit in today's video Naturally because we're crossing it I've got my branch line Britain series one day. I shall make a branch line Britain video On the Windsor line and then we can look at you know, some of the features of the Windsor line So Windsor line has got some interesting features as well and we can further look into the relationship of the two railways I'm surprised really you can just walk along here, but as I said didn't say you couldn't I think we're probably not going to get any further than beyond The the bridge where the Windsor line goes over it one the reason I want to take you down here is because it was around here where The line we're exploring the stains west branch would have crossed the Windsor line on a bridge as I mentioned We had climbed up quite high Nicely demonstrated by the bridge. Ah, and here we go. In fact you look through there That there's a bridge abutment in those trees about where my finger is There'd have been a bridge a skewed bridge In a similar way to how the Windsor line goes over skewed bridge over the river The stains west branch would have gone on a skewed bridge over there And see what that tree is there the abutment is there I can see it in the tread and how well the camera's picking it out If we stand here You may just feel sees a little bit of masonry brickwork So once you could have stood here and watched trains on two different regions in Well, this line was electrified fairly early on so you'd have probably had early amuse and maybe a great western 1400 and An auto trailer crossing and then later on you'd have had the latery amuse and as I mentioned earlier possibly one two one Bubble cars maybe even earlier days to great western rail cars So this would have been quite an interesting place to see trains of two different regions I'm going to walk back down there and we're going to go and head towards stains west station Having walked along the road. I've now come up this track and I'm on to a quite an interesting bridge or The bridge itself isn't that interesting what I mean is it goes over Quite a few different things. So this is the stains west branch down there not much to see really Over there's another watercourse Then you've got I think the Ragebury river you can see it better on this side The railway line to Windsor Now as along this section that possibly one day it probably won't happen now But it was talked about a few years ago. They could build a line to Heathrow airport So the stains west branch at this point would have gone along there gone up a bit of a ramp and over the Windsor line That road there wouldn't have been here. There's a main stains bypass road. So that's a fairly modern addition As for the Windsor line I think what we'll do if we do a branch line Britain episode of that in the future we can discuss various Points on the Windsor line because like there was a triangle further up where it joined the main line So I don't think we'll put that in today's video So water. Yeah, so that I think I think that's the Ragebury river down there. Of course, that's the winds I think basically got He had railway river railway and that section was in use into the 80s for oil trains This is quite a good place to go blackbreen up here We're now going to cross the Windsor line There was also again, this is for when I do a branch line Britain video on the Windsor line, but Down there there used to be a station called Staines High Street. That was fairly short lived, but we'll Look at the site of that when we do the Windsor line I'm going to, well I'm going to follow a footpath around there and there should be a foot crossing about where that light is And then when we get to there Staines West station was just just over there So we're we're nearly back to where we started. I've just come across the Windsor line I don't like to hang around on railways too much, but the bridge we were on is just there a moment ago So I've walked around there come across here now. What I wanted to show you here was about here What exactly here was the site of the junction that they later put in if you look on the ground you can see rails Here this section rail has been left in There have been a set of points there and you either had track coming off here to join the Staines West So we go down here we come down to the river now to see what we can see whether there was a bridge And I hope there still is a bridge because I need to obviously get to the other side of the river So the footpath runs parallel to the railway and the river down there Let's just go down to the river itself And uh somewhere there must have been a bridge But the railway would have ran into Staines West and Staines West station Would have been over there behind those new houses. Let's go and find it So I'm now on the other side of the Raysbury river and we're nearly at the end of the line So the railway line would have run approximately across here And that building there that is the old Staines West station so let's go and have a closer look So as I said at the beginning It is unique as far as I'm concerned because I'm pretty sure there are no other houses Which have been bought by railway and converted into a railway station If you know of any please do comment and tell me I'll be very interested to hear There's certainly a lot the other way round the stations that used to be Stations have been converted into a house even if the railway is still open You quite often get that on rural lines that the old station is now a house But the other way round is in this case I think is unique The railway would have come literally across here And there's the buffers although that wasn't quite yet in line A bit of been slightly further up there Set of buffers in just to remind people that this was a railway station which I think is quite nice As you can see though they have built completely on this section of railway So this will never open again As I said there's a chance that the section on Staines and more might reopen in part to serve Heathrow airport But um that's for this You know some of them there's always a possibility that this one This this is not going to be open so that isn't going to become a station again in its life It's it's nice it's so old so really it must be the oldest railway station in Britain Look it does say old station muse really it should be old house old station muse but I'm sure on our last candle here somewhere did say Staines West up there It doesn't seem to say that anymore Let's go around the front of the um of the house that became a station which I think is now offices So it's it's it's first career or may have well have been flat in between them That's just to let the offices and parking It'd be funny just to let it and um build a miniature railway out of here just that becomes a station Once again but I don't think that's going to happen We're going to continue round to the front now so this is the front of Staines West station And look at that it does say again I can just see on the front it does say the old station So really we are finishing right now by the oldest railway station in Britain But it's only the oldest railway station in Britain because it wasn't built as a railway station That's originally a Jordan house so hope you enjoyed this video Thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like subscribe share and comment From Staines West station that was originally not a station and now isn't a station again. Thank you very much