During the 2012 Olympics special timetables operated including trains from Willesden Junction bay road to Stratford.

As a non-Londoner, at the age of 18, I had a week's holiday in London, my first independent holiday without my family. This enabled me to get in all the sight-seeing, I needed to do in London and to go to the theatre most evenings. I came across Broad Street Station when having a day trip to Southend from Liverpool Street. Exploring Broad Street the next day I realised I could get a train to Gunnerbury and return to central London on the District Line.

The Line was called the Harlequin Line due to the shopping centre that opened in Watford "The Harlequin Centre" opened June 1992 and the Harlequin was the same as the one painted next to the name on the train sides

Thanks for this detailed history. I used Broad Street station back in the 1960s, and it was - as you say - in a process of 'managed decline'. These days, the North London Line from Stratford has a good service, though it is an important freight route and probably couldn't handle any more passenger trains. The interchange at Willesden Junction is not bad (though is there a lift?), so journey times involving that change are good. At one point I remember a proposal to take the DC lines below ground at Euston and extend them to Bank - that would be a faster route to the City,, and would mean those Euston ground-level platforms could be used more effectively/ Presumably it would justify a more frequent service to Watford, and the Bakerloo could revert to terminating at QP - enabling level boarding on the DC lines stations (with a bit of track work).

GreT Video. Croxley Green was a Bea ch FROM Watford Junction. left From the old line to Ricky. Aso Croxly green was the Depot for the 501s(as well as two Roads for Bakerloo line trains.

Pedantically speaking, Stratford is part of West Ham, which was an independant County Borough of Essex until 1965. The old LCC boundary was the River Lea.

Great informative video.

I use this line all the time and have been going back to when Silverlink who were part of National Express ran it. It was a very unreliable service in the Silverlink days. It has improved massively since London Overground took over.

I lived on the DC line during the latter years of the Liverpool Street services. A couple of points I could add. As I remember the final services from DC to Liverpool Street ran as a shuttle from Willesden Junction only, not the full length of the line. The real reason for the service ending was need for additional rolling stock on the North London Line. On Saturdays, the Watford DC line used 6 coach trains, presumably utilising rolling stock used on the Liverpool Street service on weekdays. This also ended around the same time as Liverpool Street services. The poor reputation of the line was at least partly due to the bottleneck at H&W. Until the 1980s re-signalling there were two turnback sidings at H&W controlled by a complex set of points operated from a signal box at the end of platform 1. If the points failed, or the signalman was unavailable Bakerloo Line trains could not operate. One turnback siding was removed simplifying the points with centralised control from Willesden (I think). Also a crossover south of the station allowed trains to head south from platform 1 without needing to use the turnback siding.

Graham Rd Curve was handy for shuttling peaktime empty 317s between Liverpool St and their midday storage at Hornsey, back in the WAGN era \m/

Great video. Still use the DC line today after 20 years and didn't know most of the history that you covered, very interesting!

I travelled on the Watford Junction

Brilliant video thanks!

AS A CHILD WE USE TO USE THE TRAIN SERVICE AT PRIMROSE HILL NEVER DID UNDERSTAND WHY IT CLOSED IN THE LATE 60`S

I used part of the Watford to Stratford service on both days, between West Hampstead and Stonebridge Park, for work journeys. On thé Sunday evening, going back towards WHD, a young lady glanced up from her phone near Brondesbury and asked ‘when do we get to Queens Park?’ 😂 I had to tell her about the fact we were headed to Stratford and not Euston, which freaked her out. ‘But I was trying to get to London Bridge, what do I do?’ So I told her to follow me off at West Hampstead, and then cross the road to the Jubilee Line station, where she could go direct to London Bridge (instead of her planned route via Queen’s Park and a change at Baker Street)

Well presented, detailed and information. Nice!

Harlequin is a reference to the large shopping centre in Watford which is near Watford High Street Station. It was called the Harlequin until about 10 years ago but all the car parks in Watford are called Kings, Queens, Church, Palace etc

I did the route on Saturday and it was great. It worked really well and loads of people liked it. I think in a sense I think it brings good connections for that little time. Although the lines are good separate as well. So it depends on where you were travelling and whether you would rather get to your destination quickly or you don't mind staying on the train because it would mean not changing.

There is empty trackbed between Highbury and Camden, though, with some thoughts of a service connection between HS2 under Primrose Hill and HS1 at King's Cross, running behind the Camden Town Stables.

Great video SNL. This somesouthlondoner will definitely use this as reference for my travels around the London/TfL network.