Forum Topic

Acton works TfL bollo  Rd  150 years old

Didn’t realise that it’s the main maintenance for TfL Wondering  if it remains when the new high rise gets the go ahead.

Jon morris ● 2313d6 Comments

As I'm sure others will confirm, that part of Acton was London Transport's maintenance hub. The Business Park was where bus maintenance and driver training was done, including the famous skid pan, and the train maintainance depot is still there, now including the London Transport Museum reserve collection. When we moved into our street nearby back in the day, it echoed to the clink of spanners at the weekend as most of our neighbours were engineers or mechanics with London Transport and were fixing their cars.

Peter Evans ● 2313d

In 1961 I started a 5 x year Apprenticeship at Acton Works in Electrical Engineering,it was a hugh repair depot maintaining London Transport's Tube trains. Total employment must have been in excess of 1000 employees that all clocked in at 07.30 in the morning and clocked out again at 16.30. Clocking out was like a steeple chase was the staff exited.My weekly wage was £5

Patrick O Connor ● 2313d

A 5-year apprenticeship!  You must have been a highly qualified engineer at the end of that, Patrick.Just to clarify, although there is an entrance on Bollo Lane, the main Acton Works of London Underground is on the east side of the District/Piccadilly lines.  It's actually in Hounslow borough, part of Turnham Green ward.It's certainly not 150 years old. The District Railway didn't reach Acton Town until 141 years ago.  Acton Works was opened in 1922, 98 years ago.

Richard Jennings ● 2313d

Also the bus works were there off of the Chiswick High Road. In the film ON THE BUSES the skid pan sequence was filmed there. Drivers trained there were second to none. Just like our correspondent who completed a five year apprenticeship. I was at school with a friend whose dad worked in the Underground works. When the time came he followed his dad into the works with an appreticeship. My he was proud, but then again most emploees were.

Nicholas Beard ● 2313d

The London Overground trains actually divided Chiswick Works(bus maintenance) from Action Works(Underground Trains maintenance) Part of the 5 year apprenticeship was spent at Lots Road Power Station on the side of the Thames at Chelsea embankment and also at the Lifts and Escalators Division at Griffin House close to Edgware Road station in Paddington. It was regarded as one of the best Apprenticeship's in the country but it didn't make me a highly qualified engineer as suggested. At 26 years old I was promoted to the role of Mechanical Foreman responsible for the maintenance staff of the Piccadilly line at Northfields Depot in Northfields/Boston Manor. The average age of a London Underground Foreman on the maintenance side was then about 40-45 years old. My time at LT taught me a lot about managing people and life. I finally, after a second bout of college woke my brain up, left London Transport at the age of 33 to join IBM and never looked back. It was as if I had left one decade for a different era.

Patrick O Connor ● 2313d

I understand my grandfather worked somewhere in this complex throughout the war at the Royal Mail garage there - would be interested if anyone knows where that was located. My mother remembers travelling on the tube there with him - I think there were dedicated spurs for accessing some parts?

John Hall ● 2313d