Bow railway works

In 1908 the North London Railway was merged with the London and North Western Railway, and thereafter the works reverted to locomotive repairs. The North London Railway line was included in the L.N.W.R. electrification scheme between 1914 and 1923. The L.N.W.R. was in turn grouped with other railways in North west England and Scotland to form the London Midland and Scottish Railway on 1 January 1923. Bow works was then the smallest of fifteen workshops owned by that company, but was one of the newest and best equipped. From 1927 it also became responsible for repairs to locomotives from the former London, Tilbury and Southend Railway following the closure of the repair facility at Plaistow. In the 1930s the works developed and manufactured the Hudd automatic train warning system for the L.T.S.R., which later led to a British Railways (BR) team from the national headquarters setting up in Bow to develop BR's standard Automatic Warning System. The workshop, was badly damaged during the blitz and the wagon workshop destroyed. In 1956 the workshop repaired diesel-electric locomotives for the nearby motive power depot at Devons Road (the first in the U.K. to become all-diesel). The works closed in 1960, and the workload was transferred to Derby Works. ==References==