From the Northern Heights to the Eastern Extremities
Epping Signalling Museum is proud to display a model of what could have been the extension to the Northern Line from Mill Hill East to Bushey Heath.
Although construction was started, the line was never completed and Elstree remains to this day without a tube connection.
During 1935 the London Passenger Transport Board as TfL was then called, announced plans to extend several lines under the banner of the 'New Works Programme'. Work had started on the extension from Edgware to Bushey Heath by mid '39 with a viaduct and tunnel partly built but then war broke out in Sept '39 and further work was suspended.
At the end of the war much had changed and the Green Belt (London and Home Counties) Act 1938 had come into effect, halting any plans to build housing along the route. With no large numbers of passengers envisaged, the financial investment would never be recouped so the planned extension was consigned to history.
The model was on display at the Borehamwood & Elstree Museum until the end of 2022 and has survived remarkably well being dismantled, driven across Hertfordshire and Essex and then reassembled at the Museum. The model railway will now be running every Saturday.
