Lillie Bridge Depot

Lillie Bridge Depot is a historic English traction maintenance depot on the London Underground Piccadilly and District lines, situated in between West Brompton and West Kensington stations in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It is accessed from the District line tracks between Earl's Court and West Kensington or between Earl's Court and Kensington .

The Depot was constructed in 1871, when the Metropolitan District Railway gave notice to the Metropolitan Railway, who were running their trains for them, that they would henceforth run their own trains. Lillie Bridge Depot was built on derelict land to the west of Earl's Court, to provide stabling and maintenance facilities for the District Railway's rolling stock. In 1905, the District was extended, and a new depot at Ealing Common replaced Lillie Bridge. A year later, the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway, later the Piccadilly line, was opened, and the depot was reconfigured to provide stabling and maintenance for their trains. Parts of it were used as a permanent way depot, until 1932, when extensions to the Piccadilly line created a new depot at Northfields, and the site was purely used by engineering departments. It was reconfigured at this time, and again in 1962 and 1987. It housed a flash butt welding plant for producing long welded rails between 1937 and the completion of the Victoria line, when this facility was transferred to Ruislip depot. Subsequently, it was used for maintenance of London Underground's fleet of battery locomotives.

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