Editing Yiewsley (section)

====The Great Western Railway and West Drayton Station (''West Drayton and Yiewsley Station'')====
The construction of the [[Great Western Railway]] (GWR) began in 1835 and the line between [[London Paddington station|Paddington]] and [[Maidenhead]] was opened on 4 June 1838 with [[West Drayton railway station|West Drayton]] being its first station.<ref name="Dublin Evening Post">{{cite news |title=Opening of The Great Western Railway |publisher=The Dublin Evening Post |date=5 June 1838 |page=7}}</ref><ref name="Disused Stations">{{cite web |last1=Catford |first1=Nick |title=Disused Stations |url=http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/west_drayton/ |website=disused-stations.org.uk |access-date=16 June 2020}}</ref> The locomotive ''Vulcan'' had become the first to run on the Great Western Railway on 28 December 1837 when it completed a successful mile and a half test run down the line from Yiewsley to Iver. Having been constructed in [[Newton-le-Willows]] by [[GWR Charles Tayleur locomotives|Charles Tayleur & Co.]], the locomotive, together with another engine called ''Premier'' had been taken by barge from the London docks and unloaded between Horton Bridge and West Drayton Station.<ref name="Images West Drayton and Yiewsley" /> On 9 April 1839 the world's first commercial telegraph was inaugurated between Paddington and West Drayton Station by [[Cooke and Wheatstone telegraph|William Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone]].<ref name="Disused Stations" /> A GWR branch line to [[Uxbridge (Vine Street) branch line|Uxbridge Vine Street]] was opened on 8 September 1856.<ref name="Gloucester Journal">{{cite news |title=Railways |publisher=Gloucester Journal |date=13 September 1856 |page=4}}</ref> 
[[File:An early Great Western broad gauge engine Vulcan.jpg|thumb|upright|Vulcan, the first locomotive on the Great Western Railway]]
On the afternoon of 6 February 1874 a double collision occurred in thick fog  on the mainline by Horton Bridge. The 10.25am Exeter Express drawn by the locomotive ''Prometheus'' traveling at around 60mph towards Paddington collided with the rear of a stationary Bristol goods train ladened with timber and blocks of Bath stone which was in the process of being moved into sidings. The trains were rammed together piling up to a considerable height six or seven of the vans and store trucks of the goods train, scattering some of the wreckage, blocks of Bath stone and logs of timber and other goods over the railway, completely blocking both up and down line. The 2.15pm locomotive No. 583 from Paddington then ran into the debris throwing it off the line and derailing several of the carriages, which however were not overturned. The engine driver and fireman of the locomotive were saved by jumping clear before the impact. The guard of the Exeter Express was a fatality in the accident, but there were no serious injuries inflicted on any of the passengers.<ref>{{cite news |title=The West Drayton Railway Accident |publisher=The Berkshire Chronicle |date=14 February 1874 |page=6}}</ref>          

West Drayton station was relocated east to its present position on Station Approach from Tavistock Road on the 9 April 1884, four months before a second branch line, operated by the [[Staines and West Drayton Railway]] (S&WDR) was opened on the 9 August 1884.<ref name="Disused Stations" /> In 1895 the station was renamed ''West Drayton and Yiewsley station''.<ref name="Directory of Railway Stations">{{cite book |last1=Butt |first1=R.V.J. |title=The Directory of Railway Stations |date=1995 |publisher=Patrick Stephens Limited, Sparkford |isbn=1852605081 |page=245}}</ref>