page_title: District Railway
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: District Railway / History / Electrification, 1900–1906 / Development
caption_attribution_description: Lots Road Power Station, London, England. Photographed by Adrian Pingstone in June 2005 and released to the public domain.
context_page_description: The Metropolitan District Railway was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete the inner circle, an underground railway in London, the first part of the line opened using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. The Metropolitan Railway operated all services until the District introduced its own trains in 1871. The railway was soon extended westwards through Earl's Court to Fulham, Richmond, Ealing and Hounslow. After completing the inner circle and reaching Whitechapel in 1884, it was extended to Upminster in Essex in 1902.
  To finance electrification at the beginning of the 20th century, American financier Charles Yerkes took it over and made it part of his Underground Electric Railways Company of London group. Electric propulsion was introduced in 1905, and by the end of the year electric multiple units operated all of the services. On 1 July 1933, the District Railway and the other UERL railways were merged with the Metropolitan Railway and the capital's tramway and bus operators to form the London Passenger Transport Board.
context_section_description: At the start of the 20th century the District and Metropolitan railways faced increased competition in central London from new, electric, deep-level tube lines. The City & South London Railway had been a great success when it opened in 1890. After the opening of the Central London Railway in 1900 from Shepherd's Bush to the City with a flat rate fare of 2d, the District and Metropolitan together lost four million passengers between the second half of 1899 and the second half of 1900. The use of steam propulsion led to smoke-filled stations and carriages that were unpopular with passengers and electrification was seen as the way forward. However, electric traction was still in its infancy and agreement would be needed with the Metropolitan because of the shared ownership of the inner circle. A jointly owned train of six coaches successfully ran an experimental passenger service on the Earl's Court to High Street Kensington section for six months in 1900. Tenders were then requested and in 1901 a Metropolitan and District joint committee recommended the Ganz three-phase AC system with overhead wires. Initially this was accepted by both parties.
  The District found an investor to finance the upgrade in 1901, American Charles Yerkes. On 15 July 1901, Yerkes established the Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company with himself as managing director and raised £1 million to carry out the electrification, including construction of the generating station and supplying the new rolling stock. Yerkes soon had control of the District Railway and his experiences in the United States led him to favour DC with a track level conductor rail similar to that in use on the City & South London Railway and Central London Railway. After arbitration by the Board of Trade, the DC system was adopted.
  The District had permission for a deep-level tube beneath the sub-surface line between Earl's Court and Mansion House and in 1898 bought the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway with authority for a tube from South Kensington to Piccadilly Circus. These plans were combined with those of the Great Northern and Strand Railway, a tube railway with permission to build a line from Strand to Wood Green, to create the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (GNP&BR). The section of the District's deep-level tube from South Kensington to Mansion house was dropped from plans. In April 1902, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL) was established, with Yerkes as chairman, to control these companies and manage the planned works. On 8 June 1902, the UERL took over the Traction Company and paid off the company's shareholders with cash and UERL shares.
  The UERL built a large power station that would be capable of providing power for the District lines and the underground lines planned. Work began in 1902 at Lots Road, by Chelsea Creek and in February 1905 Lots Road Power Station began generating electricity at 11 kV ​33 ¹⁄₃ Hz, conveyed by high voltage cables to substations that converted this to approximately 550V DC.
  While the power station was being built, the District electrified the Ealing to Harrow line that was not yet open. It was equipped with automatic signalling using track circuits and pneumatic semaphore signals, and trials were run with two seven car trains. In August 1903, an order was placed for 420 cars and a new maintenance depot was built west of Mill Hill Park (now Acton Town).
  After the trials, the line to South Harrow opened in June 1903, from 23 June with a shuttle to Park Royal & Twyford Abbey (now Park Royal) for that year's Royal Agricultural Show. The rest of the line to South Harrow opened the following week on 28 June, with stations at North Ealing, Park Royal & Twyford Abbey, Perivale-Alperton (now Alperton), Sudbury Town, Sudbury Hill and South Harrow.
caption: Originally built with four chimneys, Lots Road Power Station provided electricity for all of the UERL's lines
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