I was born during World War 2 and lived in Ealing for a while before moving to Acton, then lived subsequently not far away in Middlesex from about 1949-50 until 1957 (when my family moved to Kent).

After passing the 11+ Examination I attended Acton County Grammar School - my First Choice in the three "would like to attend" schools we had to nominate in connection with that examination, before sitting the exam, from 1954 until early 1957. Acton County Grammar School was near Acton Town Station and adjacent to part of the Underground's Ealing Common Depot. Some of the School's classrooms were alongside the Ealing Common Depot's storage sidings, and I well remember seeing C, D and E Class former District Railway stock stabled in those sidings (where I also saw a newly-modified equipment-wise, from Metadyne O and P Class stock) set of COP Class arrive and stable. The sidings also had regular visits by former Metropolitan Locomotive No. 9, which I think was stabled at the Depot if not at the nearby Acton Works; at that time this locomotive still wore the grey livery in which the locomotives of this class were painted during the wartime.

I was very pleased to see your website as I've always been nterested in the London Underground system (other railways, too - and I've been a working member on a heritage railway for 23 years, and since 2003 I've also been working on the restoration of the Class 37 locomotive which my oldest son bought that year).

My Father was born in Bollo Lane, in a house not far from the overbridge, and when we lived in Acton my family's houses (we started off at a house not far from the one in which my Father was born, and later on moved a few doors along) were in Bollo Lane. All of the houses concerned, along with many others, were demolished around 1960 but I haven't yet researched this aspect during my writing-up of our Family History.

My choice of Acton County Grammar School was due to my feeling for the Acton area and the opportunity to visit my Grandmother and Aunts living in Bollo Lane. Many were the times I visited South Acton Station during the years I lived in Acton and then in Middlesex, and having revisited the station during 2005, I noticed that the former footbridge had been replaced and the two North London Line platforms shortened to 3-coach lengths (trains, in the "old"days, were 6 coaches long).

I can still visualise the road approach on the northern side of South Acton Station when the District Line Branch operated, and how the District Line track continued for a short distance beyond the Stop Lamp (with the former rail connection's ramp down to the level of the North London Line's Up Track). The Branch services were normally operated by one of the two G (latterly Q23) Class motor coaches - 4167 & 4176 - which were modified to become double-ended (cab each end) for these services; I recall seeing other Q-Class stock, in the form of a pair of motor coaches running back-to-back, working these services if 4167 & 4176 weren't available.

North London Line services through South Acton Station were worked by Oerlikon stock but I remember seeing a set of LMS Compartment EMU stock working a Richmond-bound service (one of the very few photographs I took in those days: must find the photograph!) on one occasion and it's possible that either type of stock was used (as was the case on the DC Lines from Euston to Watford). Other South Acton memories include -

(1) A "Black 5" locomotive-hauled passenger train of maroon-liveried corridor stock heading westwards over Bollo Lane South Level Crossing (i.e. the Richmond line, not the Kew and Feltham freight line), but I saw it from a distance as I was walking along Bollo Lane so didn't record the working.

(2) The regular steam-hauled coal train which ran through South Acton station then took the freight-only curve, close to Chiswick Park Station but at a different level, from the NLL to join up with the District Line track between Turnham Green and Stamford Brook Stations (the District Line track was accessed via the Piccadilly Line eastbound track between Chiswick Park and Turnham Green Stations then a long link from the Piccadilly to the District; and on the last occasion I travelled along this section of the Piccadilly Line the remains of the underbridge which the coal workings used to access the Piccadilly's eastbound line, by passing under the westbound track, were still visible). These coal trains ran to the Coal Depot behind West Kensington Station, and on the return trip used the District Line's Richmond-direction track back to the South Acton curve's junction close to Chiswick Park Station.

(3) The friendly Signalman at Bollo Lane South Level Crossing who showed me how the signalbox worked and who kindly gave a young me an interesting old railway book which 50+ years on is still in my possession.

(4) Regular coal and other freight trains passing through South Acton Station and using the Kew and Feltham route via Bollo Lane North Level Crossing. In those days there was an Express Dairy Depot, and a side entrance to Chiswick Bus Works, between the two level crossings; and there was a road access, to the Underground's Acton Works, on the south side of and adjacent to the west-side overbridge abutment where the South Acton Branch cossed Bollo Lane.

I now have an answer to why in the 1950's my Grandmother referred to the South Acton Branch Line service as "The Ginny" - there was a steam railmotor service, from South Acton to a Hammersmith & Chiswick Station (where I recall seeing, many years after passenger services ceased, a BR steam locomotive shunting at the coal depot) and the steam railmotor was known locally as "Little Jenny" and the name seems to have lived on since that steam railmotor and the replacement petrol-powered version finished in 1916.