So normally, when something is titled with a question mark, the answer is "no." But today,
I find myself in the position of genuinely being on the fence about the answer to this question.
Normally I just look up something definitive, but I have looked it up,
and to be honest, I don't think there really is a definitive answer.
In many ways, it was pretty stupid of me to ask the question in the first place. So, a short
while ago, I made a video about how the District Railway very briefly ran to Windsor in the 1880s,
and I'd heard that there had been a Metropolitan Railway service there in 1863. i considered
mentioning this in that video, but I wasn't sure. The sources I had were conflicting. Christian
Wolmar's book, 'The Subterranean Railway," seems to think that there was such a service.
But in J E Connor's book, Abandoned Stations on London's Underground,' there's no mention of it.
By the way, I'd recommend both those books if you like the stuff I do on this channel. Oddly enough,
though, the breakthrough came with a book I bought on a second-hand book stand on the Great Western
Railway's suburban services. The fact is, it's complicated. I'll try to explain it as best I can.
From 1863, there were indeed trains from the Metropolitan Railway to Windsor, but they were not
run by the Metropolitan Railway, and this is where things get a bit confusing. Building a railway is
an expensive and risky business. Most railways do not turn a large profit, and that goes all the way
back to the middle of the 19th century. In fact, one of the big arguments against privatisation of
railways is just that, but that is a whole other debate that i'm not going to get into here. The
point I'm making is that often, companies building a railway would attempt to reduce their costs by
forming an alliance with a larger company. That company would supply the trains and operate the
line. To all intents and purposes, the new railway would become part of the larger company's network.
The larger company, in return, gets a new route that connects to their existing lines.
Revenue is shared, and because the two railways together can serve more destinations, it's much
higher than if the new company goes it alone. Sometimes, over time, the larger company will
buy the smaller company out completely. Sometimes that was the intention from the very start.
This is basically how the Metropolitan Railway was envisaged: they would build the actual line
from Farringdon Street to Bishop's Road in Paddington. There would be a connection to
the Great Western Railway's Paddington station. The Great Western was the larger company that
would operate the trains. The GWR was already a major company who had done all this before.
They controlled an extensive network of lines from London into the West Country, Wales and the
Midlands. They didn't have much of an interest in commuter railways, but entering into an agreement
with the Metropolitan was a relatively low risk way of getting into it. They agreed to operate
the Met and they paid some of the costs towards its construction. Bishop's Road station was owned
by them outright. They even built a new class of locomotive especially to work the service, known,
appropriately, as the Metropolitan tanks. So the long and short of it is that when Metropolitan
Railway trains first ran on the 10th of January 1863, they were in fact Great Western Railway
trains. I suspect that the GWR actually intended in the long run to buy the Metropolitan out. We'd
have a pretty different Underground map if they did. Say, maybe that's an idea for another video!
In July of 1863, though, the alliance between the two companies broke down. One of the problems
with this kind of arrangement is that the small company is at the mercy of the large company.
The Metropolitan wanted more trains to run. The GWR refused. The other problem was that the
Metropolitan wanted to extend to Moorgate, but the GWR would only contribute in exchange for shares.
This is why i think they intended to buy the Met out. The dispute was eventually resolved, but at
a cost to both parties. The GWR lost the right to operate the trains over the Met and the Met would
buy and run their own trains and finally, finally, i get to the point. Despite no longer operating
the Met, the GWR retained the right to run trains of their own over it. On the 1st of October 1863,
the first trains ran from Farringdon to Windsor. These would run from Farringdon
over the Metropolitan to Paddington. There, they'd switch to the GWR main line and run on.
From 1894, the service went from Aldgate and in 1910, from Liverpool Street. At the western end,
they also ran trains to High Wycombe, Staines, Reading and Uxbridge. Sometimes the coaches would
be coupled to the back of another service at Paddington. The service was steam-hauled until
the 1st of January 1907, when it was agreed to hand the coaches over to a Metropolitan electric
locomotive at Paddington for the journey into the city. Which kind of brings things full circle,
from the Great Western Railway operating Metropolitan services to the Metropolitan hauling
Great Western trains. In 1933, the Metropolitan became an official part of the London Underground.
By this time, the Underground was very much a concept distinct from a conventional railway,
so a lot of the older, more "railway-ish" services (if you like) were cut. That
included the GWR trains into the city in 1939. So there's your answer.
As far as I'm aware, there was never a service run by the Metropolitan railway
into Windsor, but there was a service over the Metropolitan railway to Windsor. And indeed,
to many other places. Whether you count that as an Underground train or not is really up to you.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this debatable Tale from the Tube. If you did, please do show the world
by clicking the like button and perhaps subscribing for more. I must admit,
the "what if" question surrounding the Met being taken over is one that kind of fascinates me.
Would it be self-indulgent to make a video on it, or is that something you'd like to see?
Let me know in the comments section down below. I'd like to give thanks as ever
to my donors on Ko-Fi and Patreon, you are the electric locomotive to my Windsor train.
And I'll see you all again very soon for another Tale from the Tube.