Slough

Slough railway station, in Slough, Berkshire, England, is served by local services operated by Great Western Railway from London Paddington to Reading, Didcot Parkway, Oxford and main line services to Reading, Oxfordand stations to Worcester Shrub Hill, Great Malvern and Hereford on the Cotswold Line. It is also the junction for the Windsor branch. It is 18 miles 36 chains (29.7 km) down the line from Paddington and is situated between Langley to the east and Burnham to the west.

The station is just to the north of the town centre, on the north side of the A4.

History
The first section of the Great Western Railway (GWR), between the original station at Paddington and the original station at Maidenhead, opened on 4 June 1838, but although trains stopped at Slough, there was no actual station: tickets were sold at the Crown Inn.[1] This was because the Act which authorised the construction of the GWR contained a clause which forbade the construction of a station within 3 miles (4.8 km) of Eton College without the permission of the Provost and Fellows of the school; but it did not explicitly prevent trains from stopping for passengers.[2] Following the repeal of the relevant clauses in the GWR Act, the first proper station at Slough opened on 1 June 1840.[3][4] The arrival of the railway led to Queen Victoria making her first railway journey, from Slough to Bishop's Bridge near Paddington, in 1842. Later, a branch to Windsor & Eton Central was built for the Queen's greater convenience. Nowadays, the journey time between Windsor and Slough is six minutes.

Originally, the headmaster of Eton College, Dr. John Keate, had resisted efforts to place a station closer to Eton College than Slough, because he feared that it would "interfere with the discipline of the school, the studies and amusements of the boys, affecting the healthiness of the place, from the increase of floods, and endangering even the lives of boys."[5] This led to Slough station becoming, temporarily at least, the Royal Station. It is much bigger and grander than other stations in the area to accommodate its role at the time.

Windsor & Eton Central railway station (served from Slough) and Windsor & Eton Riverside railway station both opened in 1849 despite the opposition from the College.

Its approach road, Mackenzie Street, which ran from the Great West Road to the station, was much wider than an approach road would otherwise have needed to have been. This was to accommodate the Queen's carriages and entourage. Slough High Street was originally part of the Great West Road, which has now been diverted via Wellington Street, allowing the High Street to be largely pedestrianised. Thus Mackenzie Street became a cul-de-sac in 1970 when Wellington Street was redeveloped, and is now part of the Queensmere Shopping Centre. The remainder of Mackenzie Street, north of the redeveloped Wellington Street, was (along with Station Approach) renamed Brunel Way.

Opposite the railway station once stood the equally grand Royal Hotel (now demolished).

On 1 January 1845, John Tawell, who had recently returned from Australia, murdered his lover, Sarah Hart, at Salt Hill in Slough by giving her a glass of stout poisoned with cyanide of potash. With various officials in chase, Tawell fled to Slough Station and boarded a train to Paddington. The electric telegraph had been installed between Paddington and Slough in 1843, and a message was sent ahead to Paddington with Tawell's details. Tawell was trailed and subsequently arrested, tried and executed for the murder at Aylesbury on 28 March 1845.[6] This is believed to be the first time that the telegraph had been involved in the apprehension of a murderer.

From 1 March 1883, the station was served by District Railway services running between Mansion House and Windsor & Eton Central. The service was discontinued as uneconomic after 30 September 1885.[7][8]

On 8 September 1884 the original station was closed and replaced by the present station, situated 220 yards (200 m) to the west of the old.[4]

1900 accident
Main article: Slough rail accident

On 16 June 1900, an express train from Paddington to Falmouth Docks ran through two sets of signals at danger, and collided with a local train from Paddington to Windsor which was standing in the station. The driver of the express only noticed the signal immediately before the platform; he made an emergency brake application and reversed the engine, but was unable to prevent the collision. Five passengers on the local train were killed. The official enquiry ruled that a primary cause of the accident was the poor physical condition of the driver, due to his age (60 years) and fatigue; the accident was at 1:41 in the afternoon, and he had started duty at 05:00 that morning. The guard and fireman of the express were also criticised for failing to notice that their train had passed the danger signals. This accident was instrumental in the introduction of Automatic Train Control on the Great Western Railway.[9]

1994 accident
On the evening of 2 November 1994 a Class 165 Turbo train crashed through the buffer stop of platform 6, after failing to slow down due to poor rail adhesion on the approach to the crossover. It is estimated that the train had only reduced its speed from 56 miles per hour (90 km/h) to approximately 30 miles per hour (50 km/h) at the time of collision, apparently skidding for some 1,200 yards (1,100 m) through three sets of points (which had approved speeds of 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) on the relief lines, 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) for the Platform 6 bay). Evidence gathered at the scene by investigators suggested that the train, had it not hit the buffers, could have continued for another 910 yards (830 m). There had been light drizzle on the evening in question.

This was only one of a number of instances in which Class 165/166 Turbo trains had overshot platforms and run through red lights. These incidents led to driver retraining and the teaching of defensive driving techniques during the autumn leaf fall season. The main contributing factor was the change of braking system from brake shoes (which effectively cleaned the wheel each time the brakes were applied) on the previous DMU fleet to disc brakes, which allow the mulch from the rails to adhere to the wheel, leading to poor rail adhesion. This also led to regular sanding of the rails on all lines affected.[10]

£200,000 drugs arrest
On 30 September 2009 the station made news when a passenger James Docherty was arrested in the station by the British Transport Police (BTP) for being in possession of 200,000 tablets of diazepam, a sedative sometimes sold under the brand-name Valium. The 200,000 tablets found in his suitcase are thought to be the largest amount of illegal drugs seized by the British Transport Police from one passenger.

Docherty was caught when he was noticed acting suspiciously by BTP Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Dan Sykes who upon approaching him found the tablets and then detained him.

Docherty was tried and found guilty at Reading Crown Court. He admitted possessing Class C drugs with intent to supply. He was subsequently jailed for 15 months.