Elevated railway serving  Retort Houses.

Beckton Gas Works had two railway systems: the low level and the high level. This view, with coal shute in the background, shows a tiny part of the elevated system that was built to feed coal to fourteen Retort Houses, which burned coal to produce Town Gas  and Coke.

This high level system ran on average 22 feet above ground, with a total track length of nearly six miles and encompassing  90 of the 280 acres of the Works' site. Rails were laid on longitudinal timbers  with cross ties all carried on wrought iron girders supported by concrete-filled cast iron  columns. Like any railway, the traffic had to be controlled from signal boxes, of which there were three on the whole sytem. Connection between  the high and low levels was by three separate inclines. By this means  coal could be taken to the Retorts and by-products removed and distributed around the Works. Even in the early days of operation over 1000 tons of coal a day were handled.

By 1973 the 1200 yard central viaduct serving the retort house had been lifted.

(Newham Heritage & Archives - text abridged from The Beckton Railway 1868-1970 byA.R.H., Sept., 1974)