Return to Silvertown and the Silvertown Tramway

Silvertown was a station on the North Woolwich Branch of the former North London Line. By 1990 the North London Line had been reduced to a single track. The Up line been retained as a freight only link to what was known locally as the Silvertown Tramway. The tramway followed the route of the original North Woolwich line. In its heyday a maze of lines radiated off this route which formed a freight artery through the Port of London's Royal Victoria Dock and Thames Wharf area. It linked back onto the North Woolwich branch just south of Canning Town station at Thames Wharf Junction.

The last freight workings to use the tramway was a flow of scrap metal from Ward Ferrous Metals Ltd, a scrapyard just to the west of Silvertown station. This scapped closed in 1991 so bring to an end the freight movements in the Silvertown area.

The section of the North London Line between Stratford and North Woolwich was closed in 2006 along with all the stations along the route. The section of trackbed to Canning Town was later incorporated into the Dockland Light Railway (DLR) network.

Crossrail have now reclaimed the section of disused trackbed of the former North London Line which ran from Custom House to Silvertown and this been incorporated into the branch of the new Elizabeth Line to Abbey Wood.