trains an hour with a 70-minute timing in 1885. Initially guards were permitted no relief breaks during their shift until September 1885 when they were permitted three 20-minute breaks. South to Wimbledon Several schemes to cross the Thames at Putney Bridge to Guildford, Surbiton or Wimbledon had been proposed and received approval from Parliament, although the District had been unable to raise the necessary funding. In 1886 the L&SWR replaced these plans with the Wimbledon and Fulham Railway that started on the west side of Wimbledon and crossing Thames to meet the District's Putney Bridge station. The line had intermediate stations at Wimbledon Park, Southfields and East Putney and a junction connected the line to the L&SWR's Waterloo to Reading Line just north of East Putney station. The District had running rights and extended some Putney services to Wimbledon on 3 June 1889. East to East Ham In 1897 the nominally independent Whitechapel & Bow Railway received permission for a link from the District Railway at Whitechapel to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR) at an above-ground junction at Bow, to the west of Bromley station. The LT&SR and District jointly took over the company the following year and the line opened on 2 June 1902 with new stations at Stepney Green, Mile End and Bow Road. Some District services were extended from Whitechapel to East Ham and one train each morning and evening ran through to Upminster. In July 1902 four trains an hour ran from Bow Road (2 to 3 from East Ham) to Ealing or Wimbledon and two trains an hour from New Cross served Hammersmith or Richmond. The outer circle continued to run from Mansion House, the GWR's middle circle having started at Earl's Court from 1900. The District sought to serve Harrow and Uxbridge and in 1892 a route from Ealing to Roxeth (South Harrow) was surveyed and a bill presented in the name of the nominally independent Ealing and South Harrow Railway (E&SHR). Construction started in 1897 and by the end of 1899 it was largely complete, but with low traffic prospects remained unopened. To reach Uxbridge a line from South Harrow via Ruislip was authorised in 1897. The District had problems raising the finance and the Metropolitan offered a rescue package whereby they would build a branch from Harrow to Rayners Lane and take over the line to Uxbridge, with the District