The Railway, Putney, SW15

This was a Bass Charrington pub with a "notorious" reputation that was given the daft name "Drummonds" before Wetherspoon took it over in 1993. It's a fairly typical old school Spoons that could just as easily have been a Bank conversion rather than an original pub. The twelve pumps were all in use with no silly duplicates or annoying "Available Soon". The selection was GK Ruddles and Abbot, three ciders, Tetley Gold, Doombore, By The Horns Diamond Geezer, Portobello American Pale Ale, WJ King Poacher's Moon, Sambrook's Junction and Thwaite's Lancaster Bomber. I went for the Portobello which was in very good nick. My visit was slightly marred by the short pint I was offered and the fact that after asking for a top up was returned with hardly any change to it. Putting that aside, I thought this was one of the better Spoons and I would happily return.

Large Wetherspoon's over two floors.had a good selection of real ales at very reasonable prices

Might be a Spoons with all of the usual Spoons issues, but on 30th October at 1pm, they had beer and the Bricklayers at the other end of town had run out! A couple of nice pints went down before Sunday lunch at the POW. (Originally reviewed on BITE).

Recently refurbished and certainly better for it, the Railway is a JDW on two levels, the upper floor accessed via a wide open stair in the middle of the pub or via a conventional staircase in the rear corner. The rear staircase has a storey height stained glass window depicting trains in a station. The ground floor is a typical 'spoons layout with the bar along a side wall, a slightly raised area to the rear with a few booths. Some local history stuff on the walls including potted biographies of a few local dignitaries from times past. There is a mix of seating including sofas. The front windows fold back to allow in air and light but also traffic noise. The upper floor feels rather sedate, there are large bookcases, framed engineering drawings of locomotives, pictures of steam trains and so on. The layout as the area wraps around the middle stair is such that there are quiet corners, unusual for a JDW. There is another bar up here but you won't get the guest ales, you need to go downstairs for these. Five guests on plus the usual Ruddles, Pride etc and a couple of ciders. I had a pint of Hogs Back England's Glory which I haven't seen before, it was in good condition (£2.45). So seemingly on the up, certainly based on my late afternoon midweek visit anyway, I'd stop by again.

Currently closed for what looks like a significant rip-out/refurb.