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The Woodside & South Croydon Railway
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Croydon's
'Back Garden Railway' connected Woodside & Selsdon. The line finally closed
on Friday 13th May 1983 after 98 years of precarious existence. Threats
of closure were nothing new to this line - at a board meeting of the Joint
Management Committee in 1895 the company solicitor was instructed to consider
and report on the powers and advisability of closing the line.
When local passenger services were withdrawn in 1915 as a wartime economy
the annual loss was running at over £2000. |
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The
original completion date was set for 1st November 1882 but had to be extended
by a year due to non-availability of land. The first track to be laid
was the junction at Woodside which was completed with a three hundred
length of track in February 1883. The construction of the extra tunnel
and continuous bad weather combined to delay the planed opening date until
late 1884.
The
Board of Trade inspection was carried on the 21st October 1884 by Major
General Hutchinson who was not over impressed by what he saw and would
not sanction opening until many changes had been made. These were mainly
to the signalling system and the track layout at Woodside He also required
all station platforms to have slopes at each end rather than steps. Faced
with B.O.T.s list of objections the opening date was put back again to
1st December 1884. However the Board were still not happy with the facilities
provided at Woodside for passengers changing trains, so the station was
rebuilt to include a road level booking hall and a passenger shelter on
the down platform resulting in a further delay of eight months. The line
finally opened on 10th August 1885 without ceremony or enthusiasm from
the local inhabitants. The local brewers Nalder & Collyer showed sufficient
confidence in the future of the line by applying for planning permission
to build two hotels, one at Coombe Lane and the other at Selsdon Road,
but the local magistrates refused to grant a licence on the grounds that
there were no houses nearby.
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The
S.E.R. provided the locomotives and rolling stock for the initial service
of ten trains a day in each direction, using Cudworth 2-4-0s with an assortment
of four and six wheeled coaches, and vans as required. The S.E.R. continued
to operate the service until 31st December 1886 when the L.B.S.C.R. took
over using a Terrier from West Croydon shed and a close coupled set of four
wheeled coaches. |
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Locos
known to have been used on this service are N0.70 'Poplar', No. 71 'Wapping'
and No. 72 'Fenchurch'. The L.B.S.C.R. continued to operate the service
until they had run the same number of passenger miles as the S.E.R. The
S.E.R. resumed the running on 1st July 1888 and from then on the two companies
alternated each year. By 1903 the Brighton Terrier was being provided
by Stoats Nest (Coulsdon) shed and was required to perform shunting duties
between its passenger trips at Selsdon Road and Sanderstead.
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the early years of the century the railways saw increasing competition
from tramways and omnibuses, so in common with many other branch lines
it was decided that railmotors might be the answer to this loss of
passenger traffic. Two new halts were constructed for this new venture,
one between Selsdon Road and Coombe Lane and the other between Coombe
Lane and Woodside, being named Spencer Road Halt and Bingham Road
Halt respectively. |
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The
two halts were identical in appearance being constructed from old
sleepers at a cost of £205-11-7d the pair. The only features on the
one hundred foot platforms were the wooden name boards and a row of
posts for the hanging of oil lamps during the winter months. The halt
at Bingham Road, originally to have been called Addiscombe Park, was
conveniently situated for the tram terminus in Lower Addiscombe Road
and thus attracted a fair amount of traffic, unlike |
Spencer
Road (pictured above in 1931 with
a Hastings excursion passing the now disused platforms)
which was approached only by a foot path which crossed the line between
Spencer Road and Birdhurst Rise. |
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The
S.E.C.R. inaugurated the improved service of sixteen trains a day
on 1st September 1906, using a Kitson railmotor supplied by Bricklayers
Arms shed. The railmotor worked down to Addiscombe with the 06.17
from New Cross and then ran light to the bay platform at Woodside
to form the 07.16 to Selsdon Road. The Kitson railmotors were painted
in S.E.C.R. Lake and had highly polished brass domes. The ride was
very rough and the compartment next to the engine got uncomfortably
hot. Fifty-six passengers could be accommodated on the wooden seats
which were arranged back to back with a centre gangway. |
| SECR
Railmotor in bay platform at Woodside |
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| When
the L.B.S.C.R. were operating the service a motor fitted terrier with
a 'Balloon' coach were used, until 1913 when both of the Brighton
railmotors were used on the branch running from Stoats Nest shed.
Railmotor No.1 did not last very long in its new role and had to be
sent to Brighton for repair in the November of the same year. No.2
managed to hold out until the S.E.C.R. took over again in July 1914.
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| The
L.B.S.C.R. railmotors were built by BeyerPeacock
and seated 48 third class |
LBSCR
Terrier propelling a Balloon coach into Coombe Lane.
R.C.Riley Collection |
| Timetables |
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passengers
in two equal saloons connected by a sliding door.Both the Brighton
railmotors were sold to the Trinidad Government in 1919.
The
railmotor era on this line ended on 15th march 1915 when the service
was withdrawn as a wartime economy. Coombe Lane and Selsdon Road
stayed open for the occasional through train but the halts were
closed. Through traffic and goods services continued until the end
of 1916 when the line was closed completely. The Oxted Line platforms
and the goods yard at Selsdon Road were not effected by the closure.
For the next year the only use of the line was for the storage of
surplus wagons near Bingham Road Halt. About four years later the
S.E.C.R. resumed running their light engines from Purley to Hayes
and soon after the daily pick-up goods from Bricklayers Arms to
Tonbridge began calling at Woodside and Selsdon Road on its down
run. The return trip was by way of Redhill and East Croydon.
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Early in 1927 the track was relayed throughout and rumours circulated locally
of restoration of local passenger services. This was not to be, but August
Bank Holiday that year saw a rush of excursions using the newly laid track.
These excursions ran to Hastings, Brighton, Margate and Ramsgate. A regular
run was booked to Canterbury West every Wednesday from Lewisham Junction,
as well as a number of Hop-Pickers specials in the season. The Hop-Pickers
specials departed from London Bridge Low Level to destinations on the Kent
& East Sussex Railway. Special stock was set aside for these trains consisting
of antiquated S.E.C.R. & L.C.D.R. four wheel stock plus up to six luggage
vans. Instructions were issued to staff that all stock should be de-loused
after use and that hop pickers luggage should be specially labelled and
kept apart from that of other passengers at railheads. A documented run
on the 19th August 1948, when the quality of the rolling stock had improved,
records the train consisting of an ex S.E.C.R. six-coach set No.906 hauled
by L1 1758 running from Northiam to London Bridge by way of Robertsbridge,
Tonbridge and the Mid Kent. |
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in 1935 both tracks were again re-laid, this time with the addition of an
electric conductor rail. The attending ballast trains provided an interesting
assortment of locomotives, including 4-4-0 'B1' No.1101 and 0-6-0 'C' No.2354
from Tonbridge and E3 No 2454 from Newhaven. At the same time Coombe Lane
was rebuilt in Southern Railway style and renamed Coombe Road, Bingham Road
Halt was also rebuilt as a station which was to have been called Ashburton,
but for obvious reasons eventually retained the less attractive but accurate
name of Bingham Road. |
| Laying
conductor rail at Woodside Junction |
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Selsdon
Road remained unaltered except for the extension of the down branch platform
and the demolition of the north signal box. Surprisingly the station was
renamed plain Selsdon, very misleading if you wanted Selsdon village two
miles away uphill. The new electric trains started running with little publicity
on 30th September 1935 from their terminus at Sanderstead to Charing Cross
and Cannon Street. A half-hourly service was provided seven day a week with
extra trains at peak hours. The opening day attracted a fair number of curious
travellers, 400 being recorded using the as yet unfinished station at Bingham
Road.
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early enthusiasm soon waned so that when the service was reduced during
the war little inconvenience was caused by the loss of the Sunday
trains and the curtailment of the Saturday afternoon services. The
coal traffic over this route increased considerably during the war
years with through trains and local deliveries to Sydenham Gas Works.
Two late trips are well remembered by residents living close to the
line at Coombe Road. Their sleep was regularly shattered by the 22.30
and 01.50 Norwood Yard to Sydenham Gas Works runs which passed Coombe
Road at 23.10 & 02.25 with their heavy loads, whistles screaming as
they approached the tunnels. There was just time to get off to sleep
again before the empties returned at 00.50 & 03.37. These trains ran
until the late fifties. |
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After
the war the Sunday service was not reinstated and the off peak trains were
terminated at Elmers End to connect with the Hayes trains to London. The
line never regained its previous level of passenger use and inevitably the
announcement came from B.R. that the line was to closed from 4th March 1963
in order to save an estimated £8000.00 per year. Opposition to the
closure took B.R. by surprise. The Croydon Transport Users' Association
was formed to fight the proposals, and did so twice within three years.
The Transport users' Consultative Committee for London held its public meeting
at Caxton Hall on 7th March and reported to the Minister of Transport, Ernest
Marples that there seemed to be no alternative transport available and as
they could not make any recommendations for the relief of hardship caused
to the 650 people using the service each day, the line must remain open.
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things did not improve. A B.R. survey showed an average of 12 passengers
on each Saturday train. This service, which only ran until mid-afternoon,
was withdrawn completely from 2nd January 1967, and later that year the
weekday service to London was reduced to peak hours only. By 1976 the number
of passengers travelling to London by this route had dropped to a mere handful
and so from the start of the new timetable the service was reduced to a
shuttle between Sanderstead and Elmers End. |
10
car train leaves Bingham Road for London
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