London and Croydon Railway

The London and Croydon Railway was opened in 1839 between London and Croydon in England.

It shared the station at London Bridge with the London and Greenwich Railway and the line as far as Corbetts Lane Junction. Much of the route follows the alignment of the former Croydon Canal, which was closed by Act of Parliament in 1836. West Croydon railway and bus stations stand on the site of the old canal basin.

The South Eastern Railway and the London and Brighton Railway utilised its lines at first to Bricklayers Arms and then London Bridge station.

In spite of disquiet about the gradient at New Cross, then considered excessive at one in a hundred, the line received the Royal assent on the 12 June 1835.

Construction

The consultant engineer was William Cubitt. The main gradient was, as mentioned, that at New Cross. It was here that the most extensive earthworks were needed to form a cutting. In addition to the viaduct, where it joined the Greenwich Railway, there were eighteen bridges. There were three level road crossings, each attended by a "policeman".

A new station was built at London Bridge on the north side of the original one, though the track was shared as far as Corbetts Lane.

From there, there were six intermediate stations at New Cross, Forest hill (the "Dartmouth Arms"), Sydenham, Penge, Anerley Bridge, and Norwood (known as "Jolly-sailor near Beulah Spa" until 1846), before the line reached the London Road in Croydon.

Track was laid to the standard Stevenson 4 ft 8½ in gauge, using the so called "Vignolesl" flat bottomed rail, somewhat broader in the base and lower than modern rail. These were mounted on longitudinal timbers with cross sleepers.

The railway owned seven locomotives, all with three axles. The first five were built by Sharp, Roberts and Company, the other two by G and J. Rennie. There were first and second-class four-wheeled while carriages, both of the three compartment type usual for the period, the main difference seeming to be that the first-class coaches carried eighteen passengers, while the second-class carried twenty four.

Operation

The line into London Bridge became increasingly congested so at Corbetts Lane a white disc was installed, to be operated by the pointsman. It, or at night a red light, showed that the route was set for Croydon. If the disc was edge on, or a white light showed, the junction was set for Greenwich. It is believed that this was first fixed signal used to control a junction.

Greenwich trains ran every 15 minutes, Croydon trains were hourly

In 1840 London and Greenwich secured powers to add extra lines from London Bridge and to make other improvements. By this time the London Croydon had joined the newly opened southeastern Railway and London Brighton Railway is to form a committee and agreement was reached to exchange stations with the London and Greenwich to avoid crossing over at Corbetts Junction.

By 1843 the charges made by the London and Greenwich Railway were causing such problems to both the London and Croydon and the new South Eastern Railway that they announced that they would stop running trains into London Bridge and build a new terminus at Bricklayers Arms which they used until 1852.

On 27 July 1846 the L&C amalgamated with the London & Brighton Railway to form the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

Atmospheric railway

In 1844, the London and Croydon Railway was given parliamentary authority to test an experimental atmospheric railway system on the railway. Pumping stations were built at Portland Road, Croydon and Dartmouth Road; these created a vacuum in a pipe laid between the running rails. A free running piston in this pipe was attached to the train through a slit sealed by a leather valve. The piston, and hence the train, was propelled towards the pumping station by atmospheric pressure. The pumping stations were built in a Gothic style, with a very tall ornate tower which served both as a chimney and as an exhaust vent for air pumped from the propulsion pipe.

As part of the construction works for the atmospheric-propulsion system, the world's first railway flyover (overpass) was constructed at the north end of Portland Road, to carry the new atmospheric-propulsion line over the conventional steam line below [cite book | last = Connor | first = J.E. | title = London's Disused Stations: The London Brighton & South Coast Railway | publisher = Connor & Butler | date = 2006 | location = Colchester | pages = 70 | isbn = 978 0 947699 39 2] . In 1847, the atmospheric propulsion experiment was abandoned. The stationary engine-house at Forest Hill railway station was largely demolished in 1851 and an electricity sub-station was built on the site in 1928. The West Croydon pumping station was relocated to form part of the Surrey Street waterworks building, which still exists.

References

* Whishaw, F, (1840) "The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland: Practically described and illustrated" London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co.
* Simmons, J., (1995 ppb ed) "The Victorian Railways," London: Thames and Hudson