London and South Western Railway
The
London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) was a
railway company in
England from
1840 to
1923. Its ultimate network extended from
London to
Plymouth via
Yeovil,
Exeter and
Okehampton with branches to
Barnstaple and
Wadebridge — a territory in which it was in direct competition with the
Great Western Railway — and, via
Basingstoke,
Winchester and
Southampton, along the
Dorset coast to
Bournemouth and
Weymouth. It also had a large number of branches which connected to places such as
Portsmouth, and some
joint railway operations with others — including the
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. Following the
grouping in 1923, the L&SWR lines became part of the
Southern Railway.
After
railway privatisation the name was partially evoked for
South West Trains who operate over much of the old London & South Western routes.
The L&SWR was originally promoted in 1831 as the
Southampton, London and Branch Railway and Dock Company: its original plans envisaged the line through
Basingstoke (where a branch was to have run to
Bristol) and
Winchester to
Southampton).
Parliament rejected the scheme and it was re-promoted as the
London and Southampton Railway: it was authorised by
Act of Parliament in 1834. It was the first of the three trunk routes running south of London. During its early years there were many eventful occurrences:
* conflict with the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway over the building of the
Portsmouth branch
* the "battle of the gauges" in the West Country with the
Great Western Railway* the acquisition of the
Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway, unconnected to the remainder of the sytem until 1895.
The L&SWR also had many strengths:
* it connected with many holiday centres, and virtually brought them to prominence;
*
Southampton Docks were entirely owned by the Company;(Now owned by ABP) it dealt with
Continental and Channel Islands traffic; and it owned steamers on the
Isle of Wight ferry routes
* it was instrumental in building up the south-west London suburban area;
* it was associated with much of the military parts of southern England: for example,
Aldershot and
Bordon; and
Portsmouth and
Plymouth dockyards.
In
1891, the works at
Eastleigh, in Hampshire, was opened with the transfer of work from Nine Elms in
London.
Among the innovations of the LSWR was the running of an express train, the
North Cornwall and Bude Express. It was first run in 1907; the
Southern Railway was later to rename it as the
Atlantic Coast Express in July 1926. It was the 11am train from London, and it continued to run until 1964. For more details see
these notes.
Openings
The first section to be opened was from Nine Elms, the company's first
London terminus in the suburban parish of
Battersea, to
Woking (then named
Woking Common) on
21 May 1838. On that date the company changed its name to L&SWR. The remainder of the main line followed:
* Woking to
Winchfield (
Shapley Heath):
24 September 1838* Winchester to Southampton:
10 June 1839* Winchfield to Basingstoke:
10 June 1839* Basingstoke to Winchester:
11 May 1840. This last section was the most difficult on the route with an initial climb to
Litchfield Tunnel and a ten-mile down-grade to Winchester.
Waterloo station
It was ten years later that the L&SWR built its metropolitan terminus at
Waterloo. On
11 July 1848 the line was extended through a new
Vauxhall station: the original terminus at Nine Elms took on the role of works, locomotive depot, and goods depot. Today it is the site of
New Covent Garden Market.
Southampton
The
Southern Railway built a new through station at Southampton Central in 1933. Southampton Terminus remained in use until 1966 and the L&SWR's classical building of 1840 (designed by Sir
William Tite, who also designed the Nine Elms terminus) survives.
The stations on the main route (with dates of opening if not original L&SWR) are :
*
Vauxhall *
Queenstown Road Battersea opened
1 November 1877 as
Queens Road *
Clapham Junction *
Earlsfield *
Wimbledon *
Raynes Park * Malden: after several renamings now called
New Malden *
Berrylands, opened
16 October 1933 to serve new suburban traffic
*
Surbiton*
Esher*
Hersham, opened in 1936
*
Walton-on-Thames*
Weybridge * West Weybridge railway station, opened ?, renamed as
Byfleet & New Haw* Byfleet — reopened in 1927 as
West Byfleet*
Woking*
Brookwood *
Farnborough*
Fleet: originally opened as
Fleetpond *
Winchfield*
Hook*
Basingstoke*
Micheldever*
Winchester*
Shawford was Shawford & Twyford
*
Eastleigh: originally
Bishopstoke*
Southampton Airport railway station opened
*
Swaythling*
St Denys*
Southampton CentralReading and Portsmouth lines
Apart from the original main line, the LSWR had the following routes:
*
Waterloo to Wokingham (for Reading):
**
Richmond Railway opened from Clapham Junction to
Richmond 27 July 1846**
Windsor, Staines & South Western Railway opened from Richmond via
Staines to
Datchet 22 August 1848; to
Windsor 1 December 1849** Staines —
Ascot opened
4 June 1856** Ascot —
Wokingham opened
4 July 1856** from here to
Reading the line was
South Eastern Railway propertyApart from the Windsor branch, there are many suburban lines in this area, including the
Hounslow loop line; and the
Twickenham/
Kingston-upon-Thames/
Shepperton routes
*
Woking to Havant (for Portsmouth) via Guildford [The
Portsmouth Direct Line]
**
Guildford Junction Railway opened
5 May 1845**
Guildford — Godalming opened
15 October 1849** Godalming — Havant opened
1 January 1859**
Bisley Camp branch (for rifle range) closed 1952
** Farnham — Fareham opened 1 June 1903
*The Alton line
** Brookwood — Farnham via Aldershot — Alton opened 2 May 1870
** Here was the Brookwood Cemetery line
** Alton to Winchester line. The LSWR also built a branch line to Bordon Camp. Both closed early in the 20th century.
* Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth
** Southampton & Dorchester Railway'' line opened (via
Brockenhurst and
Ringwood 1 June 1847** Ringwood —
Christchurch opened
13 November 1862** Brockenhurst —
Bournemouth East
14 March 1870**
Poole — Bourneworth West station
18 June 1874: link to Bournemouth Central completed
20 July 1885There is also the
Lymington branch, opened by the
Lymington Railway on
12 July 1858. See
Lymington FlyerRoute to the south-west
*
Basingstoke to Exeter** Basingstoke to Salisbury
*** Basingstoke to
Andover opened
3 July 1854*** Andover to
Salisbury opened
1 May 1857***
Basingstoke and Alton Light Railway opened June 1901, closed all traffic
30 May 193**Between Basingstoke and Salisbury on the main line were:
*** Two links between
Hurstbourne and Andover through
Romsey to Eastleigh and Southampton: both closed. Link via
Longparish opened
1 June 1885; closed all traffic
6 July 1931.
*** At Andover was the junction with the
Midland and South Western Junction Railway*** The
Bulford Camp branch
*** Salisbury to Romsey; and to Bournemouth
*** In Salisbury the
Great Western Railway (GWR) line from
Westbury and
Bristol had its own terminus: the LSWR continued the route southwestwards towards Southampton. This route today is the
Wessex Main Line route.
** Salisbury —
Yeovil opened
2 May 1859** Yeovil —
Exeter opened
19 July 1860 **Between Salisbury and Exeter on the main line; the sections were opened as follows:
*** branch to
Yeovil Town joint station with the GWR
*** branch to
Chard joint station with the GWR
*** branch to
Lyme Regis from
Axminster*** branch to
Sidmouth from Sidmouth Junction (also alternative route to
Exmouth *** branch to Exmouth from
Exmouth Junction near Exeter
*** LSWR station: Exmouth (Queen Street): here was a short section through GWR Exeter (St Davids) to
Cowley Bridge Junction*
Exeter to PlymouthThe LSWR main line continued, serving the following places:
*
Newton St Cyres*
Crediton*
Yeoford Junction beyond was
Coleford Junction and the branch railway to
Barnstaple and
Ilfracombe. From Barnstaple Junction station was the branch to
Bideford and
Torrington (closed)Beyond Coleford Junction all lines, except that to Barnstaple, are now closed. They served, among other places:
*
Okehampton* The branch to
Bude*
Launceston*
Padstow* and the Tamar valley line to
Plymouth. The southern section is now operated as the
Tamar Valley Line to
GunnislakeLocomotives & rolling stock
Locomotives were painted green lined in chocolate and black and white; passenger rolling stock, yellow tint of Salmon pink upper parts, brown below. The railway ran a large number of
steam rail motor cars on the smaller branches. The locomotive works were at Eastleigh, having replaced Nine Elms in 1911.
Other details
* the longest tunnel is
Honiton Tunnel 1353 yards (1218 m); there were six others longer than 500 yd (450 m)
* the
Waterloo and City Railway became part of the L&SWR
* the L&SWR and the
Midland Railway were joint owners of the
Somerset and Dorset Joint RailwayThe L&SWR adopted
third rail electrification of its suburban routes during the
First World War. This subsequently became the standard for the entire
Southern Railway, almost certainly because of the influence of Sir
Herbert Walker, who had come from the
London and North Western Railway to be General Manager of the LSWR in 1912; in 1914 he had also been appointed as Chairman of the wartime
Railway Executive Committee.
Vauxhall station reputedly has had an interesting influence on other languages. Legend has it that a party from
Russia came to see what happening around the time the station was opened (with a view to planning their own rail system). They saw the station nameboards, thought the word was the English word for railway station and took it back home. In fact, the first Russian railway station was built on the site of pleasure gardens based on those at Vauxhall — nothing to do with the English railway station. The anglicised script version of the Russian word is 'vokzal'.
*
List of early British railway companies*
South Western Main Line*
West of England Main Line*
South Western Circle
