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, Ilfracombe and Torrington and Padstow 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 Reading, 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.
The London and South Western Railway originated as the London and Southampton in 1834 as the rist mainline south of London.
Among the innovations of the L&SWR 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.
History
Origins
The initial proposal for the railway came from Robert Johnson and Abel Ros Dottin M.P. for Southampton. The prospectus was published on 23rd October 1830 in the Hampshire Advertiser. A public meeting gave unaminous support to the proposals in February 1831 and the railway was promoted as the Southampton, London and Branch Railway and Dock Company, with capital of £1.5M in shares of £20.
At the time Southampton was economically moribund, though regarded as of some strategic importance. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815 various canal schemes had been proposed to link Southampton to London to create a continuous inland waterway safe from attack. Of the many schemes only the Wey and Arun Canal 1816 and the Portsmouth and Arundel Canal 1823 were constructed. The London & Southampton's proposers clearly saw both a strategic benefit in connecting Southampton to London but in particular an economic benefit in connecting Southampton to Bristol and thense to the industrial heartland of Northern England. They considered the railway and docks to be 'intimately connected and of ..paramount importance to each other'.
The proposed route was surveyed by Francis Giles. Giles surveyed two routes, the first from Nine Elms via Wandsworth, Kingston, Guildford, Farnham, Arlesford and Winchester, through properous agricultural land and the second, that later built, via Basingstoke through a far fewer number of settlments crossing the unproductive Suurey and Hampshire Heaths. It is clear that the latter route was chosen as the company envisaged that a branch was to run to Bristol via Hungerford, Devizes and Bath).
Little suport was forthcoming for the branch from the entrepeneurs of Bristol and Bath. The promoters decided to get powers for the Southampton line before presenting a Bristol Bill, encouraging the launch of the independent Great Western Railway. The railway was re-promoted as the London and Southampton Railway and authorised by Act of Parliament on 25th July 1834.
The Bill for the proposed railway reached parliament inthe 1834 session. The Lords committee was presided over by the Earl of Malmesbury, the Earl of Radnor and Charles Fowler, arcchitect of Covent Garden. Engineering evidence for the proposal was given by George and Robert Stephenson amongst others and against by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Joseph Locke. The Bill was supported by the naval authorities and shipping interests and received relatively little opposition.
Construction
Construction started in September 1834 with Giles appointed engineer. Giles' method was to employ a number of small contractors working concurrently at various places on the line. It rapidly became apparent that the approach was fundamentally flawed. Contractors completed the easy sections and stopped work, asking for more money, on the the more difficult parts. Progress was seriously delayed and costs escalated from £894k to an estimated £1.5M. In 1837 a second Act had to be sought to raise further capital. Shares slumped and as the result of an examination of the accounts, instigated by a prominent group of Lancashire shareholdes, Giles was dismissed and replaced by Joseph Locke. Locke dismissed many of the small contractors replacing them with Thomas Brassey. Work progressed rapidly from then on.
The first section to be opened was from Nine Elms 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
Nine Elms, the company's first London terminus designed by Sir William Tite, was built on low marshy ground , studded with windmills and pollard tress, now in the suburban parish of Battersea.
It was ten years after first opening that the L&SWR built its metropolitan terminus at Waterloo, originally named Waterloo Bridge. 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
Southampton Terminus opened in 1840, replacing a temporary terminus at Northam Road. The classical building of 1840 was designed by Sir William Tite and remained in use until 1966. It survives and has recently been restored with the main building in use as a casino.
The Gauge War
Expansion
The Southampton and Dorchester line opened in 1847, with a further Southampton station at Bletchynden. In 1895 this was resited and became Southampton West. It was rebuilt by the Southern Railway in 1933 and renamed Southampton Central. It was further rebuilt in 1967. This is now the main station serving the city.
The race for the west
20th century Innovation
Waterloo
Engineering
Electrification
Southampton Docks
Eastleigh Engineering Works
In 1891, the works at Eastleigh, in Hampshire, was opened with the transfer of work from Nine Elms in London.
Main line
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, opened in 1884
- Wimbledon
- Raynes Park, opened in 1871
- Malden: after several renamings now called New Malden, opened in 1846
- Berrylands, opened 16 October 1933 to serve new suburban traffic
- Surbiton (originally Kingston)
- Esher
- Hersham, opened in 1936
- Walton-on-Thames
- Weybridge
- West Weybridge railway station, renamed as Byfleet & New Haw
- Byfleet — reopened in 1927 as West Byfleet
- Woking
- Brookwood, opened in 1864
- Farnborough
- Fleet: originally opened as Fleet Pond in 1847
- Winchfield
- Hook, opened in 1883
- Basingstoke
- Micheldever: originally Andover Road, opened in 1840
- Winchester
- Shawford: was Shawford & Twyford, opened in 1882
- Eastleigh: originally Bishopstoke
- Southampton Airport (Parkway): originally opening as the Atlantic Park Hostel Halt in 1929
- Swaythling, opened in 1883
- St Denys, opened in 1861
- Southampton Central
Other principal lines
Reading and Portsmouth lines
In addition to the original main line, the L&SWR had the following routes:
- Waterloo to Wokingham (for Reading):
- Richmond Railway opened from Clapham Junction to Richmond on 27 July 1846
- Windsor, Staines & South Western Railway opened from Richmond via Staines to Datchet on 22 August 1848; to Windsor on 1 December 1849
- Staines — Ascot opened on 4 June 1856
- Ascot — Wokingham opened on 4 July 1856
- from here to Reading the line was South Eastern Railway property
There were also many suburban lines in this area, including the Hounslow loop line; the Twickenham/Kingston-upon-Thames/Shepperton routes; and the Raynes Park to Epsom and Chessington South.
- Woking to Havant (for Portsmouth) via Guildford - The Portsmouth Direct Line
- The Alton line
- Brookwood — Farnham via Aldershot — Alton opened on 2 May 1870
- Alton to Fareham (the Meon Valley line)opened in 1903
- Here was the Brookwood Necropolis Cemetery line
- Alton to Winchester line.
- The L&SWR in associated with the War Department built the Bentley and Bordon Light Railway to Bordon Camp, which connected with the Longmoor Military Railway. Both closed early in the 20th century.
- Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth
- Southampton & Dorchester Railway line opened (via Brockenhurst and Ringwood) on 1 June 1847
- Ringwood — Christchurch opened on 13 November 1862
- Brockenhurst — Bournemouth East opened on 14 March 1870
- Poole — Bourneworth West station opened on 18 June 1874: link to Bournemouth Central completed on 20 July 1885
There is also the Lymington branch, opened by the Lymington Railway on 12 July 1858. See Lymington Flyer
Route to the south-west
- Basingstoke to Exeter
- Basingstoke to Salisbury
- 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 L&SWR 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
- L&SWR station: Exmouth (Queen Street): here was a short section through GWR Exeter (St Davids) to Cowley Bridge Junction
- Exeter to Plymouth
The L&SWR 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 Gunnislake
Line details
Locomotives & rolling stock
Locomotive Engineers
The LSWR was blessed throughout much of its history by distinguished and highly capable locomotive engineers.
John Gooch 1841 - 1850
Joseph Hamilton Beattie 1850 - 1871
William George Beattie 1871 - 1877
William Adams 1877 - 1895
Dugald Drummond 1895 -1912
Robert Urie 1912-1923
Liveries
Little information is availab le although from 1844 dark green with red and white lining, black wheels and red buffer beams seems to have become standard.
Joseph Hamilton Beattie 1850 - 1866
Passenger classes - Indian red with black panelling inside white. Driving splashers and cylinders lined white. Black wheels, smokebox and chimney. Vermillion buffer beams and buff footplate interior.
Goods classes - unlined Indian red. Older engines painted black until 1859.
1866 - 72
All engines dark chocolate brown with 1in black bands edged internally in white and externally by vermillion. Tender sides divided into 3 panels.
Paler chocolate known as purple brown with the same lining. From 1874 the white lining was replaced by yellow ochore and the vermillion by crimson.
1878 - 85
Umber brown with a 3in black band externally and bright green line internally. Bolier bands black with white edging. Buffer beams vermillion. Smokebox, chimney, frames etc black.
1885 - 1895
Passenger classes - Pea green with black borders edged with a fine white line. Boiler bands black with a fine white line to either side.
Goods classes - holly green with black borders edged by a fine bright green line.
Passenger classes - royal green lined in chocolate, tiple lined in white, black and white. Bolier bands black lined in white with 3 in tan stripes to either side. Outside cylinders with black borders and white lining. Smokebox, chimney, exterior frames, tops of splashers, platform etc black. Inside of the main frames tan. Buffer beams vermillion and cab interios grained oine.
Goods classes - holly green edged in black and lined in light green. Bolier band black edged in light green.
1914 - 1917
Passenger classes - olive green with Drummond lining.
Goods classes holly green with black edging and white lining.
1917 - 1923
Passenger classes - olive green with a black border and white edging.
Goods classes - holly green often without lining until 1918.
Locomotive works
The locomotive works were at Nine Elms from 1838 to 1895. Under Drummond they were moved to a new spacious site at Eastleigh in 1909.
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 Railway
Electrification
The 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 L&SWR in 1912; in 1914 he had also been appointed as Chairman of the wartime Railway Executive Committee.
Trivia
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'.