V

Vale of Rheidol Light Railway

The only narrow gauge railway to pass into the hands of British Railways, the Vale of Rheidol was opened in 1902, and this 1ft 11½in line was also operated by the Cambrian Railway. Running from a yard next to the Aberystwyth station of the Cambrian, the line ran for twelve miles to Devil’s Bridge and was built to serve iron ore mines. The Vale of Rheidol was finally purchased by the Cambrian in 1913, which is why it was not mentioned in the 1921 Act. Under Great Western ownership, it continued to operate and in the late 1930s received new passenger carriages. The line not only survived nationalisation to be operated by British Railways, but had the dubious distinction of carrying ‘British Rail’ blue and the ‘coming and going’ logo.

Van Railway

Opened in 1871, the Van Railway was just 6.5 miles in length and was worked from the outset by the Cambrian Railway. Opened to goods, mainly traffic from a lead mine, in 1871 and to passengers in 1873. It was closed during the Second World War, on 4 November 1940, during the period of Railway Executive Committee control.

Victoria

Although not quite in the West End, Victoria was closer to it than any other station for the southern companies until the opening of Charing Cross. On the other hand, Victoria was dependent on the slow and indirect services of the District and Circle lines until the opening of the Victoria Line many years later.

The London, Brighton & South Coast Railway was unhappy with its shared terminus with the South Eastern Railway at London Bridge, as much because of the friction between the two companies that broke out from time to time as for the remoteness of the location. As happened so often in the early days of the railways, progress came from the initiative of a newcomer, and when the London & South Western Railway refused to support the planned West End of London & Crystal Palace Railway proposed in 1853, the LBSCR saw its chance. The WELCPR was a scheme to link the LBSCR’s new Crystal Palace branch to a junction with the LSWR at Wandsworth, and with a further branch, having run for a short distance over LSWR metals, to a riverside terminus on the south bank of the Thames opposite Pimlico. The new railway opened its first stage on 1 December 1856 running from Crystal Palace to a temporary terminus at the northern end of Wandsworth Common, and was worked by the LBSCR, which introduced a new service between London Bridge and Wandsworth. The WELCPR had ambitions to extend to Farnborough in Kent and take a share of the Kent Coast business, using powers obtained in 1854, while the company obtained its second connection with the LBSCR at Norwood Junction on 1 October 1857. The through line to the riverside terminus at Battersea opened for traffic on 29 March 1858, and rejected by the LSWR, simply touched that system at what is now Clapham Junction, running parallel to it without any running connection, before passing under the LSWR towards the river. It was perhaps not quite the ‘con’ that it seemed since passengers could reach the north bank of the Thames by using the new Chelsea Suspension Bridge.

Although the riverside terminus was meant to be permanent and the site amounted to 22 acres, the station buildings were constructed of timber. It was later to become a goods depot. The temporary buildings indicated the sudden lack of confidence on the part of the WELCPR, because the railways were now being offered a number of schemes to take them closer to the West End. These included a Westminster Terminus Railway, which aimed to reach Horseferry Road, authorised in 1854, and then in 1857, the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway was being actively promoted, and the necessary legislation for it was passed the following year. This new arrival immediately made much of the WELCPR plans redundant, and was immediately embraced by the LBSCR. The new plan was for a junction with the WELCPR at Stewarts Lane, just before it ceased running alongside the LSWR, with the line climbing to cross over the main line to Waterloo and then continuing on a bridge over the Thames to the western end of Victoria Street, using the disused basin of the Grosvenor Canal. Construction started in 1859 and the LBSCR obligingly acquired the WELCPR line to Battersea on 1 July.

Partly to portray independence, partly to help in raising capital from investors, the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway claimed that it would be building a terminus not only for the LBSCR, but also for the SER, the East Kent Railway (the predecessor of the LCDR) and the LSWR. The WELCPR had also another branch from Norwood to Bromley, now Shortlands, opened on 3 May, 1858, and with an adjoining section built by another railway, this was worked initially by the SER, but later the lease was transferred to the LCDR, and enabled the company to operate from Canterbury to Victoria. Despite its poverty, the LCDR realised that the new arrangement still left it at the mercy of other companies, and in 1860 obtained the necessary powers to build its own new routes to both the West End and the City of London, with the former achieved through a new line to the WELCPR from Beckenham to Battersea.

Such were the changing fortunes and ambitions of the railway companies, that the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway found itself building a major terminus for the LBSCR and the LCDR plus the Great Western, which meant that the line from Longhedge Junction, Battersea, where the GWR would approach over the West London Extension Railway, had to be of mixed gauge to accommodate the broad gauge GWR trains. The LBSCR provided two-thirds of the Victoria line’s capital and secured its own terminus and access lines, taking 8½ acres of the 14 acre site, so that eventually, despite the magnificent façade of the Grosvenor Hotel, Victoria was really to be two stations in one!

The approach to Victoria from Clapham Junction required both a tight curve and a steep climb, with the bridge over the river built high enough to allow passage of the largest ships likely to use the Thames, and indeed, it was unrealistically high. This was the LBSC approach, but it also had to be shared with the GWR despite that company’s connection with the LCDR. On crossing the bridge, the line then had a steep descent to the station as it had been decided that an approach on a viaduct to an elevated station would have been unacceptable to the wealthy landowners in the area. Other concessions to this element included extending the train shed beyond the platforms and the early sleepers, of longitudinal design, were also mounted on rubber to minimise vibration.

The new station opened for LBSCR trains on 1 October 1860, the WELCPR having closed its riverside terminus on 30 September. The station was built from the outset on a generous scale, being 800ft long and 230ft wide, with a ridge and furrow roof having 50 foot spans covering ten tracks and six platform faces. There was a cab road from Eccleston Bridge with an exit into Terminus Place. Facilities were provided for horses and carriages to be unloaded from trains. A turntable was provided by Eccleston Bridge. The mainline trains used the eastern side of the station. The Grosvenor Hotel was constructed independently despite its obvious attachment to the terminus as the presence of several railway companies convinced the promoters of its success, and was completed in 1861, but the original hotel was along the west side of the stations and could not conceal the distinctly unattractive, even primitive, start to the station, with offices in a series of wooden huts, for while the LCDR was indeed poverty stricken, even the more affluent LBSCR had found the cost of the move into the centre of London expensive. Matters were not improved when during February 1884, the Fenian Brotherhood deposited a bomb in a bag in the left luggage office, which also wrecked the LBSCR’s cloakroom and ticket office, although fortunately the police were able to prevent similar outrages at Charing Cross and Paddington.

Last of all came the LCDR and GWR station, completed on 25 August 1862, although the LCDR had made use of a temporary station since December 1860. The LCDR made use of a modest side entrance into the station, which had nine tracks on its smaller acreage, with four of these mixed gauge. The GWR started services to and from Victoria on 1 April 1863, with what was essentially a suburban service from Southall where connections could be made with its main line services. Trains running through to Reading, Slough, Uxbridge and Windsor were also provided at times over the years that followed, and finally, between 1910 and 1912, a daily train in each direction between Birmingham and Wolverhampton and Victoria. Wartime restrictions saw the end of the Southall service in 1915, and in any case, such a service was really superfluous with the opening of what is now known as the Circle Line between Victoria and Paddington in 1868.

Other railway companies operating into Victoria included the Great Northern Railway, operating from Barnet via Ludgate Hill from 1 March, 1868, and the Midland Railway from South Tottenham and Hendon via Ludgate Hill from 1 July 1875, both of which used the LCDR station. London & North Western trains operated from Broad Street via Willesden Junction and the West London Railway from 1 January 1869 into the LBSC station, and survived the longest as an occasional service between Willesden Junction and Victoria until 1917.

Meanwhile, much had been happening with the arrangements for handling the traffic for the fast growing station. The LBSCR opened a cut-off between Balham and East Croydon, one effect of which was that the distance between that station and the two London termini became more or less the same. The LCDR also by-passed the WELPR route by building its own lines, opened in two sections, between Stewarts Lane and Herne Hill on 25 August 1862, and Herne Hill and Penge Junction at Beckenham on 1 July 1863, leaving the original WELPR approach as a purely local line. Despite these changes, or even perhaps because of them, Victoria’s traffic continued to grow apace, and the approaches became a serious bottleneck, so that a leading consulting engineer, Sir Charles Fox, was asked to prepare proposals, eventually recommending new lines, including extra tracks over the Thames, and junctions. The companies accepted Fox’s proposals and Parliamentary approval was obtained.

The new layout entailed removing the broad gauge tracks from two of the approach lines, providing an additional line for the LBSC, while providing three new mixed gauge lines and a standard gauge line for the GWR and LCDR. A new bridge was constructed alongside the existing Grosvenor Bridge on the downstream side. Everything was completed for normal services on 20 December 1865. The new layout meant that stations could be built at each end of the bridge, with the northern station known as Grosvenor Road and opened on 1 November 1867 for the LCDR, while the southern station was called Battersea Park and Steamboat Pier for the LBSCR, and only survived until 1 November 1870 when the LBSCR opened its own platforms at Grosvenor Road. The new station at Grosvenor Road was really too close to Victoria to be of much commercial value, with the LBSCR really using it by stopping up trains for ticket inspection, and only a few local trains called in both directions. The LBSCR stopped using it on 1 April 1907 and was followed by the LCDR on 1 October 1911.

Further additional approach lines came when the LCDR opened a new high level line, with three tracks built on a mile-long viaduct running from Wandsworth Road to Battersea Pier Junction at the southern end of Grosvenor Bridge, on 1 January 1867. This line also had a connection to the LBSCR’s new South London Line.

It was soon time to consider tidying up and expanding the station itself, especially as by 1890, with all of its lines completed, the LBSCR was producing a steady return on its capital, with the annual dividend running at 6 or 7 per cent. Starting in 1892, the LBSCR acquired the houses on the west side of the station and also bought the freehold of the Grosvenor Hotel when the owners refused to sell houses owned by them. The LBSCR let the hotel to a new operator and built an impressive 150-room wing across the front of the station. The initial development of the station during the 1890s produced another 90ft in width, but only at the southern end of the station between Eccleston Bridge and the hotel. Even this was judged, rightly, to be insufficient. Unable to expand further west due to Buckingham Palace Road, or east because of the LCDR station, the only solution was to extend the station towards the river, and for this the powers were obtained in 1899, so that the station could increase from ten roads and eight platform faces to thirteen roads with nine faces, several of which could be used by two trains at once. Work started in 1901. The old roof was removed and five new ridged roofs were erected to cover the north station with a similar arrangement for what was to become the south station between Eccleston Bridge and Elizabeth Bridge. The vast project was completed in stages, starting on 10 June 1906 and followed by the five western platforms and a new cab road on 10 February 1907, and before the end of the year the new wing for the Grosvenor Hotel was completed across the front of the station. Then, on 1 July 1908, the four eastern platforms were ready and the new station enjoyed a formal opening. The LBSCR station was now worthy of the Brighton line with its luxurious trains and well-heeled clientele.

Innovations included a large departure board which showed the departure times, platforms and stops for up to eighteen trains at a time, behind which was an underground ‘gentlemen’s court’, actually meaning a public lavatory with a hairdressing salon. The small telegraph office became the first post office on a London station on 2 October 1911. The station was screened off from Buckingham Palace Road, south of the hotel, by a wall of Portland Stone and red brick with niches for busts of the great, although these were never filled! All in all, the new station was 320 ft wide and 1,500 ft long and occupied 16 acres, almost double the area of the original. It had coaling stages at the ends of four of its platforms. It was lit by gas, and remained so until 1927 even though by then many of the trains were electric.

Of even greater value was the introduction of the first electric service on 1 December 1909, over the South London Line via Denmark Hill to London Bridge. This was an immediate success, with its 6,600v ac overhead system and countered the growing competition from the electric tramways. Electrification was clearly the way ahead for the suburban services, with Victoria-Streatham Hill-Crystal Palace Low Level electrified from 12 May 1911, and on 1 June 1912, Victoria-Norwood and Victoria-Streatham Hill-London Bridge.

Meanwhile, the Chatham Station, now operated by the South Eastern & Chatham Railway, also underwent rebuilding, although its four storeys were dwarfed by the adjoining new wing of the Grosvenor Hotel. This work was completed in 1907, but most of the rest of the interior remained unchanged, the one area for big improvements being those for international passengers.

That the station was in mixed ownership was made clear by the signs greeting intending passengers. The SECR boasted ‘THE SHORTEST AND QUICKEST ROUTE TO PARIS & THE CONTINENT SEA PASSAGE ONE HOUR,’ while the Brighton proclaimed ‘TO PARIS AND THE CONTINENT VIA NEWHAVEN AND DIEPPE SHORTEST AND CHEAPEST ROUTE,’ all of which indicated that these were the days before advertising and trading standards since the latter route meant a sea journey of almost four hours.

The First World War saw Victoria become the main station for troop movements between London and France, with special trains for leave traffic to and from Folkestone starting in November 1914 and eventually increasing to twelve daily, with another two for Dover. A free buffet provided by voluntary workers served refreshments for up to 4,000 men every 24 hours. The SECR station also handled mail for the Western Front, which meant a train with some thirty vans remaining in the station each day from 11.00 to 23.00 while letters and parcels were loaded. The station escaped serious damage during the air raids, although in one case an AA shell case crashed through part of the roof, and on 1 October 1917, around 100ft of the northern end of Grosvenor Bridge was set alight when an anti-aircraft shell pierced the gas main under the disused platform.

Wartime meant disruption to traffic with Dover taken over by the Army and all of the remaining boat trains redirected to Victoria, and then Folkestone to Boulogne stopped on 29 November 1915, although the Dieppe service diverted to this port away from Newhaven until withdrawn on 13 April 1916. This left Southampton-Le Havre as the only route handling civilian traffic.

The SECR concentrated its cross-Channel boat trains on Victoria from 8 January 1920, while there had been a gradual reinstatement of cross-Channel services throughout 1919 and 1920, helped by the completion of the new Dover Marine station in January 1919.

The SECR main arrival platforms, then designated 1 and 2, were lengthened in 1921 to 764ft and 735ft, and the following year platforms 3 and 4, too narrow and too short were replaced by a new platform designated 3 and 4, which at 550ft long and 37ft wide was more than a third longer and three times the width.

The Southern Railway designated the two stations as Victoria (Eastern Section) and Victoria (Central Section), but it was not until 1924 that the first passageway was opened between the two parts of the station, with a second later in the year, and a single stationmaster appointed. The platforms were re-numbered, reversing the order used by the SECR so that platform 1 was no longer against the dividing wall, but instead its number was taken by the most easterly platform to allow numbers to run across the station. For many years, the SECR platforms had been numbered 1 to 9, with no platform 7, but now they are 1 to 8. The Central Section platforms were 9 to 17. The main arrival platform for continental trains became platform 8, and in 1930 this was roofed over and the customs examination area heated for the first time.

There was an element of tokenism about many of these changes, as separate booking offices remained and there was no operational connection between the two sections until a new line and points were installed in 1938.

In 1926, the Southern announced that it had decided to standardise on the third rail 600V dc system, and started wholesale electrification of the lines out of Victoria so that only services to Hastings via Tonbridge and the Kent Coast, including the boat trains and the Night Ferry were still steam hauled by the outbreak of the Second World War. Before the announcement, a third rail service was launched to Herne Hill and Orpington on 12 July 1925, while the South London Line became third rail on 17 June 1928 and the Crystal Palace Low Level service followed on 3 March 1929, working beyond to West Croydon and Beckenham Junction, as well as a new service to Epsom via Mitcham Junction. In its haste to ensure a single standard system, the Southern completed the transfer to third rail on 22 September 1929, when the last overhead train left for Coulsdon North thirty minutes after midnight.

Electrification was spreading out of the suburbs. After running services to Reigate and Three Bridges from 17 July 1932, electrification through to Brighton and West Worthing began on 1 January 1933. There was also a tremendous increase in frequencies, with four trains an hour along the main line from Victoria, including an hourly non-stop. Electric services to Hastings via Eastbourne and to Seaford started on 7 July 1935, and to Littlehampton on 3 July 1938, as well as to Bognor and Portsmouth via Arundel with the Portsmouth No2 Electrification Scheme on 3 July 1938, just in time for the start of the summer peak. Almost a year later, on 2 July 1939, Gillingham and Maidstone East services became electric, the last scheme to be completed before the outbreak of war.

The ‘sparks effect’ produced a dramatic increase in traffic, with the numbers arriving at Victoria in the height of the peak rising from 10,200 in an hour in 1927 to 17,200 in 1937. There would also have been a significant saving in costs, with fewer operational personnel and the end of shunting mileage as locomotives moved to turntables.

Growing competition from air transport led to a number of developments intended to improve the quality of the continental services, with an all-Pullman train introduced to Dover in 1924, and in 1929 the famous Golden Arrow was introduced, followed on 14 October 1936 by the Night Ferry through sleeping car service with specially-built Wagons Lits rolling stock.

Imperial Airways opened a London terminal in Buckingham Palace Road in 1939, and the so-called Flying-Boat Train from Waterloo was augmented by a service from Victoria during that summer. This was replaced during wartime by Air Specials from Victoria to Poole to connect with flights by the newly-formed British Overseas Airways Corporation, BOAC, to Baltimore, on which accommodation was usually reserved for VIPs.

The Second World War brought about major restrictions with train services cut back and, of course, not only did the Continental traffic end on the outbreak of war, but trains carrying service personnel to Europe also disappeared with the fall of France. The heavy air raids during the Blitz of 1940 and 1941 saw Victoria closed at times as bombs and parachute mines closed the approaches, but the station itself was spared serious damage, despite a crashing Dornier Do17 hitting the Eastern Section on 15 September 1940. Later, a flying bomb hit the Eastern Section on 27 June 1944, destroying offices and also damaging the booking office.

The invasion of France soon brought back the daily leave trains, and a limited service for civilian traffic to Europe started after German surrender, but a more complete service did not follow until 15 April 1946, including the reinstatement of the Golden Arrow. The Night Ferry was reinstated only a little more than a fortnight before nationalisation.

Victoria Line

Authorised in 1955, the Victoria Line was the first new tube railway in central London since 1907, and when opened in 1968-69, provided the capital with its first fully automated passenger trains, allowing one man operation. It provided interchanges with all of the other underground lines and initially ran from Walthamstow via King’s Cross, St Pancras and Euston to Victoria, but an extension to Brixton opened in 1971, giving a route mileage of 14 miles.

Volks Railway

A short stretch of railway running along the seafront at Brighton and the first electric railway in the UK to survive to the present day, it was built in 1883 using a 2ft gauge. The following year it was modified to 2ft 9in gauge. It continues to run during summer.