The Southern Railway (SR), sometimes shortened to 'Southern', was a British railway company established in the 1923 Grouping. It linked London with the Channel ports, South West England, South coast resorts and Kent. The railway was formed by the amalgamation of several smaller railway companies, the largest of which were the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR). The construction of what was to become the Southern Railway began in 1838 with the opening of the London and Southampton Railway, which was renamed the London & South Western Railway.
The Spa Valley Railway (SVR) is a standard gauge heritage railway in England that runs from Tunbridge Wells West railway station in Tunbridge Wells to High Rocks, Groombridge, and Eridge, where it links with the Oxted Line.
The North Tyneside Steam Railway and Stephenson Steam Railway are visitor attractions in North Shields, North East England. The museum and railway workshops share a building on Middle Engine Lane adjacent to the Silverlink Retail Park. The railway is a standard gauge line, running south for 2 miles (3.2 km) from the museum to Percy Main. The railway is operated by the North Tyneside Steam Railway Association (NTSRA). The museum is managed by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums on behalf of North Tyneside Council.
The Southern Railway took a key role in expanding the 660 V DC third rail electrified network begun by the London & South Western Railway. As a result of this, and its smaller operating area, its steam locomotive stock was the smallest of the 'Big Four' companies.
The SR Class 4DD was an experimental double-decker electric multiple unit built in 1949 and operated by the Southern Railway until 1971. Conceived by Oliver Bulleid for the Southern Railway's commuter line from London Charing Cross to Dartford, the two trains were the only double-decker trains to be used on the mainline railway network in Britain. Whilst commonly used in continental Europe and North America, the restrictive railway loading gauge in the United Kingdom prohibits normal double-decker trains with two fully separated decks.
Ashford railway works was a major locomotive and wagon construction and repair workshop in Ashford, Kent in England. Constructed by the South Eastern Railway in 1847, it became a major centre for railway works in the 19th and early 20th centuries. After years of decline, it closed in 1982.
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) C Class is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive, designed by Harry Wainwright and built between 1900 and 1908. They were designed for freight duties, although occasionally used for passenger trains. They operated over the lines of the railway in London and south-east England until the early 1960s. One example was rebuilt as an S Class saddle tank.
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) H Class is a class of 0-4-4T steam locomotive originally designed for suburban passenger work, designed by Harry Wainwright in 1904. Most of the sixty-six members of the class were later equipped for push-pull working for use on rural branch lines.
Harry Smith Wainwright was an English railway engineer, and was the Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway from 1899 to 1913. He is best known for a series of simple but competent locomotives produced under his direction at the company's Ashford railway works in the early years of the twentieth century. Many of these survived in service until the end of steam traction in Britain in 1968, and are regarded as some of the most elegant designs of the period.
The South Eastern Railway (SER) O Class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive designed for goods work, and were the main goods engines of the SER, and later the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) for a number of years. However, they were displaced by the more powerful C class locomotives following the amalgamation of the South Eastern Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) in 1899. This relegated the class to working on the numerous branch lines in Kent, on both passenger and goods work. They worked most notably on the Kent & East Sussex Railway and East Kent Railway, operating coal trains from the Kent coal fields to London, as well as shunting work at such locations as Shepherds Well, Hoo Junction and Ashford. The majority were withdrawn before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and those that remained were slowly withdrawn from nationalisation onwards.
The SECR N class was a type of 2-6-0 ("mogul") steam locomotive designed in 1914 by Richard Maunsell for mixed-traffic duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). Built between 1917 and 1934, it was the first non-Great Western Railway (GWR) type to use and improve upon the basic design principles established by GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) George Jackson Churchward. The N class was based on the GWR 4300 Class design, improved with Midland Railway concepts.
The East Kent Light Railway was part of the Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager. The line ran from Shepherdswell to Wingham Station with a branch from Eastry through Poison Cross to Richborough Port. Built primarily for colliery traffic within the Kent Coalfields, the line was built with many spurs and branches to serve the mines, with cancelled plans to construct extensions to several others. The success of Tilmanstone colliery allowed the main line of the railway to continue operation until 1986. A remainder of the line became the East Kent Railway, a heritage railway, in 1987.
The SECR D class is a class of 4-4-0 tender locomotives designed by Harry Wainwright for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.
The SECR N1 class was a type of 3-cylinder 2-6-0 ('mogul') steam locomotive designed by Richard Maunsell for mixed traffic duties, initially on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), and later operated for the Southern Railway (SR). The N1 was a development of the basic principles established by the Great Western Railway's (GWR) Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) George Jackson Churchward and by Maunsell's previous N class design.
The SECR K class was a type of 2-6-4 tank locomotive designed in 1914 by Richard Maunsell for express passenger duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), which operated between London and south-east England. The Southern Railway (SR) K1 class was a three-cylinder variant of the K class, designed in 1925 to suit a narrower loading gauge. They were among the first non-Great Western Railway (GWR) types to use and improve upon the basic design principles of power and standardisation established by GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) George Jackson Churchward. The locomotives were based on the GWR 4300 class, improved by the Midland Railway's ideals of simplicity and ease of maintenance.
The Kent & East Sussex Railway has hosted a variety of heritage rolling stock since the line was closed by British Railways in 1961.
The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line West Sussex and East Sussex in England.
The Diagram 960 PMVs were a series of Parcels and Miscellaneous Van (PMV), previously designated Passenger Luggage Van (PLV), built by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR) from 1919. The prototype van was used to carry the bodies of Edith Cavell, Charles Fryatt, and The Unknown Warrior from Dover to London, and has been preserved by the Kent and East Sussex Railway. The SE&CR vans were known as the Cavell Vans for this reason.
A steam railcar is a rail vehicle that does not require a locomotive as it contains its own steam engine. The first steam railcar was an experimental unit designed and built in 1847 by James Samuel and William Bridges Adams. In 1848, they made the Fairfield steam carriage that they sold to the Bristol and Exeter Railway, who used it for two years on a branch line.
Stewarts Lane is a large railway-servicing facility in Battersea in London, England, founded by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) in 1862, to serve London Victoria railway station. It is sited in the midst of a maze of railway lines between 'Factory Junction' and 'Stewarts Lane Junction', adjacent to the site of the former Longhedge Railway Works and the Stewarts Lane Chord formerly used by Eurostar trains from the Kent freight lines to Waterloo International station. Prior to 1962 it was one of the largest motive power depots in the UK. Following the end of steam traction in the early 1960s it was converted into a traction maintenance depot which is currently operated by Govia Thameslink Railway.
