BRIGHTON LINES 1838 - 1848
The map on the left below shows railways in Southern England by about 1845. None of these came near Farnborough, but by contrast the corridor from London through Croydon and Redhill to the coast at Brighton was an early and successful recipient for a railway, shared between three companies.
Apart from what had been the very first line, to Greenwich, the only line in Kent was the indirect South Eastern Railway (SER) main line from Redhill to Folkestone and Dover.
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The railways all converged at the approaches to London Bridge station as shown on the map above right. This was a legacy of an early attempt by the government to decree that there be only one railway terminus south of the Thames.
London and Croydon Railway 1839
Following the success of other early railways, promoters put forward a scheme to link Croydon, then an industrial town, with London. The Croydon Canal of 1809 was moribund, and it was proposed to purchase it and to utilise its course. It was to extend northwards from the Croydon Canal terminal at New Cross, to make a junction at Corbetts Lane (then spelt Corbets Lane), in Bermondsey with the London and Greenwich Railway (see above). Its trains were then to run over that line to its London Bridge station. The line was 8 3⁄4 miles (14.1 km) long and at the southern end followed the alignment of the Croydon Canal from Anerley to a terminus at Croydon, with a locomotive depot, on the site of the canal basin. This was later to be developed to the present-day West Croydon station.The Greenwich company intended that its proposed London Bridge terminus would accommodate trains of several other companies and had acquired land sufficient for the purpose. At this time however it had inadequate funds to carry out the actual construction, and the Croydon company was obliged to do the work itself, taking some of the Greenwich company's land on the north side for the purpose.
The line from London Bridge initially used just steam power, but congestion on the heavily used line at the London end led to the installation of a third, atmospheric, line alongside, which opened in 1844. Despite initial favourable reports the hot summer of 1846 caused considerable difficulties through leather flaps drying out. The board lost confidence in the technology and the system was replaced by conventional motive power during 1847.
The company became part of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1846.
London and Brighton Railway 1841
Many ideas and routes for building a line from London to Brighton and other towns on the South coast were considered in the 1830s and 1840s, but the final agreed route consisted of a new line from a junction with the London and Croydon Railway (then under construction) at Norwood to Brighton with additional branches to Lewes and Shoreham.An Act for the construction of the line was passed in July 1837, with an authorised capital of £2.4 million The London and Croydon Railway line ran from London Bridge to West Croydon and was opened in 1839. The engineer for the Brighton extension was John Urpeth Rastrick. By July 1840, 6206 men, 962 horses, five locomotives and seven stationary engines were employed.
The new main line included substantial earthworks and five tunnels through the North Downs at Merstham, the Wealden ridge near Balcombe and at Haywards Heath, and the South Downs at Patcham and Clayton. The railway also had a 1,475 ft (449.6 m) long, 96 ft (29.3 m) high viaduct over the River Ouse near Balcombe.
The Brighton - Shoreham branch was completed in May 1840, before the main line, as there were no significant civil engineering works on this section. Locomotives and rolling stock had to be transshipped by road for what was, in the first year, an isolated stretch of railway. The main line was opened in two sections, since major earthworks delayed completion in one piece. The Norwood Junction – Haywards Heath section was opened on 12 July 1841 and the remainder of the line from Haywards Heath to Brighton on 21 September 1841.
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Both the London and Croydon and London and Brighton companies became part of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1846, along with four other smaller concerns.The following year they proposed a line through Farnborough see London Brighton and South Coast 1847 but this did not progress. This was the last proposal by this company to build a line to the east of the main line as in 1849 they reached agreement with the Southeastern Railway on their respective areas of 'ownership', which left Kent the province of the SER.
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In 1868 this company opened a short-lived branch line to Central Croydon, but this was not a success and closed three years later. It reopened in 1896 but again closed shortly afterward, this time permanently. The former station is now the site for Croydon Town Hall.