Westerham Railway Station
Westerham railway station served the village of Westerham in Kent from 1881 until its closure in 1961. History No railway was ever constructed all the way between Sevenoaks and Redhill to parallel what is now the A25 road and the Pilgrims' Way. Reasons for this may include: a) the Redhill to Tonbridge Line had been built quite early in railway history and served the settlements between Redhill and Godstone, b) the difficult choice between boggy land in the valley bottom and the gradients encountered on the A25 route at Limpsfield and Nutfield, c) the "pull" of London which meant that the emphasis was on radial routes from the capital. However, in 1881 the Westerham Valley Railway Company built the Westerham Valley Branch Line from the South Eastern Main Line at Dunton Green to Westerham with one intermediate station at Brasted. The branch was built as single track with provision for double track as an ambitious extension to Oxted was envisaged. The South Eastern Railwa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Westerham Railway Station
Westerham railway station served the village of Westerham in Kent from 1881 until its closure in 1961. History No railway was ever constructed all the way between Sevenoaks and Redhill to parallel what is now the A25 road and the Pilgrims' Way. Reasons for this may include: a) the Redhill to Tonbridge Line had been built quite early in railway history and served the settlements between Redhill and Godstone, b) the difficult choice between boggy land in the valley bottom and the gradients encountered on the A25 route at Limpsfield and Nutfield, c) the "pull" of London which meant that the emphasis was on radial routes from the capital. However, in 1881 the Westerham Valley Railway Company built the Westerham Valley Branch Line from the South Eastern Main Line at Dunton Green to Westerham with one intermediate station at Brasted. The branch was built as single track with provision for double track as an ambitious extension to Oxted was envisaged. The South Eastern Railwa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nutfield, Surrey
Nutfield is a village and civil parish in the Tandridge District of Surrey, England. It lies in the Weald immediately south of the Greensand Ridge and has a Nutfield railway station, railway station at South Nutfield which is one stop from Redhill railway station, Redhill, on the Redhill to Tonbridge Line. It includes a watersports park and picnic destination, Mercers Country Park. History The village lay within the Reigate (hundred), Reigate hundred (division), hundred. Nutfield appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Notfelle''. It was held by Countess Ida of Count of Boulogne, Boulogne (2nd wife of Count Eustace). Its domesday assets were: 3 hide (unit), hides; 1 church, 16 ploughs, 1 Mill (grinding), mill worth 2s, of meadow, herbage worth 12 hog (swine), hogs. It rendered pound sterling, £15 per year to its feudal system, feudal overlords. At the end of the 12th century, Nutfield was held by Hubert de Anstey and his wife Dionysia, then in 1210 it passed to his son and heir ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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SECR H Class
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. Background The two constituent railways of the SECR had both relied on 0-4-4T locomotives for London suburban, and semi-fast train services. The South Eastern Railway (SER) Q class was introduced in 1881, and the London Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) R class in 1891. Of these, the R was the most successful design, and was continued in production (in the form of the LCDR R1 class) by Harry Wainwright after the amalgamation of the railways in 1899. However, as traffic continued to increase there was a need for a new powerful 0-4-4T design to take over from the SER Q class. Wainwright therefore based his new design on the R1 class. Construction The first seven locomotives were built by ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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M25 Motorway
The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 the longest ring road in Europe upon opening. The Dartford Crossing completes the orbital route but is not classed as motorway; it is classed as a trunk road and designated as the A282. In some cases, including notable legal contexts such as the Communications Act 2003, the M25 is used as a ''de facto'' alternative boundary for Greater London. In the 1944 ''Greater London Plan'', Patrick Abercrombie proposed an orbital motorway around London. This evolved into the London Ringways project in the early 1960s, and by 1966, planning had started on two projects, London Ringways#Ringway 3, Ringway 3 to the north and London Ringways#Ringway 4, Ringway 4 to the south. By the time the first sections opened in 1975, it was decided the ringways would be com ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chevening Halt Railway Station
Chevening Halt is a now-closed intermediate railway station on the Westerham branch line in Kent. The line was built as single track with provision for double track. The station was built by South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) and opened on either 16Southern Railway Halts, p41 or 19 April 1906.Subterranea Britannica's page on Chevening Halt railway station - Nick Catford - Accessed 8 September 2007 It was unmanned and consisted of a platform sufficient to accommodate 2 coaches and small waiting shelter with access via a staircase to the adjacent road bridge. Operations were taken over by the Southern Railway with the 1923 [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies, and was privatised in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in January 1963, when it was formally renamed the British Railways Board. The period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the railway. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotives had been entirely replaced by diesel and electric traction, except for the Vale of Rheidol Railway (a narrow-gauge tourist line). Passengers replaced freight as the main source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching cuts of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatis ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four large companies dubbed the " Big Four". This was intended to move the railways away from internal competition, and retain some of the benefits which the country had derived from a government-controlled railway during and after the Great War of 1914–1918. The provisions of the Act took effect from the start of 1923. History The British railway system had been built up by more than a hundred railway companies, large and small, and often, particularly locally, in competition with each other. The parallel railways of the East Midlands and the rivalry between the South Eastern Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway at Hastings were two examples of such local competition. During the First World War the railways were under st ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oxted Railway Station
Oxted railway station is on the Oxted line in southern England, serving the commuter town of Oxted, Surrey. It is from . The station is managed by Southern (Govia Thameslink Railway), Southern who operate the majority of train services with a few peak services operated by Govia Thameslink Railway, Thameslink. A relatively busy interchange station and terminus, rail services are operated by Southern and Thameslink. The station is the busiest suburban station on the line and is a terminus for some services on the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line. Trains depart to London Victoria station, London Victoria via Clapham Junction railway station, Clapham Junction, London Bridge station, London Bridge via East Croydon station, East Grinstead railway station, East Grinstead and Uckfield railway station, Uckfield in East Sussex. History Oxted was built as a joint London, Brighton and South Coast Railway/South Eastern Railway, UK, South Eastern Railway station when the South Croydon ra ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Double Track
A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most lines were built as double-track because of the difficulty of co-ordinating operations before the invention of the telegraph. The lines also tended to be busy enough to be beyond the capacity of a single track. In the early days the Board of Trade did not consider any single-track railway line to be complete. In the earliest days of railways in the United States most lines were built as single-track for reasons of cost, and very inefficient timetable working systems were used to prevent head-on collisions on single lines. This improved with the development of the telegraph and the train order system. Operation Handedness In any given country, rail traffic generally runs to one side of a double-track line, not always the same side a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Single Track (rail)
A single-track railway is a railway where trains traveling in both directions share the same track. Single track is usually found on lesser-used rail lines, often branch lines, where the level of traffic is not high enough to justify the cost of constructing and maintaining a second track. Advantages and disadvantages Single track is significantly cheaper to build and maintain, but has operational and safety disadvantages. For example, a single-track line that takes 15 minutes to travel through would have capacity for only two trains per hour in each direction safely. By contrast, a double track with signal boxes four minutes apart can allow up to 15 trains per hour in each direction safely, provided all the trains travel at the same speed. This hindrance on the capacity of a single track may be partly overcome by making the track one-way on alternate days, if the single track is not used for public passenger transit. Long freight trains are a problem if the passing s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brasted Railway Station
Brasted is a disused intermediate railway station in Brasted, Kent on the closed Westerham Valley branch line. The station closed in 1961 and the site is covered by the carriageway of the M25 motorway that was constructed along the route of the disused railway. The station was built by the Westerham Valley Railway (WVR) opened on 3 July 1881. The WVR was taken over by the South Eastern Railway in August 1881 which became the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899. Operations passed to the Southern Railway upon the railway grouping in 1923 and thereafter on nationalisation of the railways to the Southern Region of British Railways which closed the Westerham Branch on 30 October 1961 due to low patronage. The line was the subject of a revival/preservation attempt which was unsuccessful as the Association could not raise the required funds to rebuild a bridge at Chevening which had been demolished to widen the A21 Seven Oaks Bypass. The track was lifted by 1967 and the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dunton Green Railway Station
Dunton Green railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line in England, serving the village of Dunton Green, Kent. It is down the line from London Charing Cross and is situated between and stations. Trains calling at the station are operated by Southeastern. History Until 1961 this station served as the junction for the Westerham Valley Branch Line to Brasted and Westerham. When this line was constructed, a subway was built which passed under the branch platform and allowed access from the main station forecourt to a footpath leading west to Dunton Green. This subway remains in place today. Accidents and incidents On 23 April 2021, a tamper caught fire near the station and was severely damaged. Both lines were blocked. Services between and were diverted. Facilities The station is unstaffed, having had its ticket office closed in the early 1990s. Tickets must now be purchased from the self-service ticket machine at the station which is also fitted with passeng ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |