The London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in Hampshire and Berkshire, including Portsmouth and Reading. In the grouping of railways in 1923 the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway.
Among significant achievements of the L&SWR were the electrification of suburban lines, the introduction of power signalling, the development of Southampton Docks, the rebuilding of Waterloo Station as one of the great stations of the world and the handling of the massive traffic involved in the First World War.
After the Napoleonic Wars there was great concern about the security of coastal shipping routes between Southampton and London, and a number of canal schemes were put forward. After main line railways were seen to be feasible, the idea of connecting places in the South West of England to London was much discussed.
An early proposal for a railway came from Robert Johnson and Abel Ros Dottin, member of parliament for Southampton. A prospectus was published on 23 October 1830 and a public meeting in February 1831 gave unanimous support to the proposals. The railway was promoted as the Southampton, London and Branch Railway and Dock Company, with capital of £1.5 million in shares of £20. The line was to link Southampton and London, and to extend a branch to districts between Hungerford and Bristol. At this time the Great Western Railway (GWR) was being promoted, and the two schemes soon became competitors in providing railway connection to towns in the South West.
However commercial interests in Bristol and Bath seemed to favour the GWR's proposals over the Southampton company's, and a more modest initial scheme, linking only Southampton and London, was developed. Two alternative routes were surveyed by the engineer Francis Giles. One was broadly the route finally adopted, from London via Kingston, Woking and Winchester; the other was a more southerly alignment through Guildford, Farnham and Alresford to Winchester. The southerly route passed through more prosperous agricultural land, but the northern route was preferred by the proprietors because of the better access to possible branch lines to Bristol via Hungerford, Devizes, and Bath).
The railway was promoted as the London and Southampton Railway and authorised by Act of Parliament on 25 July 1834.
Construction started in September 1834 with Giles as engineer. His method was to employ a number of small contractors working concurrently at various places on the line. However their lack of resources meant that progress was slow and sporadic, and Giles was unable to maintain control of costs. With mounting delays, the projected cost to complete the line rose from the initial £894,000 to £1.5 million, and in 1837 parliamentary authority had to be sought to raise further capital. Following an examination of the accounts, instigated by a group of Lancashire shareholders, Giles was dismissed and replaced as engineer by Joseph Locke. Locke replaced many of the small contractors with the established firm of Thomas Brassey, and the rate of progress improved greatly[1].
The new line was opened in stages; the first section was from Nine Elms to Woking Common (later renamed Woking) on 21 May 1838, and the company changed its name to the London and South Western Railway Company on the same day.
The opening of the remainder of the main line followed:
The section between Basingstoke and Winchester was the most difficult to engineer, as it crossed the Loddon, Test and Itchen Valleys. It passed through four tunnels before descending to Winchester.
The stations on the line at the time of opening were:
Between the first proposal for a railway from London to Southampton and the construction, the proprietors and other groups were considering rail connections to other towns, some in the territory towards Bath and Bristol. The Great Western Railway (GWR) also planned to reach those towns and obtained its Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 which for the time being removed Bath and Bristol from the L&SWR's ambit but there remained much disputed territory, and the L&SWR and its allies continually fought the GWR and its allies for possession of territory for expansion. The GWR was built on the broad gauge of 2140 mm (7 ft ¼ in) while the L&SWR gauge was 1435 mm (4 ft 8½ in) standard gauge, and the allegiance of any proposed independent railway was made clear by its intended gauge. The protracted competition for territory, investment funds, and parliamentary approval between the GWR and the standard gauge companies became called the gauge wars.
In early days government held that several competing railways could not be sustained in any particular area of the country, and a commission of experts referred to informally as the Five Kings[citation needed] was established by the Board of Trade to determine the preferred development, and therefore the preferred company, in certain districts, and this was formalised in the Railway Regulation Act 1844.
In 1836 and later years there were proposals for a standard gauge extension to Exeter and Plymouth, but the Bristol & Exeter Railway, a broad gauge company, was successful in reaching Exeter first on 1 May 1844.
In 1844 a Wimborne solicitor put forward proposals for a Southampton and Dorchester Railway, and explored with the L&SWR its interest in supporting his scheme. However these negotiations were not positive, and in September 1844 the GWR agreed to lease his line, implying that it would be built to the broad gauge. The L&SWR developed an independent, opposing scheme, but the Five Kings supported the Southampton & Dorchester line. Formal agreement was reached on 16 January 1845 between the L&SWR, the GWR and the Southampton & Dorchester, agreeing exclusive areas of influence for future railway construction as between the parties. Part of the agreement made the Southampton and Dorchester line a standard gauge route, and gave the L&SWR access over the GWR line to Weymouth.
The L&SWR's energies were not confined to the gauge wars in the early years, and branch lines were constructed to Salisbury (as part of the thrust to the West), Richmond, Gosport (for Portsmouth), and Godalming.
In 1836 the promoters of the L & S proposed a branch from Bishopstoke (Eastleigh) to Portsmouth, the Portsmouth Junction Railway. However the population of Portsmouth wanted a direct line to London rather than a branch from a main line to Southampton. Their opposition resulted in the defeat of the Bill at its second reading.
In January 1838 a direct independent line was proposed to London, through Chichester, Arundel and Dorking. The promoters approached the L & S, but they were rejected with a degree of vindictiveness. The L & S was already planning a line to Gosport on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour. The L & S's Act succeeded on 4 June 1839. As a concession to Portsmouth the L & S changed its name to the London and South Western Railway.
The company's first London terminus was at Nine Elms on the edge of the built-up area. The wharf frontage on the river was advantageous to the railway's objective of substituting for coastal shipping transits, but the site was inconvenient for passengers, who had to travel on to London either by road or by boat.
The "Metropolitan Extension" to a more central location had been discussed as early as 1836, and an extension northeast was authorised by Act of Parliament on 31 July 1845 with a supplementary Act of 1847 authorising a wider railway and a larger terminus; the capital authorised was £950,000. The line was to have an intermediate station at Vauxhall and two short branches, to Waterloo Bridge Road and to Hungerford Bridge. An unfulfilled intention was for a through station with services nearer to the City and the eventual terminus, named Waterloo Bridge until 1886, was planned to be a through station.
Opening was planned for 30 June 1848, but the Board of Trade Inspector refused to approve the engineering construction of some of the large-span bridges at the eastern end; however his superior was satisfied during load tests at a subsequent inspection, and the line opened on 11 July 1848. At first incoming trains stopped outside the station and were pulled in by capstan after the locomotive had been detached.
The Nine Elms site became dedicated to goods traffic and was much extended to fill the triangle of land eastwards to Wandsworth Road.
An independent Richmond railway was promoted which would have run north of the L&SWR as far as Nine Elms, then would have crossed the L&SWR line and run to Waterloo. However the L&SWR adopted the Richmond line giving quadrupled track from where the routes met at Falcon Junction (just east of the present Clapham Junction station) to Waterloo Bridge.
The Exeter and Crediton Railway (opened on 12 May 1851), and the North Devon Railway (opened on 1 August 1854) were leased to the London and South Western Railway from 1862/1863 and then bought out in 1865.
The L&SWR adopted 650 V DC third rail electrification of its London suburban routes to Waterloo in 1913, but was delayed by First World War. They were inspired by Sir Herbert Walker, who had recently been at London and North Western Railway and had electrified (using a similar 630 V DC four rail system) their suburban lines (see Suburban electrification of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway#London District). This early adoption clashed with LBSCR's 6600V (6.6 kV), 25 Hz AC, Overhead system. Grouping saw LSWR's management dominate and the LSWR system was rolled out across South London in the 1920s over the metals of both LBSCR and SECR. Eventually it replaced the LBSCR system and was used on two mainline electrifications of the exLBSCR's Brighton Main Line in January 1933 and LSWR's own Portsmouth Direct Line in May 1937. Electrification was thus limited to metro / suburban services using electric multiple units (EMUs), freight and mainline (intercity) services continued to use steam traction.
When the company was first formed, it also showed interest in Southampton Docks. The first docks had already been built and the development of the port of Southampton was accelerated by the arrival of the railway. In 1843, the L&SWR started running ships from Southampton as the New South Western Steam Navigation Company[3].. Later, the L&SWR took over the vessels and in 1892 it bought the docks and continued the rapid development of them.[4].
In 1891, the works at Eastleigh, in Hampshire, were opened with the transfer of the carriage and wagon works from Nine Elms in London. The Locomotive Works were transferred from Nine Elms under Drummond, opening in 1909.
For details of the LSWR Main Line routes, see:
The LSWR was blessed throughout much of its history by distinguished and highly capable locomotive engineers.
John Viret 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
The locomotive works were at Nine Elms Locomotive Works from 1838 to 1908. Under Drummond they were moved to a new spacious site at Eastleigh in 1909.
Little information is available 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. Vermilion buffer beams and buff footplate interior.
Goods classes - unlined Indian red. Older engines painted black until 1859.
1866 - 1872
All engines dark chocolate brown with 1-inch black bands edged internally in white and externally by vermillion. Tender sides divided into three panels.
Paler chocolate known as purple brown with the same lining. From 1874 the white lining was replaced by yellow ochre and the vermillion by crimson.
1878 - 1885
Umber brown with a 3in black band externally and bright green line internally. Boiler bands black with white edging. Buffer beams vermilion. 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.
1895-1914
Passenger classes - royal green lined in chocolate, triple lined in white, black and white. Boiler bands black lined in white with 3-inch 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 vermilion and cab interiors grained pine.
Goods classes - holly green edged in black and lined in light green. Boiler bands 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.
