Elmers End

[frodshamfella]

Does anyone on here have good memory of using Elmers End to Addiscombe or / and Selsdon and Sanderstead ?

 

[steamybrian]

Yes- I was born and brought up in Croydon and lived in the Addiscombe area for 26 years.
Used Elmers End -Addiscombe line many, many times.
I did not use Elmers End- Sanderstead very often as the service was latterly Mondays -Fridays peak hours only although used Bingham Road a few times

 

[yorksrob]

Yes, I remember getting 2 carriage EPB's from Elmers End to Addiscombe in the 90's. It was the middle of the day and me and my dad were the only passengers on the train sometimes.

Also visited it on a couple of railtours which saw Addiscombe and Woodside uncharacteristically crowded.

Sad to think its not there anymore

 

[30907]

Likewise, but living in Shortlands I had little call to use the Mid-Kent.

Everything was dead outside the peaks and a 2EPB was generous provision! Addiscombe was needed because of the depot there. Sanderstead had been reopened by the SR and electrified but I suspect that was at least partly to provide somewhere quiet for Mid Kent trains to terminate - strange to think that Hayes was a rural branch in the 1920s!

I remember doing Clock House to Brighton via Uckfield and back on a damp day shortly before the Lewes bit closed. The last morning train was about 0930 IIRC.
On the return I had to walk from Sanderstead to Selsdon as evening peak workings couldn't use Sanderstead - working there was to change ends in the down platform and then shunt to the up, which blocked the Oxted traffic. From Selsdon it was 8EPB - later the whole service was run as a shuttle except for a handful of Addiscombes on and off the depot.

 

[frodshamfella]

Thanks for the replies. I used to have a friend who lived between Elmers End and Woodside, and I would often take the Addiscombe shuttle service, I don't remember many people using it however, although I would probably be on it middle of day or a Saturday. I do remember there were a few direct service from Addiscombe to London, normally faster ones, missing a few stops.

I went on the Sanderstead service just before the line closed, so im glad I managed that. I remember these curious branch lines quite fondly.

 

[John Webb]

There's an entry for Elmers End at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/e/elmers_end/index.shtml which you may find of interest.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[frodshamfella]

There's an entry for Elmers End at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/e/elmers_end/index.shtml which you may find of interest.

Regards,
John Webb

Thank you very much

 

[frodshamfella]

The other line I find interesting is Grove Park to Bromley North. I was brought up I Bexleyheath, so these branch lines were always a fascination to me. I never managed to try West Croydon to Wimbledon line.

 

[Busaholic]

The other line I find interesting is Grove Park to Bromley North. I was brought up I Bexleyheath, so these branch lines were always a fascination to me. I never managed to try West Croydon to Wimbledon line.

Bromley North and Sundridge Park had a peak hour service to Charing Cross/Cannon street certainly into the 1980s, when I lived at Hither Green. I seem to remember an offpeak service as well before then, but not in the evenings or Sundays.

 

[30907]

Bromley North and Sundridge Park had a peak hour service to Charing Cross/Cannon street certainly into the 1980s, when I lived at Hither Green. I seem to remember an offpeak service as well before then, but not in the evenings or Sundays.

Charing X only, at least after the London Bridge resignalling in the 70s.
Can't remember when the off peak through service was withdrawn, but it will have been when the SR was under instruction to cut costs. ISTR one morning peak through train at 0808 (?) survived a few years longer than the rest. They were always the quietest SE services, and I regularly opted for that route home if I had a 1730 finish at Waterloo (1978-80).
One peculiar train - which I used once around 1970 - was the 0102 Blackfriars-Tonbridge which cross-connected at LBG with an 0059 CHX-Gillingham and went inot and out of Bromley N (skipping Sundridge Pk) en route, providing Bromley with a later service than the 0024 off Victoria.

 

[frodshamfella]

Yes I can remember seeing Bromley North peak evening services from Charing Cross, from memory they went fast LB to Hither Green.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Friend of mine was first (and last) ASM Elmers End , looking after Ladywell - Hayes / Sanderstead / Addiscombe.

Much of the job was dealing with ticket office break in-s (not much to steal at Coombe Road really - a nuisance) , and the ever present staff shortages. Signalmen as well as guards. Staff a bit awkward , and they enjoyed their Spanish Customs ...like DOO on the "Popper" to Addiscombe (unofficially)

 

[Busaholic]

Charing X only, at least after the London Bridge resignalling in the 70s.
Can't remember when the off peak through service was withdrawn, but it will have been when the SR was under instruction to cut costs. ISTR one morning peak through train at 0808 (?) survived a few years longer than the rest. They were always the quietest SE services, and I regularly opted for that route home if I had a 1730 finish at Waterloo (1978-80).
One peculiar train - which I used once around 1970 - was the 0102 Blackfriars-Tonbridge which cross-connected at LBG with an 0059 CHX-Gillingham and went inot and out of Bromley N (skipping Sundridge Pk) en route, providing Bromley with a later service than the 0024 off Victoria.

I never knew about that 0102, although I was living in Beckenham rather than family home in Bromley by 1970. The 00.24 used to get pretty crowded, because it was the only train after about 23.12 (?) to Bromley from Victoria.

 

[30907]

I never knew about that 0102, although I was living in Beckenham rather than family home in Bromley by 1970. The 00.24 used to get pretty crowded, because it was the only train after about 23.12 (?) to Bromley from Victoria.

Think the last Orpington off Victoria was 23.32.

You're right, the 0102 wouldn't have been much use to you - I only had a 20 minute walk home from Bromley North

 

[Busaholic]

Think the last Orpington off Victoria was 23.32.

You're right, the 0102 wouldn't have been much use to you - I only had a 20 minute walk home from Bromley North

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember the previous second-to-last train was made a bit later after the 00.25 got withdrawn, then becoming the last train at 23.32. I once or twice had a real rush to get to Victoria for the 23'12 (?) so I didn't have to hang around until 00.25. Even in the early 1970s Victoria wasn't a great place at that time, and, of course, the pubs all closed at 11 p.m. then.

 

[30907]

Checked the 71-72 WTT which happens to be to hand:

2242 - 2302 (not Suns) - 2332. The 0024/25 ran as ECS Monday mornings, presumably to save having to run RRBs regularly, then a.daily as a staff train to Faversham and Sheerness, back to Swanley for the first Up at 0400 (which never ever used!).
Still the same 10 years later but I do remember the late trains switching to 12 and 42.

 

[Busaholic]

Checked the 71-72 WTT which happens to be to hand:

2242 - 2302 (not Suns) - 2332. The 0024/25 ran as ECS Monday mornings, presumably to save having to run RRBs regularly, then a.daily as a staff train to Faversham and Sheerness, back to Swanley for the first Up at 0400 (which never ever used!).
Still the same 10 years later but I do remember the late trains switching to 12 and 42.

I accept my memory is a bit hazy on this - so hazy that I realise now my sojourn in Beckenham was 1969 until May 1971, when I moved to Sittingbourne, so I wasn't actually there for the 1971/2 timetable!

 

[30907]

I accept my memory is a bit hazy on this - so hazy that I realise now my sojourn in Beckenham was 1969 until May 1971, when I moved to Sittingbourne, so I wasn't actually there for the 1971/2 timetable!

No matter, there were no significant changes from the 1967 timetable (apart from temporary ones till they'd put the 4 aspect signals in so the it could actually work) for a good few years.

 

[MaxB]

They were for newspaper workers having "put the paper to bed" and heading home.

 

[30907]

They were for newspaper workers having "put the paper to bed" and heading home.

Meaning the 0102 off BFR? It was the last survivor - until the 60s there was almost an all-night service from Holborn to Orpington.

 

[Busaholic]

Meaning the 0102 off BFR? It was the last survivor - until the 60s there was almost an all-night service from Holborn to Orpington.

For Smithfield workers too?

 

[simonw]

Last day of the branch

http://simonwhittinghamphotography.zenfolio.com/p277701171

 

[frodshamfella]

I just wondered if there were any Elmers End to Hayes workings ever, ie to changed from an Addiscombe service ?

 

[30907]

I just wondered if there were any Elmers End to Hayes workings ever, ie to changed from an Addiscombe service ?

Very much so at the beginning, as the Hayes branch was all pretty rural before electrification (I'm not sure there was even much development round Elmer's End) - the housing is uniformly inter-war over a wide area.

As late as the 1938 Bradshaw half the off-peak services on the branch were shuttles (connecting from the Sandersteadsouth as it happens), but by 1954 the whole off-peak service had switched to Hayes, with Addiscombe and Sanderstead being shuttles (the pattern many will remember).

 

[frodshamfella]

Thanks for the info

Carl

 

[Busaholic]

Does anyone remember a semi-derelict area in close proximity to Elmers End Station in the early/mid 1960s that was used for Civil Defence training? For a few weeks, or maybe months, a group of us army cadets used to go there one afternoon a week (by train from Catford Bridge). There was definitely an old double decker bus there, which I'm pretty sure was ex-LT and may have been an STL: I should remember, but it was a long time ago!

 

[urpert]

The other line I find interesting is Grove Park to Bromley North. I was brought up I Bexleyheath, so these branch lines were always a fascination to me. I never managed to try West Croydon to Wimbledon line.

The Bromley North branch still has jointed track and generally feels frozen in time.

 

[frodshamfella]

The Bromley North branch still has jointed track and generally feels frozen in time.

When I used to commute to Charing Cross in the 80s I remember seeing peak hours semi fast service to Bromley North displayed.