Cranleigh Line
Encyclopedia
The Cranleigh Line was a short railway
line that connected Guildford
, the county town
of Surrey
, with the West Sussex
market town
of Horsham
, via Cranleigh
, a distance of 19¼ miles (31 kilometres). The branch line
closed on 14 June 1965 four months before its 100th anniversary, the only Surrey casualty of the Beeching Axe
.
(LBSCR) and the London and South Western Railway
(LSWR) for the lucrative Portsmouth
traffic. A branch of the LSWR's London to Southampton line had reached Guildford in 1845, was extended to Godalming
in 1849 and then to Havant
in 1859. In 1844 the LSWR drew up plans to construct a line to the then important port of Shoreham-by-Sea
from a point near Horsham. Upon hearing of this possible encroachment into their territory, the LBSCR (at the time still known as the London and Brighton Railway
) acted quickly in promoting a bill authorising a line to Shoreham. The London and Brighton (Steyning Branch) Railway Act received royal assent
on 18 June 1846 and the company's engineer, R. Jacombe-Hood, was instructed to survey the line. A line to Horsham from Three Bridges
on the LBSCR's direct line between London and Brighton
was laid in 1848.
In the meantime, both railway companies began to experience financial difficulties coinciding with the economic recession of the late 1840s, and their plans for the Horsham area were put on hold. It would be a further ten years before the plans for a line to Shoreham were resurrected by the LBSCR which opened to traffic on 1 July 1861. The opening of the line was seen by a group of local businessmen as an opportunity to promote a railway project offering the LSWR a route to Shoreham by connecting Guildford with Horsham.
(now known as Peasmarsh Junction) to Stammerham, 2½ miles to the south-west of Horsham. The actions of the H&GDR drew the attention of the Wey & Arun Canal Company
which was alarmed by the prospect of competition in an area which it had dominated since 1816. The Canal Company rapidly drew up plans for a line which would follow the course of the canal from Guildford to Pulborough
, a distance of 18½ miles. However, the plans came to nothing and the railway was indeed to prove the undoing of the canal, diminished freight demand leading to its abandonment in 1871, although it did enjoy a brief renaissance in the 1860s by transporting the materials necessary for the railway's construction.
Once the H&GDR bill came before the House of Commons
' Standing Orders Committee, the LBSCR made its opposition clear, lodging formal notice of objection to the bill and seeking the right to be heard personally by the Committee. In an attempt to waylay this opposition at an early stage, the promoters of the H&GDR sought the support of the LBSCR by offering it the opportunity to work the new line. This would enable the LBSCR to exercise a degree of control over the traffic on the line and thereby a means to restrict any attempt by the LSWR to gain access to Shoreham. With the LBSCR's opposition withdrawn, the H&GDR bill passed through Parliament and became law on 6 August 1860 as the Horsham and Guildford Direct Railway Act.
The Act fixed the capital of the H&GDR company at £160,000 and allowed borrowings up to £50,000 subject to the usual conditions. The company was to acquire the necessary land for the railway by way of compulsory purchase by 6 August 1863 and to complete the construction works within two years of that date. A penalty of £12,000 would be payable should the works not be completed on time. The LBSCR was granted the working rights over the line for a period of ten years. The Act also included a "Working Agreement" with the LBSCR which prevented the H&GDR from offering reciprocal running rights on the line.
The company began negotiations with the LSWR for access to its Guildford station, negotiations which proved difficult as the LSWR did not fancy the prospect of LBSCR trains on its rails. The "Working Agreement" prevented the H&GDR from offering running rights over the line to the LSWR, removing a possible incentive for the LSWR to cooperate. The problem over access to Guildford station remained a problem until the 1890s and was never fully resolved until the grouping
of 1923.
The national economic climate also hindered progress on the line, with contracts for its construction not being drawn up until 1 July 1861. The line was to be laid as a single track
at a cost of £123,000 for a distance of 15 miles 46 chains. The price included the land purchase costs, maintenance costs for the first year of operations and a guarantee of track stability for seven years. However, this was not to be the end of the H&GDR's problems - there were squabbles over ownership of the railway and a contractor went bankrupt with £30,000 debts during the construction.
The LBSCR contributed the maximum amount permitted by law into the H&GDR for construction works, £75,000, and the original H&GDR members stumped up £48,000, making a grand total of £123,000. More changes were made which had the effect of further integrating the H&GDR into the LBSCR: on 28 April 1862 the H&GDR's registered office
was changed to that of LBSCR, and the latter's staff were used as supervisors and inspectors in the line's construction. By June 1862 the H&GDR was effectively part of the LBSCR and an agreement was concluded on 29 July to formally merge the two companies. This was also authorised by the 1864 Act which allowed the buying out of the original promoters of the H&GDR for a sum of £123,000. Once in control of the enterprise, the LBSCR replaced its engineer Edward Woods with one of its senior employees, Frederick Bannister.
An immediate consequence of the LBSCR takeover was that the contracts for the construction of the line were finally sealed on 16 April 1862. However, the involvement of the LBSCR did nothing to alleviate the slow progress which had beset the line from its inception - by May 1863 negotiations with landowners were still dragging on and the company's engineer reported in the same year that the line was unlikely to be completed within the time specified by the 1860 Act. The task of constructing the line's five stations had been put out to tender and in 1864 a bid of £3,698 was accepted. At a board meeting held on 15 March 1864, the directors gave vent to their unhappiness as to how matters were proceeding, expressing their "extreme dissatisfaction at the great delays which have taken place and the inefficient manner in which the works have been prosecuted."
On 2 May 1865 Bannister reported to the board that the line was finally ready to be inspected by the Board of Trade
which duly attended two months later. The Chief Inspecting Officer, Colonel Yolland
, was unhappy with the traffic arrangements at Guildford and did not authorise public use of Rudgwick Station, set on a 1 in 80 incline, until it was re-sited on an incline of 1 in 130. As the company was contractually obliged to provide this station for the local landowner, it had no choice but to carry out the works, which also included the raising of an embankment
and a bridge over the River Arun
by ten feet.
The local press was critical of the early services. The West Sussex Gazette of 10 October 1865 stated that the line was "likely to prove a more picturesque than profitable part of the Company." There was a feeling that it had been constructed merely to provide connections with the LSWR at Guildford, and to give a through route to the Midlands
.
at Cranleigh, as well as agricultural feed
and machinery for the farming industry. Farmers also used the line to transport their goods to market in Guildford and Horsham. As stations on the line were not equipped with freight facilities, these now had to be added: those at Baynards (initially known as "Little Vachery") and Cranleigh became quite substantial with the involvement of commercial operators.
Initially eight trains ran daily, covering the line in 50 minutes, with certain trains terminating at Cranleigh. However, sluggish traffic returns meant that fares were raised within 18 months of opening, whilst services were reduced to three each way on weekdays and Saturdays, with two on Sundays. The LBSCR used loose-coupled 4-wheeled coaches equipped with 1st, 2nd and 3rd class compartments. Later years saw even fewer services, up to six complete trips being made daily with one or two extra trains from Horsham terminating at Cranleigh. Gradually only 3rd class accommodation was offered, but with the number of daily services increased to eight, calling at all stations. There was very little through-running on the line, only excursions (particularly on Sundays and often from the West Midlands
to Brighton) bucking the trend.
The line was never doubled and for some years Baynards was the only crossing station. In 1876 the long section of 9½ miles from Baynards to Peasmarsh Junction was broken by the provision of a crossing loop at Bramley, followed by another at Cranleigh in 1880. The line was often used as a diversionary route when the Brighton Main Line was blocked, as was the case in August 1861 when a collision in the Clayton Tunnel
forced that line's temporary closure.
The LSWR's control of the area to the north of the line ensured that the ½ mile long south-facing branch of Stammerham Junction (also known as Itchingfield South Fork) which was intended to allow trains to run between Guildford and Shoreham or Portsmouth without reversing through the Junction remained little used. The LBSCR therefore decided to close the section from 1 August 1867. It may have also been concerned that the LSWR would have greater access to the South Coast with running rights over the section. No sign of the south-facing branch remains today as the area has been ploughed over.
Increased passenger traffic at Guildford station during the 1890s led to the LSWR giving lower priority to LBSCR traffic at Peasmarsh Junction. The LBSCR sought to remedy this problem by applying for authorisation for a new 9 mile from Cranleigh to Dorking
via Ewhurst
, providing access to London without having to use LSWR metals. However, the objections of local landowners combined with the hilly topography of the North Downs
resulted in the LBSCR not pursuing this scheme any further. In 1896 plans were deposited for a light railway
which would run between Ockley
(to the south of Holmwood
on the Mole Valley line) and Selham
(to the west of Petworth
on the Midhurst line
). These plans as well as others in 1898 for a direct link between Cranleigh and Holmwood all failed to materialise.
school to premises near Stammerham Junction in 1902 together with the hope that Horsham would expand westwards towards the Junction led the LBSCR to invest £30,000 into building what was to become Christ's Hospital station. Previously there had been no station at this point, only a small wooden platform which was used by a local dairy to ferry milk to London; this platform had fallen into disuse upon the bankruptcy of the dairy.
The magnificent red brick station reflecting the LBSCR's aspirations for the area was constructed using bricks supplied by the nearby Southwater
Brickworks. Five through tracks were laid which served seven facing platforms. Three platforms were set aside to the Cranleigh Line and two other platforms served passengers on the main line - allowing trains travelling from London via Horsham the option of routes to Pulborough, Shoreham or Guildford and beyond. A single loop on the down line serving two facing platforms was installed to deal with the large number of pupils expected (the school had 835 pupils) and the van trains carrying their luggage, as well as holiday specials. The school governors subsidised the costs of construction of the station.
However, in the event the LBSCR's expectation of an income from the station to match the size of its premises would be defeated by two developments. Firstly, Christ's Hospital school revealed that it would only accommodate boarders
. Secondly, the anticipated residential development in the area did not materialise. This was not helped by the fact that the school had purchased much of the land around the junction, effectively ending any hopes for housing in the area. The LBSCR was therefore left with a white elephant
, the capacity and stature of the station being vastly out of proportion with its status as a useful rural interchange rather than an important railway junction serving much of West Sussex.
. Although the southern section of Stammerham Junction could have increased the line's usefulness, it remained abandoned. Sunday services were suspended on the line from 1917 to 1919 as a wartime economy measure.
brought together the LBSCR and the LSWR as part of the Southern Railway
which took over responsibility for numerous commuter routes into London. Some electrification
took place, notably the Portsmouth line
in 1937 and the line through Horsham the following year. Sandwiched between the two, the low usage of the Cranleigh line did not justify electrification.
The period also saw increased competition from buses: Rudgwick (itself sparsely populated) was served by a competing bus service during the 1930s and it was not unknown during this time for the station's booking office not to sell any more tickets all day following the departure of the first service to Horsham.
In the 1930s the line operated a late evening service between Guildford and Cranleigh mainly for the benefit of cinemagoers.
near Bramley carrying 42 passengers, many of whom were Christmas shoppers. There were seven casualties including the driver and guard. The situation could have been far worse, were it not for the intervention of a number of Canadian soldiers who were billetted nearby. The locomotive, a D3 0-4-4T
, was repaired and returned rapidly back into service.
By May 1943 the Cranleigh Line still operated a fairly regular service with 10 workings from Horsham on weekdays: 07.59, 09.30, 12.42, 13.40, 15.23, 16.53, 18.00, 19.12 and 21.30 (until 2 October), plus the commuter service of 19.19 from Cranleigh. Sundays saw two departures at 10.19 and 20.53. From Guildford, weekday services were: 08.05, 09.18, 10.34, 13.09 (to Cranleigh), 13.42, 17.04, 18.07, 18.34 (to Cranleigh), 19.34 and 20.34. On Sundays there were two workings: 08.54 and 19.22. This level of services did not alter much in the years leading up to the line's closure except to be reduced even further.
but the inadequate funds made available for modernisation of the railways were never going to be used for railway backwaters like the Cranleigh Line.
holders commuting up to London. The traffic on the line could have been greater were it not for the fact that many commuters chose to drive to Guildford to catch their trains rather than use the branch line which had morning and evening commuter trains. However, the timetabling of services did the line no favours: trains were departing Horsham a few minutes before potential passengers arrived there, yet these trains then waited for 15 minutes at Cranleigh because Guildford was unable to accommodate them during "busy times" which meant that there were no connections of any use when trains did eventually arrive in Guildford.
The final timetable for the line was in fact worse than that provided in 1865. There were no lunchtime trains except on Saturdays, the 9.22 ex-Guildford and 9.30 ex-Horsham services were replaced by one service to Cranleigh and back, extended from December 1962 to Baynards. The last Saturday working was cancelled, meaning that the final departure from Horsham was at 18.00. The daily 17.04 working from Guildford was cancelled - this had been an almost constant running since the line's opening. Sunday services also ceased, as did trains as Christmas
, Easter
, Whitsun
and the August Bank Holiday. No more excursions were offered, formerly the line had been alive with trips to Brighton
from Reading
, Oxford
, North Camp
, Staines
, Gloucester
, Worcester
and Great Malvern
.
which dated from the late 1890s were superseded by the British Railways Class 2 2-6-2Ts built to an LMSR design. The coaching stock was also modernised.
In 1957 the BBC
used the Cranleigh Line to film a version of The Railway Children
, The Horsemasters, Rotten to the Core and The House at the End of the World.
's announcement to the House of Commons on 10 March 1960 that "the railway system must be remodelled to meet the current needs" spelled the beginning of the end for the Cranleigh Line which had never run profitably in its history. Ernest Marples
, the Minister of Transport
, was charged with the task of remodelling, and he quickly appointed Dr Beeching
as chairman of the British Transport Commission
in 1961. Beeching prepared a report entitled the "Reshaping of British Railways" which called for the closure of a large number of railway lines - the so-called "Beeching Axe
". Among the lines nominated for closure was the Cranleigh Line.
A comprehensive survey of rail traffic on the line had been carried out during the week ending 23 April 1961, and it was based on these results that all five stations on the Cranleigh Line were proposed for closure in the Beeching Report which was published on 25 March 1963. The report showed that the line had less than 5,000 passengers per week and less than 5,000 tons of freight per week. Cranleigh and Bramley & Wonersh ticket offices received between £5,000 and £25,000 per year, whereas the other three stations on the line received less than £5,000 per year. At this time the line was losing about £46,000 a year or £884 per week. Under section 22 of the Transport Act 1962
, the Act passed by the government to implement the new railway strategy, the Board of British Railways was required to run the railways so that its operating profits were "not less than sufficient" for meeting the running costs. This meant the end for uneconomic lines such as the Cranleigh Line.
The accounts used to justify the closure proved somewhat controversial. It was subsequently discovered that the £46,000 'annual' running costs included the majority of the costs of the replacement of the bridge over the River Wey, the majority of the work having been done in the year the accounts were compiled (actually a few years before the closure). The actual running costs, once the bridge replacement was removed were a far more modest £6000. It had been realised that replacement of the steam traction used on the line with diesel, plus the replacement of the entirely manual signalling with automatic signalling would achieve some savings. Closure of the largely underused part of the line beyond Cranleigh would have left a fairly profitable railway which would have become even more profitable with the post war expansion of housing in Bramley and Cranleigh.
More than one hundred objections were lodged against the proposed closure and in accordance with the procedure put in place by the Transport Act, the matter proceeded to a public enquiry held by the local Area Transport Users Consultative Committee at the Village Hall in Cranleigh in March 1964. In support of their arguments for keeping the line open, the objectors pointed out that traffic on the line was actually increasing and that new residential development was taking place and that this justified keeping the line open at least between Guildford and Cranleigh. British Rail reluctantly conceded that passenger traffic was indeed increasing at two places on the line. The objectors also questioned whether the introduction of modern working practices would reduce costs.
Christ's Hospital station itself was for a time under threat of closure but an outcry from the school plus a petition with 3,046 signatures sent to the Queen
put a stop to this.
who was also the great-grandson of the guard on the first train back in 1865.
A special service of nine coaches carrying around 400 passengers and drawn by former Southern Railway Class Q1 0-6-0
locomotives was organised on Sunday 13 June by the Locomotive Club of Great Britain.
On the appointed day for closure of the line it was realised that a number of wagons remained in Baynards' goods yard and a locomotive had to be dispatched from Horsham to collect them. The last train left Guildford at 18.55 and returned at 20.34. Boys from Christ's Hospital school marked the occasion of the line's closure by singing the hymn
Abide with Me
as the last train pulled out from the school's local station.
Additional bus services were introduced and provided by the Aldershot & District Bus Company following the line's closure, but these were withdrawn after six months as they were hardly used. The Ministry of Transport had informed British Rail on 4 November 1965 that the buses between Baynards and Cranleigh were carrying an average of one passenger each way in either direction between 14 June and 28 August, and in no case had there been more than three passengers on a bus. The Ministry therefore authorised the discontinuance of this particular service; within two years almost all the extra services had met the same fate.
It was interesting to note that the lifting of the railway track was executed with little delay and was witnessed by a rather bemused gang of BR Signal & Telecommunications engineers who were busy laying the cabling for the new automatic signalling.
There have been a few proposals since to rebuild the line, but so far none have come to fruition. Most stretches of the line are now available to walkers as a permissive right of way. The demolished bridge over the River Wey has been replaced with a pedestrian bridge.
Leaving Horsham station, the line used the Mid-Sussex metals
as far as Stammerham Junction and Christ's Hospital station (2 miles 51 chains from Horsham) where it veered to the north-west, the track crossing an undulating surface for the majority of its length, climbing gradients as steep as 1 in 88. The first station to be reached was Slinfold (4 miles 67 chains) which was equipped with a single platform, a small goods yard facility and two private sidings. Three signal box
es were necessary to control the traffic here. The line then continued on an elevated embankment to Rudgwick station (7 miles 9 chains), an embankment which was to cause recurrent problems due to its instability. Rudgwick station had two short sidings and a headshunt
at the end of its single platform. About ¾ mile to the south of the station, the line passed over the River Arun on a single span girder bridge
with high brick abutment
s.
Continuing through wooden wealden
countryside, the line climbed on a gradient to pass through the 381-yard long Baynards Tunnel where it reached its highest point - 250 ft above sea level
- and crossed the boundary between Surrey and West Sussex. The tunnel was steeply graded and suffered from damp, meaning that in wet conditions trains were known to lose traction. The location of the next station, Baynards (8 miles 27 chains), was chosen to suit Lord Thurlow
, the owner of nearby Baynards Park. The station was equipped with a crossing loop and its small goods and marshalling yards served, in addition to Lord Thurlow's estate, a local brickworks
producing fuller's earth
. This would become Baynards Brick and Tile Works whose activities continued until the 1980s when Berks Chemical Works (Steetly). The site has now reverted to its former use and is owned by Redland plc
.
Cranleigh (11 miles 19 chains) was the busiest station on the line, receiving passenger traffic from the local boys' school
. It was originally opened as "Cranley" but changed its name in 1867 at the request of the Post Office to avoid confusion with Crawley
in West Sussex on badly written envelopes and parcels. The railway then ran on a level to Bramley (16 miles 15 chains), which was renamed Bramley & Wonersh in 1888, which also had a passing loop and benefited from a second platform from 1876. Leaving Bramley, the line continued as far as the LSWR's junction at Peasmarsh (18 miles 10 chains), having followed a branch of the River Wey
through the gap between Pitch Hill and Hascombe Hill. About a mile beyond Bramley the branch of the river and the main stream were crossed in quick succession, the line curving sharply to join the electrified main line from Waterloo
to Portsmouth at Peasmarsh Junction, 1¾ miles south of Guildford station (19 miles 68 chains).
tender engine built at Brighton railway works
to the designs of John Chester Craven
, and numbered 30. It remained in service until May 1886. From 1878 and 1880 two Terriers
, respectively no. 36 "Bramley" and no. 77 "Wonersh", began to work the line from the LSWR shed at Guildford. Wonersh was subsequently transferred in the 1890s to the Pulborough-Chichester line
and then on to the Isle of Wight
where it became Southern no. W13 "Carisbrooke", returning to Fratton in 1949 to become BR no. 32677. Wonersh was withdrawn in September 1959. Bramley was sold in 1902 to a contractor involved in the construction of
the extension to the Great Central Railway
. Freight services were carried out in the 1890s by Class E1
nos. 97 "Honfleur" and 127 "Poitiers".
Following the grouping in 1923, Drummond
Class M7
0-4-4 tanks from the LSWR appeared on the line and took over most of the regular passenger workings until the 1950s. Nos. 30047 - 53 were based at Horsham. Their last appearance on the line was on 28 January 1963 when the No. 30241 worked the 18.05 to Horsham. In addition, the Guildford shed was known to send out other types of engine from time to time which would not normally be used on the line; those that made their appearance included classes C
, D
, Q1
and 700
. D1 0-4-2
tanks nos. 2235 and 2283 worked the line to Guildford and Brighton from Horsham during the Second World War, notwithstanding the fact that both dated from the 1880s. Another D1 no. 2252 was seen at Bramber as late as 1950. Other former LBSCR engines making their appearance on the line were members of the E4 class Other former LBSCR locomotives to work passenger trains on the Cranleigh line were members of the E4 class
of 0-6-2 tanks, one of which "Birch Grove" No. 32473 was acquired by the Bluebell Railway
in 1962 where it now survives, having undergone a complete overhaul in recent years. The line occasionally saw an Billinton
E6
. Another Billinton design to be used on the line was the C2 0-6-0
tender freight locomotive. No. 2436 was based at the Guildford shed from March 1944 and worked goods on the Cranleigh line. The Horsham shed was allocated six C3
s, a larger version of the C2, in 1930 and, although primarily intended for goods trains, they were often used on Sunday excursions to Brighton, taking over a train from the Cranleigh line and running it via Steyning. With a few exceptions, two-coach pull-and-push
sets were used for passenger services for most of the line's working life.
The 1955 Modernisation Plan made more powerful engines available. BR built LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T
were used until the end of services on the Cranleigh line, assisted by the E6s and backed up by class E4 Nos. 32479 and 32503 as late as 1962. After 1960, Horsham ceased to be a shed in its own right and acted as a stabling point for goods engines from Three Bridges and passenger engines from Brighton. Following the electrification of the Kent Coast, the Brighton shed became host to some of the Cranleigh Line's engines.
Slinfold station building was itself demolished and a caravan site now occupies the location. Two LBSCR houses remain on the far side of the nearby level crossing
. Rudgwick station has also been demolished, replaced by a health centre. The same fate was met by Cranleigh station which was replaced by Stocklund Square in 1965; the Square was reduced in size in 2004 when a branch of Sainsbury's was constructed on part of the site. Baynards station bucks the trend, surviving as a private residence. Bramley and Wonersh also remains and was restored by Bramley Parish Council in 2003–2004.
Between 1965 and 1970 the track was lifted and much of the track ballast
was removed. The coppiced woodland along many of the cuttings and embankment sides remained unmanaged until 2 April 1970 when ownership of much of the track was sold by the British Railways Board
to Surrey County Council
and Hambleton Rural District Council (which became Waverley Borough Council in 1974) for £17,500. The local authorities managed the land until 1984, clearing scrub to allow the general public to use it as a recreational facility.
In 1984, the local authorities working together with other authorities and the Manpower Services Commission established the Downs Link
, a 30 mile long footpath and bridleway connecting the North
and South Downs
National Trails. The Link was opened on 9 July 1984 by the Mayor of Waverley, Anne Hoath, at Baynards station; it subsequently received a commendation in the National Conservation Award Scheme jointly organised by The Times
newspaper and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
.
which became colonised with plants. The tunnel is also now used by hibernating bat
s and its northern end has been filled in, although it was possible until recently to gain access to the tunnel. The steel railway bridge which carried the line over the Wey and Arun Canal, near Bramley was dismantled after closure, as was the bridge over the River Wey which stood near where the line joined the Guildford to Portsmouth main line at Peasmarsh. However, in 2005, the bridge over the Wey, was replaced by a steel footbridge, when the trackbed from the site of Bramley & Wonersh station, to Peasmarsh Junction, was relaid with stone to make a foot and cycle path. Also, the road bridge over the line at Cranleigh Common, was restored and strengthened by Surrey County Council in 2006. In addition, numerous remnants of the railway can be found along the line's course, including linesmans' huts, signal mechanisms, mileposts and other such trackside structures.
The author also highlights the fact that little was done in the way of attracting commuters on to the railway. In 1959 the earliest train which would allow users to arrive in London at a respectable time was the 06.51 from Baynards which waited 13 minutes in Cranleigh before proceeding northwards. Passenger traffic ebbed away from the line as better travel possibilities were offered by buses and then cars, a situation which neither the Southern Railway nor British Rail did anything to change. By the end of its working life, BR regarded the line as an uneconomic backwater and tried to make it as unattractive as possible to potential users in order to ensure that Beeching's Axe would fall without too much complaint.
aimed at identifying worthwhile rail infrastructure improvements in the county
to allow new or modified services to be introduced. The aims of the report were threefold: to relieve pressure on the roads, to improve the county's share of modal
rail services and to encourage the use of the rail network as part of a balanced transport system.
The report estimated that around 500 car-users would transfer to rail each day. The cost of reinstatement of the Cranleigh Line between Guildford and Cranleigh was projected at £24 million which would include the base, civil, electrical, engineering and signalling works. It did not include land acquisition costs, legal costs and bridge works. The reinstatement of the bridge over the River Wey was alone costed at £750,000.
The report concluded that, based on a preliminary analysis of the line's potential returns, re-opening would not be feasible. The line was, according to the report, likely to recoup only 3% of the capital investment in the first year of re-opening, and this without taking into account its operating costs. British Rail usually insisted on a figure of at least 8% before investing capital into re-opening a line. Nevertheless, the County Council decided to commission a detailed economic feasibility study by British Rail into the line's potential for re-opening, and looked into the possibility of using a light railway or tram
way substitute.
The study, carried out between April 1996 and March 1997, focused on two scenarios - either an hourly service or a half-hourly service, each with a journey time of around 12 minutes compared to 25 minutes for the same trip by car during the morning rush hour. As part of the study 4000 travel diaries and 3835 questionnaires were sent to residents in Cranleigh, Bramley and Wonersh, and 200 face-to-face interviews were to be conducted. The results showed that amongst the 882 replies to the questionnaires, only 12% of journeys were made to Guildford or London, with the majority of journeys made to other parts of Surrey which could not be directly reached by re-opening the line. The research also found that that although it would be possible to persuade bus users to transfer to rail, the same could not be said of car users.
The study concluded the costs of re-opening the line (estimated at around £14.24 million) would not be recouped by the railway itself. Even if the capital investment did not have to be repaid, the line would only make a profit after 4 years (running one train per hour) or 15 years (2 trains per hour). The line would require substantial public sector investment which could not be justified, the business case for the line's re-opening being negative.
(ATOC) called for the Cranleigh Line to be reopened as far as Cranleigh as part of a widespread expansion of the existing rail network detailed in the Connecting Communities
report. Citing the increase in passenger numbers in recent years, and the desire for the public to adopt more sustainable transport
, ATOC hypothesised that the line and stations could be opened between 2014 and 2019.
A forum consulted by Surrey County Council in the preparation of their Local Transport Plan advocated the reopening of the line between Cranleigh and Guildford, whilst introducing a toll on the A281
to persuade motorists to change to public transport.
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
line that connected Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
, the county town
County town
A county town is a county's administrative centre in the United Kingdom or Ireland. County towns are usually the location of administrative or judicial functions, or established over time as the de facto main town of a county. The concept of a county town eventually became detached from its...
of Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, with the West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
of Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
, via Cranleigh
Cranleigh
Cranleigh is a large village, self-proclaimed the largest in England, and is situated 8 miles south east of Godalming in Surrey. It lies to the east of the A281 which links Guildford with Horsham; neighbouring villages include: Ewhurst, Alfold and Hascombe....
, a distance of 19¼ miles (31 kilometres). The branch line
Branch line
A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line...
closed on 14 June 1965 four months before its 100th anniversary, the only Surrey casualty of the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
.
Historical context
The opportunity to construct the Cranleigh Line came about from the fierce competition between the London, Brighton and South Coast RailwayLondon, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
(LBSCR) and the London and South Western Railway
London and South Western Railway
The London and South Western Railway 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...
(LSWR) for the lucrative Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
traffic. A branch of the LSWR's London to Southampton line had reached Guildford in 1845, was extended to Godalming
Godalming
Godalming is a town and civil parish in the Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England, south of Guildford. It is built on the banks of the River Wey and is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt. Godalming shares a three-way twinning arrangement with the towns of Joigny in France...
in 1849 and then to Havant
Havant
Havant is a town in south east Hampshire on the South coast of England, between Portsmouth and Chichester. It gives its name to the borough comprising the town and the surrounding area. The town has rapidly grown since the end of the Second World War.It has good railway connections to London,...
in 1859. In 1844 the LSWR drew up plans to construct a line to the then important port of Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
from a point near Horsham. Upon hearing of this possible encroachment into their territory, the LBSCR (at the time still known as the London and Brighton Railway
London and Brighton Railway
The London and Brighton Railway was a railway company in England which was incorporated in 1837 and survived until 1846. Its railway runs from a junction with the London & Croydon Railway at Norwood - which gives it access from London Bridge, just south of the River Thames in central London...
) acted quickly in promoting a bill authorising a line to Shoreham. The London and Brighton (Steyning Branch) Railway Act received royal assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
on 18 June 1846 and the company's engineer, R. Jacombe-Hood, was instructed to survey the line. A line to Horsham from Three Bridges
Three Bridges
Three Bridges is a neighbourhood within the town of Crawley, in the county of West Sussex in England.-History:Three Bridges was a tiny hamlet, which first began to grow with the coming of the London and Brighton Railway in 1841...
on the LBSCR's direct line between London and Brighton
Brighton Main Line
The Brighton Main Line is a British railway line from London Victoria and London Bridge to Brighton. It is about 50 miles long, and is electrified throughout. Trains are operated by Southern, First Capital Connect, and Gatwick Express, now part of Southern.-Original proposals:There were no fewer...
was laid in 1848.
In the meantime, both railway companies began to experience financial difficulties coinciding with the economic recession of the late 1840s, and their plans for the Horsham area were put on hold. It would be a further ten years before the plans for a line to Shoreham were resurrected by the LBSCR which opened to traffic on 1 July 1861. The opening of the line was seen by a group of local businessmen as an opportunity to promote a railway project offering the LSWR a route to Shoreham by connecting Guildford with Horsham.
Horsham & Guildford Direct Railway
The group — James Braby, Thomas Child and William McCormick — set about promoting the Horsham & Guildford Direct Railway Company (H&GDR) and parliamentary approval for line from a point 1½ miles south of Guildford stationGuildford (Surrey) railway station
Guildford railway station is an important railway junction on the Portsmouth Direct Line serving the town of Guildford in Surrey, England. It is 30.3 miles from London Waterloo....
(now known as Peasmarsh Junction) to Stammerham, 2½ miles to the south-west of Horsham. The actions of the H&GDR drew the attention of the Wey & Arun Canal Company
Wey and Arun Canal
The Wey and Arun Canal is a 23-mile-long canal in the south of England, between the River Wey at Shalford, Surrey and the River Arun at Pallingham, in West Sussex...
which was alarmed by the prospect of competition in an area which it had dominated since 1816. The Canal Company rapidly drew up plans for a line which would follow the course of the canal from Guildford to Pulborough
Pulborough
Pulborough is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham district of West Sussex, England, with some 5,000 inhabitants. It is located almost centrally within West Sussex and is south west of London. It is at the junction of the north-south A29 and the east-west roads.The village is near the...
, a distance of 18½ miles. However, the plans came to nothing and the railway was indeed to prove the undoing of the canal, diminished freight demand leading to its abandonment in 1871, although it did enjoy a brief renaissance in the 1860s by transporting the materials necessary for the railway's construction.
Once the H&GDR bill came before the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
' Standing Orders Committee, the LBSCR made its opposition clear, lodging formal notice of objection to the bill and seeking the right to be heard personally by the Committee. In an attempt to waylay this opposition at an early stage, the promoters of the H&GDR sought the support of the LBSCR by offering it the opportunity to work the new line. This would enable the LBSCR to exercise a degree of control over the traffic on the line and thereby a means to restrict any attempt by the LSWR to gain access to Shoreham. With the LBSCR's opposition withdrawn, the H&GDR bill passed through Parliament and became law on 6 August 1860 as the Horsham and Guildford Direct Railway Act.
The Act fixed the capital of the H&GDR company at £160,000 and allowed borrowings up to £50,000 subject to the usual conditions. The company was to acquire the necessary land for the railway by way of compulsory purchase by 6 August 1863 and to complete the construction works within two years of that date. A penalty of £12,000 would be payable should the works not be completed on time. The LBSCR was granted the working rights over the line for a period of ten years. The Act also included a "Working Agreement" with the LBSCR which prevented the H&GDR from offering reciprocal running rights on the line.
Early difficulties
Once the Act had been passed the promoters took steps to add further members to the company's management board with a view to constructing the line. Thus, Joseph Cary, Henry Fox, William Lintott and John Bradshaw joined the original trio of promoters, with the contract for the construction of the line being handed to one of the initial promoters, William McCormick, and James Holmes. The company's engineer, Edward Woods, surveyed the line and on 13 August 1860 the siting of the stations was decided, the company taking into account the needs of the local farming community who were then beginning their annual harvest preparations.The company began negotiations with the LSWR for access to its Guildford station, negotiations which proved difficult as the LSWR did not fancy the prospect of LBSCR trains on its rails. The "Working Agreement" prevented the H&GDR from offering running rights over the line to the LSWR, removing a possible incentive for the LSWR to cooperate. The problem over access to Guildford station remained a problem until the 1890s and was never fully resolved until the grouping
Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
of 1923.
The national economic climate also hindered progress on the line, with contracts for its construction not being drawn up until 1 July 1861. The line was to be laid as a single track
Single track (rail)
A single track railway is where trains in both directions share the same track. Single track is normally used on lesser used rail lines, often branch lines, where the traffic density is not high enough to justify the cost of building double tracks....
at a cost of £123,000 for a distance of 15 miles 46 chains. The price included the land purchase costs, maintenance costs for the first year of operations and a guarantee of track stability for seven years. However, this was not to be the end of the H&GDR's problems - there were squabbles over ownership of the railway and a contractor went bankrupt with £30,000 debts during the construction.
LBSCR takeover
The line's slow progress began to frustrate the LBSCR which sought greater influence on the company board. Three new directors were appointed - one of whom was the chairman of the LBSCR, Leo Schuster, whilst the two others were connected with the company; other LBSCR staff were brought into the enterprise such as their Chief Engineer Jacomb-Hood who was given the responsibility of seeing that construction works were carried out to the LBSCR's specifications. He proposed a substantial modifications to the route originally chosen by the H&GDR which was authorised by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (Additional Powers) Act 1864. A triangular junction (Itchingfield Junction) was to be built near Christ's Hospital to allow through running from Brighton to Guildford as well as Horsham to Guildford.The LBSCR contributed the maximum amount permitted by law into the H&GDR for construction works, £75,000, and the original H&GDR members stumped up £48,000, making a grand total of £123,000. More changes were made which had the effect of further integrating the H&GDR into the LBSCR: on 28 April 1862 the H&GDR's registered office
Registered office
Registered office is a term used to describe the address which is registered with the government registrar as the official address of a company, an association or any other legal entity. Generally it will form part of the public record...
was changed to that of LBSCR, and the latter's staff were used as supervisors and inspectors in the line's construction. By June 1862 the H&GDR was effectively part of the LBSCR and an agreement was concluded on 29 July to formally merge the two companies. This was also authorised by the 1864 Act which allowed the buying out of the original promoters of the H&GDR for a sum of £123,000. Once in control of the enterprise, the LBSCR replaced its engineer Edward Woods with one of its senior employees, Frederick Bannister.
On 2 May 1865 Bannister reported to the board that the line was finally ready to be inspected by the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
which duly attended two months later. The Chief Inspecting Officer, Colonel Yolland
William Yolland
William Yolland CB, FRS was an English military surveyor, astronomer and engineer, and was Britain’s Chief Inspector of Railways from 1877 until his death...
, was unhappy with the traffic arrangements at Guildford and did not authorise public use of Rudgwick Station, set on a 1 in 80 incline, until it was re-sited on an incline of 1 in 130. As the company was contractually obliged to provide this station for the local landowner, it had no choice but to carry out the works, which also included the raising of an embankment
Embankment (transportation)
To keep a road or railway line straight or flat, and where the comparative cost or practicality of alternate solutions is prohibitive, the land over which the road or rail line will travel is built up to form an embankment. An embankment is therefore in some sense the opposite of a cutting, and...
and a bridge over the River Arun
River Arun
The Arun is a river in the English county of West Sussex. Its source is a series of small streams in the St Leonard's Forest area, to the east of Horsham...
by ten feet.
Opening
The Cranleigh line was opened on 2 October 1865 with the exception of Rudgwick Station which opened in November of that year. The Sussex Agricultural Express reported on the opening as follows, placing the emphasis on the exclusion of Rudgwick from the celebrations: "[a]n event so important as the opening of this line might well have been celebrated by some public demonstration, but the timetable was simply issued and the first train left Horsham for Guildford at 6.35am with about a dozen passengers who had the benefit of being carried free. But inspection of the track decreed that Rudgwick Station could not be used since the gradient on which it was built was too steep at 1 in 80. This caused an uproar amongst local people who claimed that they were being isolated and villagers threatened to call out the fire brigade to "quench the Government Inspector's fiery spirit!"".The local press was critical of the early services. The West Sussex Gazette of 10 October 1865 stated that the line was "likely to prove a more picturesque than profitable part of the Company." There was a feeling that it had been constructed merely to provide connections with the LSWR at Guildford, and to give a through route to the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
.
1865 - 1899
Initial optimism for the line soon gave way to disappointment as anticipated freight and passenger use failed to materialise. The LSWR's control over Guildford and its attitude towards the LBSCR ensured that little through traffic to the South Coast was routed through the Cranleigh Line, whose main source of freight was the transport of coal to local residents and the gasworksGasworks
A gasworks or gas house is a factory for the manufacture of gas. The use of natural gas has made many redundant in the developed world, however they are often still used for storage.- Early gasworks :...
at Cranleigh, as well as agricultural feed
Fodder
Fodder or animal feed is any agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock such as cattle, goats, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. Most animal feed is from plants but some is of animal origin...
and machinery for the farming industry. Farmers also used the line to transport their goods to market in Guildford and Horsham. As stations on the line were not equipped with freight facilities, these now had to be added: those at Baynards (initially known as "Little Vachery") and Cranleigh became quite substantial with the involvement of commercial operators.
Initially eight trains ran daily, covering the line in 50 minutes, with certain trains terminating at Cranleigh. However, sluggish traffic returns meant that fares were raised within 18 months of opening, whilst services were reduced to three each way on weekdays and Saturdays, with two on Sundays. The LBSCR used loose-coupled 4-wheeled coaches equipped with 1st, 2nd and 3rd class compartments. Later years saw even fewer services, up to six complete trips being made daily with one or two extra trains from Horsham terminating at Cranleigh. Gradually only 3rd class accommodation was offered, but with the number of daily services increased to eight, calling at all stations. There was very little through-running on the line, only excursions (particularly on Sundays and often from the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
to Brighton) bucking the trend.
The line was never doubled and for some years Baynards was the only crossing station. In 1876 the long section of 9½ miles from Baynards to Peasmarsh Junction was broken by the provision of a crossing loop at Bramley, followed by another at Cranleigh in 1880. The line was often used as a diversionary route when the Brighton Main Line was blocked, as was the case in August 1861 when a collision in the Clayton Tunnel
Clayton Tunnel
Clayton Tunnel is a railway tunnel located near the village of Clayton, West Sussex between Hassocks and Preston Park railway stations on the Brighton Main Line...
forced that line's temporary closure.
The LSWR's control of the area to the north of the line ensured that the ½ mile long south-facing branch of Stammerham Junction (also known as Itchingfield South Fork) which was intended to allow trains to run between Guildford and Shoreham or Portsmouth without reversing through the Junction remained little used. The LBSCR therefore decided to close the section from 1 August 1867. It may have also been concerned that the LSWR would have greater access to the South Coast with running rights over the section. No sign of the south-facing branch remains today as the area has been ploughed over.
Increased passenger traffic at Guildford station during the 1890s led to the LSWR giving lower priority to LBSCR traffic at Peasmarsh Junction. The LBSCR sought to remedy this problem by applying for authorisation for a new 9 mile from Cranleigh to Dorking
Dorking
Dorking is a historic market town at the foot of the North Downs approximately south of London, in Surrey, England.- History and development :...
via Ewhurst
Ewhurst, Surrey
Ewhurst is a small village in the English county of Surrey.Ewhurst is located between Cranleigh and Shere which is around five miles to the north. Ewhurst has many well-known legends as members of the village, such as Eric Clapton, who is known to play at the Church of England church in Ewhurst...
, providing access to London without having to use LSWR metals. However, the objections of local landowners combined with the hilly topography of the North Downs
North Downs
The North Downs are a ridge of chalk hills in south east England that stretch from Farnham in Surrey to the White Cliffs of Dover in Kent. The North Downs lie within two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty , the Surrey Hills and the Kent Downs...
resulted in the LBSCR not pursuing this scheme any further. In 1896 plans were deposited for a light railway
Light railway
Light railway refers to a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail". This usually means the railway uses lighter weight track, and is more steeply graded and tightly curved to avoid civil engineering costs...
which would run between Ockley
Ockley
Ockley is a historic village in Surrey, built on Stane Street, a Roman Road stretching from Chichester to London. Situated between Dorking and Horsham, close to the Sussex/Surrey border, Ockley nestles in the shadows of Leith Hill, the highest point in South east England. Neighbouring villages...
(to the south of Holmwood
Holmwood
Holmwood is a civil parish in Surrey, England. The parish has a population of 850.Holmwood forms part of Mole Valley Borough Council's area; the main settlements are North Holmwood and South Holmwood both of which are bypassed by the A24 road. The smaller settlement of Mid Holmwood is alongside the...
on the Mole Valley line) and Selham
Selham
Selham is a small village in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England. It lies south of the A272 road 3 miles east of Midhurst....
(to the west of Petworth
Petworth
Petworth is a small town and civil parish in the Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 east-west road from Heathfield to Winchester and the A283 Milford to Shoreham-by-Sea road. Some twelve miles to the south west of Petworth along the A285 road...
on the Midhurst line
Midhurst Railways
The Midhurst Railways were three Branch lines which were built to serve the market town of Midhurst in the English county of West Sussex. The three lines radiated from the town; south to Chichester, west to Petersfield, and east to Pulborough....
). These plans as well as others in 1898 for a direct link between Cranleigh and Holmwood all failed to materialise.
1900 - 1914
The arrival of Christ's HospitalChrist's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...
school to premises near Stammerham Junction in 1902 together with the hope that Horsham would expand westwards towards the Junction led the LBSCR to invest £30,000 into building what was to become Christ's Hospital station. Previously there had been no station at this point, only a small wooden platform which was used by a local dairy to ferry milk to London; this platform had fallen into disuse upon the bankruptcy of the dairy.
The magnificent red brick station reflecting the LBSCR's aspirations for the area was constructed using bricks supplied by the nearby Southwater
Southwater
Southwater is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England with a population of roughly 10,000. The village is administered from the Horsham District Council Offices. Much of the population of Southwater originated from the brick industry which thrived in the...
Brickworks. Five through tracks were laid which served seven facing platforms. Three platforms were set aside to the Cranleigh Line and two other platforms served passengers on the main line - allowing trains travelling from London via Horsham the option of routes to Pulborough, Shoreham or Guildford and beyond. A single loop on the down line serving two facing platforms was installed to deal with the large number of pupils expected (the school had 835 pupils) and the van trains carrying their luggage, as well as holiday specials. The school governors subsidised the costs of construction of the station.
However, in the event the LBSCR's expectation of an income from the station to match the size of its premises would be defeated by two developments. Firstly, Christ's Hospital school revealed that it would only accommodate boarders
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
. Secondly, the anticipated residential development in the area did not materialise. This was not helped by the fact that the school had purchased much of the land around the junction, effectively ending any hopes for housing in the area. The LBSCR was therefore left with a white elephant
White elephant
A white elephant is an idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot dispose and whose cost is out of proportion to its usefulness or worth...
, the capacity and stature of the station being vastly out of proportion with its status as a useful rural interchange rather than an important railway junction serving much of West Sussex.
First World War
The Cranleigh Line played a useful role during the First World War, transporting men and munitions to the South Coast where they could be shipped over to FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Although the southern section of Stammerham Junction could have increased the line's usefulness, it remained abandoned. Sunday services were suspended on the line from 1917 to 1919 as a wartime economy measure.
Interwar period
The railway groupingRailways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, was an enactment by the British government of David Lloyd George intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, move the railways away from internal competition, and to retain some of the benefits which...
brought together the LBSCR and the LSWR as part of the Southern Railway
Southern Railway (Great Britain)
The Southern Railway 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...
which took over responsibility for numerous commuter routes into London. Some electrification
Railway electrification system
A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...
took place, notably the Portsmouth line
Portsmouth Direct Line
The Portsmouth Direct Line is the route of a railway service operated by South West Trains which runs between London Waterloo and Portsmouth Harbour, England...
in 1937 and the line through Horsham the following year. Sandwiched between the two, the low usage of the Cranleigh line did not justify electrification.
The period also saw increased competition from buses: Rudgwick (itself sparsely populated) was served by a competing bus service during the 1930s and it was not unknown during this time for the station's booking office not to sell any more tickets all day following the departure of the first service to Horsham.
In the 1930s the line operated a late evening service between Guildford and Cranleigh mainly for the benefit of cinemagoers.
Second World War
The line fell under government control again during the Second World War and again played a useful role. With Northern France under enemy control, the Horsham area became susceptible to air attack and there were a number of incidents on the line. In 1941 the line north of the Worthing Road bridge near Horsham was hit, badly damaging the track and requiring a replacement bus service to be laid on between Horsham and Christ's Hospital whilst repairs were carried out. On 16 December 1942 a Dornier 217 strafed a push-pull trainPush-pull train
Push–pull is a mode of operation for locomotive-hauled trains allowing them to be driven from either end.A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other...
near Bramley carrying 42 passengers, many of whom were Christmas shoppers. There were seven casualties including the driver and guard. The situation could have been far worse, were it not for the intervention of a number of Canadian soldiers who were billetted nearby. The locomotive, a D3 0-4-4T
0-4-4
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles...
, was repaired and returned rapidly back into service.
By May 1943 the Cranleigh Line still operated a fairly regular service with 10 workings from Horsham on weekdays: 07.59, 09.30, 12.42, 13.40, 15.23, 16.53, 18.00, 19.12 and 21.30 (until 2 October), plus the commuter service of 19.19 from Cranleigh. Sundays saw two departures at 10.19 and 20.53. From Guildford, weekday services were: 08.05, 09.18, 10.34, 13.09 (to Cranleigh), 13.42, 17.04, 18.07, 18.34 (to Cranleigh), 19.34 and 20.34. On Sundays there were two workings: 08.54 and 19.22. This level of services did not alter much in the years leading up to the line's closure except to be reduced even further.
Post-war
The nationalisation of the railways in 1948 brought the line under the auspices of the Southern Region of British RailwaysSouthern Region of British Railways
The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s and was wound up at the end of 1992. The region covered south London, southern England and the south coast, including the busy commuter belt areas of Kent, Sussex...
but the inadequate funds made available for modernisation of the railways were never going to be used for railway backwaters like the Cranleigh Line.
Timetabling
The weekday service of eight trains in each direction with an evening service to Cranleigh continued, but the Sunday service was reduced to one train in either direction in the morning and evening. Commuters from Bramley and Cranleigh travelling up to London via Guildford were the main users of the line, and an additional service between Cranleigh and Guildford was offered to season ticketSeason ticket
A season ticket is a ticket that grants privileges over a defined period of time.-Sport:In sport, a season ticket grants the holder access to all regular-season home games for one season without additional charges. The ticket usually offers a discounted price over purchasing a ticket for each of...
holders commuting up to London. The traffic on the line could have been greater were it not for the fact that many commuters chose to drive to Guildford to catch their trains rather than use the branch line which had morning and evening commuter trains. However, the timetabling of services did the line no favours: trains were departing Horsham a few minutes before potential passengers arrived there, yet these trains then waited for 15 minutes at Cranleigh because Guildford was unable to accommodate them during "busy times" which meant that there were no connections of any use when trains did eventually arrive in Guildford.
The final timetable for the line was in fact worse than that provided in 1865. There were no lunchtime trains except on Saturdays, the 9.22 ex-Guildford and 9.30 ex-Horsham services were replaced by one service to Cranleigh and back, extended from December 1962 to Baynards. The last Saturday working was cancelled, meaning that the final departure from Horsham was at 18.00. The daily 17.04 working from Guildford was cancelled - this had been an almost constant running since the line's opening. Sunday services also ceased, as did trains as Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
, Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, Whitsun
Whitsun
Whitsun is the name used in the UK for the Christian festival of Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples...
and the August Bank Holiday. No more excursions were offered, formerly the line had been alive with trips to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
from Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, North Camp
North Camp railway station
North Camp railway station is situated in the civil parish of Ash in Surrey, England. It takes its name from an area of the nearby town of Farnborough, Hampshire....
, Staines
Staines
Staines is a Thames-side town in the Spelthorne borough of Surrey and Greater London Urban Area, as well as the London Commuter Belt of South East England. It is a suburban development within the western bounds of the M25 motorway and located 17 miles west south-west of Charing Cross in...
, Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
, Worcester
Worcester
The City of Worcester, commonly known as Worcester, , is a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England. Worcester is situated some southwest of Birmingham and north of Gloucester, and has an approximate population of 94,000 people. The River Severn runs through the...
and Great Malvern
Great Malvern
Great Malvern is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is the historical centre of the town, and the location of the headquarters buildings of the of Malvern Town Council, the governing body of the Malvern civil parish, and Malvern Hills District council of the county of...
.
Modernisation Plan
The Modernisation Plan of 1955 led to the ageing locomotives on the line being replaced - the ex-LSWR M7 0-4-4Ts and ex-LBSCR 0-6-2T E4sLB&SCR E4 Class
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E4 Class is a class of 0-6-2Tside tank steam locomotive designed by Robert Billinton. They were introduced in 1897 and were essentially a larger version of the E3 Class...
which dated from the late 1890s were superseded by the British Railways Class 2 2-6-2Ts built to an LMSR design. The coaching stock was also modernised.
Strike
1955 also saw a railway strike paralyse the line which effectively sealed its fate. All goods and passenger services ceased for [xxx] and once services recommenced the line never regained its pre-strike traffic levels. For example, in 1948 671 loaded wagons came into Baynards and 802 were dispatched, the inwards traffic increasing to 924 in 1950. However, in 1962 only 363 wagons came in, and only one was sent out. Total cash taken was £7,766 in 1948, but only £1,227 in 1961. Furthermore, passenger numbers had also declined: 8,162 tickets were collected at Baynards in 1948, but only 3,579 in 1962.In 1957 the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
used the Cranleigh Line to film a version of The Railway Children
The Railway Children
The Railway Children is a children's book by Edith Nesbit, originally serialised in The London Magazine during 1905 and first published in book form in 1906...
, The Horsemasters, Rotten to the Core and The House at the End of the World.
Beeching Axe
Harold MacmillanHarold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
's announcement to the House of Commons on 10 March 1960 that "the railway system must be remodelled to meet the current needs" spelled the beginning of the end for the Cranleigh Line which had never run profitably in its history. Ernest Marples
Ernest Marples
Alfred Ernest Marples, Baron Marples PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Postmaster General and Minister of Transport. After his retirement from active politics in 1974 Marples was elevated to the peerage...
, the Minister of Transport
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...
, was charged with the task of remodelling, and he quickly appointed Dr Beeching
Richard Beeching
Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching , commonly known as Doctor Beeching, was chairman of British Railways and a physicist and engineer...
as chairman of the British Transport Commission
British Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain...
in 1961. Beeching prepared a report entitled the "Reshaping of British Railways" which called for the closure of a large number of railway lines - the so-called "Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...
". Among the lines nominated for closure was the Cranleigh Line.
A comprehensive survey of rail traffic on the line had been carried out during the week ending 23 April 1961, and it was based on these results that all five stations on the Cranleigh Line were proposed for closure in the Beeching Report which was published on 25 March 1963. The report showed that the line had less than 5,000 passengers per week and less than 5,000 tons of freight per week. Cranleigh and Bramley & Wonersh ticket offices received between £5,000 and £25,000 per year, whereas the other three stations on the line received less than £5,000 per year. At this time the line was losing about £46,000 a year or £884 per week. Under section 22 of the Transport Act 1962
Transport Act 1962
The Transport Act 1962 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854", it was passed by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government to dissolve the...
, the Act passed by the government to implement the new railway strategy, the Board of British Railways was required to run the railways so that its operating profits were "not less than sufficient" for meeting the running costs. This meant the end for uneconomic lines such as the Cranleigh Line.
The accounts used to justify the closure proved somewhat controversial. It was subsequently discovered that the £46,000 'annual' running costs included the majority of the costs of the replacement of the bridge over the River Wey, the majority of the work having been done in the year the accounts were compiled (actually a few years before the closure). The actual running costs, once the bridge replacement was removed were a far more modest £6000. It had been realised that replacement of the steam traction used on the line with diesel, plus the replacement of the entirely manual signalling with automatic signalling would achieve some savings. Closure of the largely underused part of the line beyond Cranleigh would have left a fairly profitable railway which would have become even more profitable with the post war expansion of housing in Bramley and Cranleigh.
Announcement
It was therefore formally announced that the line would close on 11 November 1963 if no objections were received to the proposal. Goods traffic had already ceased on the line on 2 April 1962.More than one hundred objections were lodged against the proposed closure and in accordance with the procedure put in place by the Transport Act, the matter proceeded to a public enquiry held by the local Area Transport Users Consultative Committee at the Village Hall in Cranleigh in March 1964. In support of their arguments for keeping the line open, the objectors pointed out that traffic on the line was actually increasing and that new residential development was taking place and that this justified keeping the line open at least between Guildford and Cranleigh. British Rail reluctantly conceded that passenger traffic was indeed increasing at two places on the line. The objectors also questioned whether the introduction of modern working practices would reduce costs.
Christ's Hospital station itself was for a time under threat of closure but an outcry from the school plus a petition with 3,046 signatures sent to the Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
put a stop to this.
Closure decision
Notwithstanding the arguments raised at the public enquiry, it was decided that the line would close with effect from 14 June 1965. The train service would be replaced by private buses. The last day of full service was Saturday 12 June and the last train left Guildford at 19.34 behind 2-6-2 tank engine No. 41287. It consisted of two three-coach sets containing some 400 passengers, including Bert Andrews, the last Cranleigh signalmanSignalman (rail)
A signalman or signaller is an employee of a railway transport network who operates the points and signals from a signal box in order to control the movement of trains.- History :...
who was also the great-grandson of the guard on the first train back in 1865.
A special service of nine coaches carrying around 400 passengers and drawn by former Southern Railway Class Q1 0-6-0
0-6-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-6-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels...
locomotives was organised on Sunday 13 June by the Locomotive Club of Great Britain.
On the appointed day for closure of the line it was realised that a number of wagons remained in Baynards' goods yard and a locomotive had to be dispatched from Horsham to collect them. The last train left Guildford at 18.55 and returned at 20.34. Boys from Christ's Hospital school marked the occasion of the line's closure by singing the hymn
Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification...
Abide with Me
Abide With Me
The hymn tune most often used with this hymn is "Eventide" composed by William Henry Monk in 1861.Alternate tunes include:* "Abide with Me," Henry Lyte, 1847* "Morecambe", Frederick C...
as the last train pulled out from the school's local station.
Additional bus services were introduced and provided by the Aldershot & District Bus Company following the line's closure, but these were withdrawn after six months as they were hardly used. The Ministry of Transport had informed British Rail on 4 November 1965 that the buses between Baynards and Cranleigh were carrying an average of one passenger each way in either direction between 14 June and 28 August, and in no case had there been more than three passengers on a bus. The Ministry therefore authorised the discontinuance of this particular service; within two years almost all the extra services had met the same fate.
It was interesting to note that the lifting of the railway track was executed with little delay and was witnessed by a rather bemused gang of BR Signal & Telecommunications engineers who were busy laying the cabling for the new automatic signalling.
Attempted preservation
Following the line's closure a preservation society was set up which floated the idea of reopening the line with a regular diesel service on weekdays and steam traction at weekends. Support was not forthcoming from public authorities and British Rail had no incentive to offer help. Other obstacles such as the abolition of Peasmarsh Junction as part of the Guildford resignalling scheme - BR Signal & Telecommunications staff had been wiring the Peasmarsh to Bramley section soon after the closure decision was announced - and the price demanded for the line's operation presented unsurmountable obstacles. The society eventually conceded defeat and was wound up in August 1966. It was conjectured that the price underwent considerable inflation (of around 2 orders of magnitude) when it was realised that the preservation society wanted to run the railway for the benefit of passengers who actually wanted to go somewhere. It was further conjectured that the hasty destruction of the infrastructure was to ensure that it could not be privately operated. Two of the road bridges on the line were dynamited within days of closure (the charges actually being inserted while traffic was still passing underneath). Most of the wooden buildings simply burned.There have been a few proposals since to rebuild the line, but so far none have come to fruition. Most stretches of the line are now available to walkers as a permissive right of way. The demolished bridge over the River Wey has been replaced with a pedestrian bridge.
Route of the line
Arun Valley Line
The Arun Valley Line, also known as the Mid Sussex Line, is part of the Southern-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards...
as far as Stammerham Junction and Christ's Hospital station (2 miles 51 chains from Horsham) where it veered to the north-west, the track crossing an undulating surface for the majority of its length, climbing gradients as steep as 1 in 88. The first station to be reached was Slinfold (4 miles 67 chains) which was equipped with a single platform, a small goods yard facility and two private sidings. Three signal box
Signal box
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...
es were necessary to control the traffic here. The line then continued on an elevated embankment to Rudgwick station (7 miles 9 chains), an embankment which was to cause recurrent problems due to its instability. Rudgwick station had two short sidings and a headshunt
Headshunt
A headshunt is a short length of track, provided to release locomotives at terminal platforms, or to allow shunting to take place clear of main lines.- Terminal Headshunts :...
at the end of its single platform. About ¾ mile to the south of the station, the line passed over the River Arun on a single span girder bridge
Girder bridge
A girder bridge, in general, is a bridge built of girders placed on bridge abutments and foundation piers. In turn, a bridge deck is built on top of the girders in order to carry traffic. There are several different subtypes of girder bridges:...
with high brick abutment
Abutment
An abutment is, generally, the point where two structures or objects meet. This word comes from the verb abut, which means adjoin or having common boundary. An abutment is an engineering term that describes a structure located at the ends of a bridge, where the bridge slab adjoins the approaching...
s.
Continuing through wooden wealden
Wealden
For the stone, see Wealden GroupWealden is a local government district in East Sussex, England: its name comes from the Weald, the area of high land which occupies the centre of its area.-History:...
countryside, the line climbed on a gradient to pass through the 381-yard long Baynards Tunnel where it reached its highest point - 250 ft above sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
- and crossed the boundary between Surrey and West Sussex. The tunnel was steeply graded and suffered from damp, meaning that in wet conditions trains were known to lose traction. The location of the next station, Baynards (8 miles 27 chains), was chosen to suit Lord Thurlow
Thomas Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 5th Baron Thurlow
Thomas John Hovell-Thurlow-Cumming-Bruce, 5th Baron Thurlow, PC, DL , was a British Liberal politician who served as Paymaster-General in 1886.-Family:...
, the owner of nearby Baynards Park. The station was equipped with a crossing loop and its small goods and marshalling yards served, in addition to Lord Thurlow's estate, a local brickworks
Brickworks
A brickworks also known as a brick factory, is a factory for the manufacturing of bricks, from clay or shale. Usually a brickworks is located on a clay bedrock often with a quarry for clay on site....
producing fuller's earth
Fuller's earth
Fuller's earth is any non-plastic clay or claylike earthy material used to decolorize, filter, and purify animal, mineral, and vegetable oils and greases.-Occurrence and composition:...
. This would become Baynards Brick and Tile Works whose activities continued until the 1980s when Berks Chemical Works (Steetly). The site has now reverted to its former use and is owned by Redland plc
Redland plc
Redland plc was a leading British building materials business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.-History:...
.
Cranleigh (11 miles 19 chains) was the busiest station on the line, receiving passenger traffic from the local boys' school
Cranleigh School
Cranleigh School is an independent English boarding school in the village of Cranleigh, Surrey. It was founded in 1865 as a boys' school and started to admit girls in the early 1970s. It is now co-educational. The current headmaster is Guy de W...
. It was originally opened as "Cranley" but changed its name in 1867 at the request of the Post Office to avoid confusion with Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
in West Sussex on badly written envelopes and parcels. The railway then ran on a level to Bramley (16 miles 15 chains), which was renamed Bramley & Wonersh in 1888, which also had a passing loop and benefited from a second platform from 1876. Leaving Bramley, the line continued as far as the LSWR's junction at Peasmarsh (18 miles 10 chains), having followed a branch of the River Wey
River Wey
The River Wey in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is a tributary of the River Thames with two separate branches which join at Tilford. The source of the north branch is at Alton, Hampshire and of the south branch at both Blackdown south of Haslemere, and also close to Gibbet Hill, near Hindhead...
through the gap between Pitch Hill and Hascombe Hill. About a mile beyond Bramley the branch of the river and the main stream were crossed in quick succession, the line curving sharply to join the electrified main line from Waterloo
Waterloo station
Waterloo station, also known as London Waterloo, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. The station is owned and operated by Network Rail and is close to the South Bank of the River Thames, and in Travelcard Zone 1....
to Portsmouth at Peasmarsh Junction, 1¾ miles south of Guildford station (19 miles 68 chains).
Locomotives
The first locomotive to work the line was a small 2-2-22-2-2
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement both provided more stability and enabled a larger firebox...
tender engine built at Brighton railway works
Brighton railway works
Brighton railway works was one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works, founded in 1840 by the London and Brighton Railway in Brighton, England, and thus pre-dating the more famous railway works at Crewe, Doncaster and Swindon...
to the designs of John Chester Craven
John Chester Craven
John Chester Craven was the locomotive, carriage and wagon superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1847 until his resignation in 1870....
, and numbered 30. It remained in service until May 1886. From 1878 and 1880 two Terriers
LB&SCR A1 Class
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway A1 Class is an English class of 0-6-0T steam locomotive. Designed by William Stroudley, 50 members of the class were built in 1872 and between 1874 and 1880, all at Brighton Works. The class have received several nicknames, initially being known as...
, respectively no. 36 "Bramley" and no. 77 "Wonersh", began to work the line from the LSWR shed at Guildford. Wonersh was subsequently transferred in the 1890s to the Pulborough-Chichester line
Midhurst Railways
The Midhurst Railways were three Branch lines which were built to serve the market town of Midhurst in the English county of West Sussex. The three lines radiated from the town; south to Chichester, west to Petersfield, and east to Pulborough....
and then on to the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
where it became Southern no. W13 "Carisbrooke", returning to Fratton in 1949 to become BR no. 32677. Wonersh was withdrawn in September 1959. Bramley was sold in 1902 to a contractor involved in the construction of
the extension to the Great Central Railway
Great Central Railway
The Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
. Freight services were carried out in the 1890s by Class E1
LB&SCR E1 class
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E1 Class were 0-6-0T steam locomotives designed by William Stroudley in 1874 for short-distance goods and piloting duties. They were originally classified E, and generally known as "E-tanks"; They were reclassified E1 in the time of D. E...
nos. 97 "Honfleur" and 127 "Poitiers".
Following the grouping in 1923, Drummond
Dugald Drummond
Dugald Drummond was a Scottish steam locomotive engineer. He had a career with the North British Railway, LB&SCR, Caledonian Railway and London and South Western Railway...
Class M7
LSWR M7 Class
The LSWR M7 class is a class of 0-4-4 passenger tank locomotive built between 1897 and 1911. The class was designed by Dugald Drummond for use on the intensive London network of the London and South Western Railway , and performed well in such tasks. Because of their utility, 105 were built and the...
0-4-4 tanks from the LSWR appeared on the line and took over most of the regular passenger workings until the 1950s. Nos. 30047 - 53 were based at Horsham. Their last appearance on the line was on 28 January 1963 when the No. 30241 worked the 18.05 to Horsham. In addition, the Guildford shed was known to send out other types of engine from time to time which would not normally be used on the line; those that made their appearance included classes C
SECR C Class
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway 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...
, D
SECR D class
The SECR D class was a class of 4-4-0 tender locomotives designed by Harry Wainwright for the South Eastern and Chatham Railway.-Overview:The construction of the initial 20 engines was shared between Ashford railway works and the Glasgow builder, Sharp, Stewart and Company. The first of the class...
, Q1
SR Class Q1
The SR Q1 class is a type of austerity steam locomotive constructed during the Second World War. The class was designed by Oliver Bulleid for use on the intensive freight turns experienced during wartime on the Southern Railway network. A total of 40 locomotives were built. Bulleid...
and 700
LSWR 700 Class
The London and South Western Railway 700 class was a class of 30 0-6-0 steam locomotive designed for freight work. The class was designed by Dugald Drummond in 1897 and built by Dübs and Company at that company's Queen's Park works at Polmadie, Glasgow....
. D1 0-4-2
LB&SCR D1 class
The LB&SCR D1 class were powerful 0-4-2 suburban passenger tank locomotives, designed by William Stroudley of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1873. They were originally known as "D-tanks" but later reclassified as class D1...
tanks nos. 2235 and 2283 worked the line to Guildford and Brighton from Horsham during the Second World War, notwithstanding the fact that both dated from the 1880s. Another D1 no. 2252 was seen at Bramber as late as 1950. Other former LBSCR engines making their appearance on the line were members of the E4 class Other former LBSCR locomotives to work passenger trains on the Cranleigh line were members of the E4 class
LB&SCR E4 Class
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E4 Class is a class of 0-6-2Tside tank steam locomotive designed by Robert Billinton. They were introduced in 1897 and were essentially a larger version of the E3 Class...
of 0-6-2 tanks, one of which "Birch Grove" No. 32473 was acquired by the Bluebell Railway
Bluebell Railway
The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line running for nine miles along the border between East and West Sussex, England. Steam trains are operated between and , with an intermediate station at .The railway is managed and run largely by volunteers...
in 1962 where it now survives, having undergone a complete overhaul in recent years. The line occasionally saw an Billinton
R. J. Billinton
Robert John Billinton was the Locomotive, Carriage, Wagon and Marine Superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway from 1890 until his death.-Early career:...
E6
LB&SCR E6 class
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway E6 Class is a class of 0-6-2Tside tank steam locomotive designed by Robert Billinton. They were introduced in 1904 and were a development of the E5 class with smaller driving wheels intended for heavy short and medium-distance freight...
. Another Billinton design to be used on the line was the C2 0-6-0
LB&SCR C2 Class
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway C2 class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives, intended for heavy freight trains. Fifty-five were built by the Vulcan Foundry between 1893 and 1902 to the design of Robert J. Billinton.-History:...
tender freight locomotive. No. 2436 was based at the Guildford shed from March 1944 and worked goods on the Cranleigh line. The Horsham shed was allocated six C3
LB&SCR C3 class
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway C3 class was a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives, intended for heavy freight trains. Ten were built by Brighton railway works in 1906 to the design of Douglas Earle Marsh.-History:...
s, a larger version of the C2, in 1930 and, although primarily intended for goods trains, they were often used on Sunday excursions to Brighton, taking over a train from the Cranleigh line and running it via Steyning. With a few exceptions, two-coach pull-and-push
Push-pull train
Push–pull is a mode of operation for locomotive-hauled trains allowing them to be driven from either end.A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other...
sets were used for passenger services for most of the line's working life.
The 1955 Modernisation Plan made more powerful engines available. BR built LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T
LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T is a class of light 'mixed-traffic' steam locomotive introduced in 1946.- Background :...
were used until the end of services on the Cranleigh line, assisted by the E6s and backed up by class E4 Nos. 32479 and 32503 as late as 1962. After 1960, Horsham ceased to be a shed in its own right and acted as a stabling point for goods engines from Three Bridges and passenger engines from Brighton. Following the electrification of the Kent Coast, the Brighton shed became host to some of the Cranleigh Line's engines.
Stations
Christs Hospital station bears little resemblance today to the grand building erected by the LBSCR at the turn of the twentieth century. The six station platforms have been reduced to two - the platforms used for the Cranleigh Line (nos. 1 & 2) were dismantled and the area is now fenced off and overgrown, the space between the platforms having been filled in. The single loop line ferrying pupils to and from the local school has been filled in and the sidings have long since disappeared. The magnificent station building was demolished in 1972, but not before a "funeral party" was held by 150 staff and pupils of Christ's Hospital school on platform 2; black-edged tickets were even issued for the party. The only original structures are now the subway and the platform 2 waiting room and toilet. The subway itself (which served the loop) is now disused. The station's original platforms 3 and 4 are now respectively the downside and upside platforms, served by series one double track carrying the line between Horsham and Pulborough.Slinfold station building was itself demolished and a caravan site now occupies the location. Two LBSCR houses remain on the far side of the nearby level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
. Rudgwick station has also been demolished, replaced by a health centre. The same fate was met by Cranleigh station which was replaced by Stocklund Square in 1965; the Square was reduced in size in 2004 when a branch of Sainsbury's was constructed on part of the site. Baynards station bucks the trend, surviving as a private residence. Bramley and Wonersh also remains and was restored by Bramley Parish Council in 2003–2004.
Trackbed
Track ballast
Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railway sleepers or railroad ties are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to facilitate drainage of water, to distribute the load from the railroad ties, and also to keep down vegetation that might interfere with the track...
was removed. The coppiced woodland along many of the cuttings and embankment sides remained unmanaged until 2 April 1970 when ownership of much of the track was sold by the British Railways Board
British Railways Board
The British Railways Board was a nationalised industry in the United Kingdom that existed from 1962 to 2001. From its foundation until 1997, it was responsible for most railway services in Great Britain, trading under the brand names British Railways and, from 1965, British Rail...
to Surrey County Council
Surrey County Council
Surrey County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Surrey in England. The council is composed of 80 elected councillors.The council is controlled by the Conservative party.The leader of the council is David Hodge....
and Hambleton Rural District Council (which became Waverley Borough Council in 1974) for £17,500. The local authorities managed the land until 1984, clearing scrub to allow the general public to use it as a recreational facility.
In 1984, the local authorities working together with other authorities and the Manpower Services Commission established the Downs Link
Downs Link
The Downs Link is a 36.7-mile footpath and bridleway linking the North Downs Way at St. Martha's Hill in Surrey with the South Downs Way near Steyning in West Sussex and on via the Coastal Link to Shoreham-by-Sea.- History :...
, a 30 mile long footpath and bridleway connecting the North
North Downs Way
The North Downs Way is a long-distance path in southern England, opened in 1978. It runs from Farnham to Dover, past Godalming, Guildford, Dorking, Merstham, Otford and Rochester, along the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Kent Downs AONB.East of Boughton Lees, the path splits...
and South Downs
South Downs Way
The South Downs Way is a long distance footpath and bridleway running along the South Downs in southern England, and is one of 15 National Trails in England and Wales...
National Trails. The Link was opened on 9 July 1984 by the Mayor of Waverley, Anne Hoath, at Baynards station; it subsequently received a commendation in the National Conservation Award Scheme jointly organised by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is an independent, representative professional body which regulates property professionals and surveyors in the United Kingdom and other sovereign nations....
.
Infrastructure
Baynards Tunnel was used as a refuse tip by Hambledon Rural District Council after the line's closure. The rubbish was then covered with local clay and topsoilTopsoil
Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...
which became colonised with plants. The tunnel is also now used by hibernating bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s and its northern end has been filled in, although it was possible until recently to gain access to the tunnel. The steel railway bridge which carried the line over the Wey and Arun Canal, near Bramley was dismantled after closure, as was the bridge over the River Wey which stood near where the line joined the Guildford to Portsmouth main line at Peasmarsh. However, in 2005, the bridge over the Wey, was replaced by a steel footbridge, when the trackbed from the site of Bramley & Wonersh station, to Peasmarsh Junction, was relaid with stone to make a foot and cycle path. Also, the road bridge over the line at Cranleigh Common, was restored and strengthened by Surrey County Council in 2006. In addition, numerous remnants of the railway can be found along the line's course, including linesmans' huts, signal mechanisms, mileposts and other such trackside structures.
Retrospective
The Cranleigh Line could, according to one author, have become a useful and important route, but its potential was lost to years of mismanagement and poor timetabling. Rivalry with the LSWR from the line's inception meant that connections between services on the line were never very good. The author cites the example of the timetable in July 1922 where a passenger on the 09.44 service from Brighton which arrived at Horsham at 10.48 would have to wait until 13.05 until the next connection to Guildford, the previous working having already departed at 10.20. A similar dilemma was faced by passengers travelling south on the 08.08 from Guildford who had to wait 70 minutes at Horsham for an onward connection to Brighton. Matters had not improved much by 1947 when passengers arriving at Christ's Hospital on the 15.57 from Brighton had four minutes to catch the 16.53 from Guildford to Horsham; missing this connection would mean a wait until 18.15 for the next train.The author also highlights the fact that little was done in the way of attracting commuters on to the railway. In 1959 the earliest train which would allow users to arrive in London at a respectable time was the 06.51 from Baynards which waited 13 minutes in Cranleigh before proceeding northwards. Passenger traffic ebbed away from the line as better travel possibilities were offered by buses and then cars, a situation which neither the Southern Railway nor British Rail did anything to change. By the end of its working life, BR regarded the line as an uneconomic backwater and tried to make it as unattractive as possible to potential users in order to ensure that Beeching's Axe would fall without too much complaint.
Buchanan report
In 1994 Surrey County Council commissioned a report by Buchanan and PartnersColin Buchanan (town planner)
Professor Sir Colin D Buchanan was a British town planner. He became Britain's most famous planner following the publication ofTraffic in Towns in 1963, which presented a comprehensive view of the issues surrounding the growth of personal car ownership and urban traffic in the UK.-Life:Buchanan...
aimed at identifying worthwhile rail infrastructure improvements in the county
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
to allow new or modified services to be introduced. The aims of the report were threefold: to relieve pressure on the roads, to improve the county's share of modal
Mode of transport
Mode of transport is a term used to distinguish substantially different ways to perform transport. The most dominant modes of transport are aviation, land transport, which includes rail, road and off-road transport, and ship transport...
rail services and to encourage the use of the rail network as part of a balanced transport system.
The report estimated that around 500 car-users would transfer to rail each day. The cost of reinstatement of the Cranleigh Line between Guildford and Cranleigh was projected at £24 million which would include the base, civil, electrical, engineering and signalling works. It did not include land acquisition costs, legal costs and bridge works. The reinstatement of the bridge over the River Wey was alone costed at £750,000.
The report concluded that, based on a preliminary analysis of the line's potential returns, re-opening would not be feasible. The line was, according to the report, likely to recoup only 3% of the capital investment in the first year of re-opening, and this without taking into account its operating costs. British Rail usually insisted on a figure of at least 8% before investing capital into re-opening a line. Nevertheless, the County Council decided to commission a detailed economic feasibility study by British Rail into the line's potential for re-opening, and looked into the possibility of using a light railway or tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
way substitute.
BR report
British Rail Projects carried out the first part of an extensive two stage study in early 1996. It reported that the costs of re-opening would be far less than those estimated by Buchanan - £13.4 million if electrified, £11.1 million for diesel operation and £14.1 million for a light rail service. Figures are based on a single track service running hourly workings. The results of the first stage persuaded Surrey County Council to allow the second stage of BR's report to be undertaken; this would look at the economic and environmental aspects of the service, including how many potential users it would be likely to have.The study, carried out between April 1996 and March 1997, focused on two scenarios - either an hourly service or a half-hourly service, each with a journey time of around 12 minutes compared to 25 minutes for the same trip by car during the morning rush hour. As part of the study 4000 travel diaries and 3835 questionnaires were sent to residents in Cranleigh, Bramley and Wonersh, and 200 face-to-face interviews were to be conducted. The results showed that amongst the 882 replies to the questionnaires, only 12% of journeys were made to Guildford or London, with the majority of journeys made to other parts of Surrey which could not be directly reached by re-opening the line. The research also found that that although it would be possible to persuade bus users to transfer to rail, the same could not be said of car users.
The study concluded the costs of re-opening the line (estimated at around £14.24 million) would not be recouped by the railway itself. Even if the capital investment did not have to be repaid, the line would only make a profit after 4 years (running one train per hour) or 15 years (2 trains per hour). The line would require substantial public sector investment which could not be justified, the business case for the line's re-opening being negative.
RDS report
At the same time that Surrey County Council were considering the results of the BR report, Railway Development Society (RDS) (now known as "Railfuture") North Downs published a report pointing out the benefits of the line's reopening and suggested four alternative plans by which this could be achieved.ATOC Report 2009
In the summer of 2009 the Association of Train Operating CompaniesAssociation of Train Operating Companies
The Association of Train Operating Companies is a body which represents 24 train operating companies that provide passenger railway services on the privatised British railway system. It owns the National Rail brand. The Association is an unincorporated association owned by its members...
(ATOC) called for the Cranleigh Line to be reopened as far as Cranleigh as part of a widespread expansion of the existing rail network detailed in the Connecting Communities
Connecting Communities: Expanding Access to the Rail Network
Connecting Communities: Expanding Access to the Rail Network is a 2009 report by the Association of Train Operating Companies identifying potential expansion of the National Rail passenger railway network in England, primarily through the construction or re-opening of railway lines for passenger...
report. Citing the increase in passenger numbers in recent years, and the desire for the public to adopt more sustainable transport
Sustainable transport
Sustainable transport refers to any means of transport with low impact on the environment, and includes walking and cycling, transit oriented development, green vehicles, CarSharing, and building or protecting urban transport systems that are fuel-efficient, space-saving and promote healthy...
, ATOC hypothesised that the line and stations could be opened between 2014 and 2019.
Safeguarding of the route
The Guildford to Cranleigh route is acknowledged as an important rail corridor and, as such, is protected under the statutory planning process.A forum consulted by Surrey County Council in the preparation of their Local Transport Plan advocated the reopening of the line between Cranleigh and Guildford, whilst introducing a toll on the A281
A281 road
The A281 is a northwest-southeast road in southern England that passes through the countryside between Guildford, Surrey and Pyecombe, West Sussex near Brighton.-Route :*Guildford *Shalford *Bramley...
to persuade motorists to change to public transport.
External links
- Cranleigh Railway Line: The Guildford and Horsham Direct Railway: 1865 to 1965
- Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society: Shoreham - Guildford
- Cranleigh railway station on Subterranea Britannica
- Bramley & Wonersh railway station on Subterranea Britannica
- Baynards railway station on Subterranea Britannica
- Rudgwick railway station on Subterranea Britannica
- Slinfold railway station on Subterranea Britannica
- Christs Hospital railway station on Subterranea Britannica