The Main Works of the Former SR

Abstract

The history of the Southern Railway (SR) began with the opening in 1803 of the Surrey Iron Railway, the first public rail transport undertaking in the world. The earliest workshop accommodation in south-east London was provided for the London to Greenwich Railway, opened in 1836, by which time the railways were proliferating, with the opening of the London to Southampton line (1840), the London to Brighton line (1841) and the London to Folkestone line (1843). These routes developed into the London & South-Western Railway, the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LB&SC) and the South-Eastern & Chatham Railway until the amalgamation of 1923. The first locomotive for the South-Western Railway was built by contractors in 1835, and by 1844 locomotives were being built at Nine Elms by Daniel Gooch, who was responsible for the construction at Nine Elms in 1849 of the express locomotive ‘Etna’. In 1890 carriage and wagon work was transferred from Nine Elms to Eastleigh, and locomotive work was similarly transferred in 1909. The first of the Drummond 463 class locomotives were built at Eastleigh in 1912.