Southern Railway (UK)

This article is about the Southern Railway Company, which operated in England from 1923 to 1947. For the modern UK train operating company, see Southern (train operating company). For the US railroad merged into Norfolk Southern, see Southern Railway (U.S.).

Template:Infobox Southern Railway (UK) The Southern Railway (SR) was a British railway company and a notable example of civil engineering, linking London with the Channel ports, South West England and Kent. It was founded in the 1923 Grouping, becoming the Southern Region of British Railways at nationalisation in 1948. It was geographically the smallest of the four major railways that made up British Railways.

The railway gained great fame for its advertising slogans such as "South for Sunshine", taking huge numbers of people from London to coastal resorts in the south and southwest. The company's best-known livery was highly distinctive: locomotives and carriages were painted in a bright Malachite green above plain black frames, with bold, bright yellow lettering.

History

Formation in 1923

See also: List of constituent companies of the Southern Railway

At the outbreak of World War I, all the British railway companies were taken into government control. Many members of staff joined the armed forces and it was not possible to build and maintain equipment as easily as in peacetime. After the war the government considered permanent nationalisation but instead decided on a compulsory amalgamation of the railways into four large groups through the 1921 Railways Act, known as the Grouping. The three major companies that operated along the south coast of England – the London & South Western Railway, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway – were amalgamated to form the Southern Railway in 1923, which owned 2186 route miles (3518 km) of railway.

The lines inherited in 1923 were divided into three sections:

• The Western Section (former LSWR routes) included the South Western Main Line, the West Coastway Line, and the West of England Main Line. It stretched into Devon and Cornwall, and this circuitous route was known derisively as the Southern's "Withered Arm" because the GWR had a greater presence in this region.
• The Central Section (former LB&SCR routes) included the Brighton Main Line and the Portsmouth Direct Line.
• The Eastern Section (former SECR routes) included the Chatham Main Line, the Hastings Line, the Kent Coast Line and the North Downs Line.

Since duplicate routes were vested in the Southern Railway some rationalisation took place, leading to the downgrading of some routes in favour of more direct lines to the channel ports. The downgrading of the Mid-Sussex line via Horsham was met with hostility by the general public, resulting in a public relations disaster. The lesson from this episode was learned, resulting in the first "modern" public relations department among the grouped railways.

Along with the railway, the Southern inherited harbours along the south coast, including Southampton, Portsmouth and Dover. These had come into being for handling ocean-going intercontinental, as well as cross-channel passenger traffic, and the size of the railway-owned installations reflected the prosperity that the industry generated. This traffic source ensured that the Southern would be a predominantly passenger-orientated railway, with the ports generating vast numbers of passenger journeys.

Electrification

See also: Railway electrification in Great Britain and SR multiple unit numbering and classification

1933 poster for the Southern's newly-electrified suburban services

In 1929 the third-rail electrification of the London suburban network was completed. The introduction of electric multiple units (EMUs) on principal suburban routes ensured fast, efficient commuter services into London, and increased the volume of commuter traffic. The Southern's commitment to electrification made the railway far more innovative in its approach to handling traffic that its rivals - compare the Southern's legacy with the absence from the Great Western Railway of even a single electrified route.

The already intensively-used commuter system in a relatively small geographical area made the Southern a natural candidate for electrification - the LSWR and the LBSCR had already introduced it for some of their lines in the London area before the Grouping. However, the two schemes were incompatible, with the LBSCR adopting a 6600 V AC overhead system (similar to that used by the Midland Railway for their Lancaster to Morecambe trial section), and the LSWR a 660 V DC third rail standard. After the Grouping a comparison of the two systems was made and the LSWR standard was adopted for the whole system, with the added advantage that it was cheaper to install, with no catenary equipment required.

Most of the area immediately south of London was converted, together with the long-distance lines to Brighton, Eastbourne and Portsmouth. Starting in 1931, this was one of the world's first modern mainline electrification schemes. Only the suburban part of the former SECR routes was electrified by the Southern, although the long-distance Kent routes were next in line for electrification, and would have been followed by the electrification of the Southampton/Bournemouth route. The Second World War interrupted these plans, and these lines were electrified in the late 1950s and late 1960s respectively.

Economic crisis of the 1930s

The post-Wall Street Crash era halted further development of the electrification project, but the investment the company had already made in modernising the commuter network ensured that the Southern remained in relatively good financial health despite the Depression. However, this marked the end of the first period under Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) Richard Maunsell when the Southern Railway led the field in steam locomotive design, as the lack of funds affected the development of new, standardised motive power. It would take until the Second World War for the Southern to take the initiative in steam locomotive design once again.

Second World War

1945 poster ('Shabby?') by L. A. Webb promising post-war Southern refurbishment and showing Malachite Green and Sunshine Yellow livery

During the Second World War the Southern found itself in the front line. Before hostilities, 75% of its traffic was passenger, 25% freight; during the war roughly the same number of passengers was carried, but freight grew to 60% of total traffic. A desperate shortage of freight locomotives was remedied by CME Oliver Bulleid, whilst the volume of military freight and soldiers moved by the primarily commuter railway was a breathtaking feat.

Nationalisation

After a period of slow recovery in the late 1940s, the war-devastated company was nationalised along with the rest of the British railway network in 1948 and incorporated into the British Railways. The Southern retained a separate identity as the Southern Region of British Railways. Many of its lines in London and Kent had been damaged during the war and much of the rolling stock was either damaged or badly in need of replacement. At the time of nationalisation the Southern had started a vigorous programme of rebuilding and renewal, and this was continued throughout the early 1950s.

Revival in the privatised network

See: Southern (train operating company)

The name Southern has been revived as a rebranding of South Central, which operates the former LBSCR routes to South London, Surrey and Sussex from Victoria and London Bridge. Southern is owned by Govia — a joint venture between transport groups Go-Ahead Group and Keolis — which also owns the neighbouring Southeastern. Officially named New Southern Railway Ltd, it was branded Southern on 30 May 2004 in a deliberate recall of the pre-nationalisation Southern Railway, with a green roundel logo with ‘Southern’ written in yellow in a green bar.

Geography

The vast majority of territory that the railway served was centred on the the south west main lines between London, Southampton, Weymouth, Plymouth, Salisbury and Exeter, some subject to competition from the Great Western Railway (GWR). East of the capital the Southern held a monopoly over services to Dover and Brighton. Generally confined to the area south of the River Thames, the Southern owned no track north of London. In addition to these was a network of secondary routes intertwining the mainlines and providing inter-company services, an example being the line from the GWR at Reading to Guildford.

Unlike the three other railways established by the Grouping (the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway and the Great Western Railway), the Southern was predominantly a passenger railway. Despite its small size it carried more than a quarter of the UK's passenger traffic because its area included many of the dense commuter lines around London, serving some of the most densely populated parts of the country. In addition, because South London's geology (unlike that of the rest of the capital city) was largely unsuitable for underground railways the Southern Railway faced little competition from underground lines, encouraging a denser railway network.

Key locations

The headquarters of the Southern was in the former LSWR offices at Waterloo station. Locomotives were constructed and maintained at works inherited from its constituent companies at Eastleigh, Ashford and Brighton. Carriage and wagon works were also inherited at these locations, with both locomotives and rolling stock constructed and maintained on the same site. A concrete works was created at Exmouth Junction, responsible for platform seat fittings, pre-cast concrete fencing and station lamp posts.

Engineering

The South Western Main Line of the former LSWR between London and Southampton was completed by Joseph Locke with easy gradients, leading to several cuttings, tunnels and embankments across the Loddon, Test and Itchen Valleys, with brick arches constructed across South London to the site of Waterloo station. Such was the emphasis placed upon gradients that the stretch between Micheldever and Winchester has the longest constant gradient of any British main line. Tunnels and viaducts were also common features in the south-east, with several examples to be found on the former LBSCR and SECR netwroks, the most famous being the Shakespeare Cliff and Clayton tunnels.

Operations

The running of the Southern was undertaken by the Committee, the Chairman of which was The first general manager of the Southern was Sir Herbert Walker. The first Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway was a former employee of the SECR, Richard Maunsell.

Passenger operations

See also Named trains: UK

The Southern operated a number of famous named trains, including the Brighton Belle, the Bournemouth Belle, the Golden Arrow (London-Paris, Flèche d'Or for the French part of its route), and the Night Ferry (London - Paris and Brussels). The West Country services were dominated by lucrative summer holiday traffic including named trains such as the Atlantic Coast Express and the Devon Belle. Total carriages numbered 10,800.

Freight operations

Passenger traffic was the main source of revenue for the Southern Railway throughout its existence, although goods were also carried in separate trains. Goods such as milk and cattle from the agricultural areas of the West Country provided a regular source of freight traffic, whilst imports from the south coast ports also required carriage by rail to freight terminals. From these terminals, the freight could be sorted for onward travel to their final destinations.

As locomotives increased in size so did the length of goods trains from 40 to as many as 100 four-wheeled wagons, although the gradient of the line often limited this. The vacuum brake, which was standard equipment on passenger trains, was gradually fitted to a number of ordinary goods wagons, allowing a number of vacuum "fitted" trains to faster than 40 mph (64 km/h). While typical goods wagons could carry 8, 10 or (later) 12 tons, the load placed into a wagon could be as little as 1 ton, as the railway was designated as a common carrier that could not choose what goods it could carry.

Ancillary operations

The Southern inherited a range of related activities from its constituent companies, including hotels, bus companies and a number of docks. These were most notably at Southampton, Newhaven, Plymouth, Folkestone, Dover, Littlehampton, Whitstable, Strood, Rye, Queenborough, Port Victoria and Padstow. The Southern continued to invest heavily in these facilities, and Southampton overtook Liverpool as the country's main port for Transatlantic liners. The Southern inherited 38 large turbine or other steamers and a number of other vessels branded under Channel Packet, the maritime arm of the railway. Ten large hotels were owned by the company, mainly at the London termini.

Traction and rolling stock

Locomotives

Main article: Locomotives of the Southern Railway

For most of its existence the Southern painted its 2390 locomotives an olive green colour, with plain black frames and wheels. Name and numberplates were generally of polished brass with a red background. In later years, the basic livery was changed to Malachite green with bright yellow lettering. Most locomotives were inherited from its constituent companies, but from 1924 a programme of standardisation was begun by Maunsell.

Maunsell

Preserved Lord Nelson class 850 Lord Nelson.

The first locomotives constructed for the Southern were to designs inherited from the pre-Grouping railway companies, such as the N15 class and H15 class, both modified by Maunsell from the original design. These were intended to be interim solutions to motive power problems, since several designs in operation on the Southern were obsolescent. The 1920s also proved to be the era of standardisation, with ease of maintenance and repair key considerations in a successful locomotive design.

In 1926, the first of a new generation of Southern designed and built locomotives emerged from Eastleigh works, the Maunsell Lord Nelson class, reputedly the most powerful 4-6-0 in Britain at the time. So successful was the Lord Nelson class that the Royal Scot class had its origins in the Maunsell design. However, the onset of the Depression precluded further strides in Southern locomotive technology, apart from the V "Schools" class 4-4-0 and the various electric designs.

Bulleid

File:SR West Country Class 21C123 'Blackmore Vale' at York Railfest.JPG

Preserved unrebuilt West Country class 21C213 Blackmoor Vale.

Maunsell was succeeded in 1937 by Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid, who brought with him experience gained under Sir Nigel Gresley at the LNER. He designed the Bulleid chain-driven valve gear that was compact enough to fit within the restrictions of his Pacific designs, the Merchant Navy class of 1941, and the Light Pacific design of 1945. Ever the innovator, Bulleid introduced welded steel boilers and steel fireboxes which were easier to repair than the predominant copper varieties, whilst a new emphasis on cab ergonomics was followed. Established locomotive design practices were radically altered in his designs, with the wheels changed from spoked to the boxpok design, which gave better all-round support to the tyre.

Visually, the most unusual of his designs was a small, heavy freight locomotive, the most powerful 0-6-0 ever to operate in Britain. This Q1 class was designed to eliminate anything that might be considered unnecessary in locomotive design including such traditional items as wheel splashers. With innovative lagging material that dictated the form of the boiler cladding, the Q1 was regarded by many as the ugliest locomotive ever to appear. The forty engines produced required only the same amount of materials that would be needed for just thirty-eight more conventional machines, justifying the economies and design.

Bulleid's innovation stemmed from a belief in the continued development potential of steam traction, and culminated in the Leader class of 1946, an 0-6-6-0 design that had two cabs, negating the use of a turntable. The entire locomotive was placed on two bogies, enabling negotiation around tight curves, whilst the slab-sided body could use a labour-saving carriage washer.

Despite the successes of the Pacifics and the unusual 0-6-0 Q1 freight locomotive, the Pacifics were difficult to maintain and harboured enough eccentricities to justify their rebuilding in the mid-1950s. Bulleid also designed several electric and diesel-electric locomotives, continuing to push back the boundaries of contemporary locomotive design and established practice. The innovations ensured that the Southern was once again leading the field in locomotive design, and earned Bulleid the title "last giant of steam".

Carriages

A rake of preserved Maunsell carriages on the Bluebell Railway.

The Southern inherited many wooden-bodied carriage designs from its constituent companies. However, once again there was an emphasis on standardisation of the coaching stock, which led to Maunsell designing new carriages. These were classified between 0 and 4, so that an 8' 0¾" wide carriage was "Restriction 0". These restrictions related to the Southern's composite loading gauge, so that some more restricted routes could be catered for. The new carriages comprised First and Third Class compartments, each of which contained a corridor and doors for each compartment, enabling quick egress on commuter services. Similar design principles were also applied to the electric train sets, whereby quick passenger egress ensured a punctual service.

The Southern Railway was one of the few railways to marshal its carriages in fixed numbered sets. This made maintenance easier, as the location of a particular train set would always be known through its number, which was painted on the ends of the set. A stock of individual "loose" carriages was also kept for train strengthening on summer Saturdays and to replace faulty stock.

A preserved Bulleid Open Second carriage on the Bluebell Railway.

The second phase of carriage construction began towards the end of the Southern's existence. Bulleid had vast experience in carriage design from his time with the LNER, and he applied this acquired knowledge to a new fleet of carriages (see picture). Some of his more unusual projects were his "Tavern Car" designs; these were carriages that were to represent a typical country tavern, with a bar and seating space provided within the carriage. The outside of the "Tavern Cars" were partially painted in a mock-Tudor style of architecture, and were given typical public house names. Poor ventilation from small windows made the "Tavern Cars" unpopular amongst the travelling public, with several being converted to ordinary use during the 1950s.

Another unusual project was to address the issue of overcrowding on suburban services. The answer to this problem was Britain's first double-deck carriages. Two sets were completed and saw use until the 1970s, but further orders were not placed due to the cramped conditions inside the carriages that were dictated by the restrictions of the loading gauge.

Wagons

Throughout the existence of the Southern its wagons were painted a dark brown colour. Most wagons were four-wheeled with "SR" in white, although six-wheeled milk tankers were frequently seen on the South Western Main Line to and from United Dairies in London. As the railway was primarily passenger relatively little in the way of investment in freight wagons was made except for general utility vans, which could be used for both freight and luggage, especially on boat trains. These consisted of bogie and four wheel designs.

Cultural impact

The Southern was particularly successful at promoting itself to the public. Following the poor publicity of 1924, John Elliot was appointed public relations manager. He was instrumental in creating the positive image that the Southern enjoyed prior to World War II, building a campaign upon publicity for its modernisation programmes.

Tourism

This positive image was enhanced by the promotion of the south and south-west as holiday destinations. "Sunny South Sam" became a character fixed firmly in the public mind as embodying the service of the railway, whilst slogans such as "live in Kent and be content" encouraged commuters to move out from London and patronise the Southern's services.

Heritage

The Southern's memory lives on at several preserved railways, including the Watercress Line, Swanage Railway, Spa Valley Railway, and Bluebell Railway. Other remnants of the railway include Eastleigh works and the London termini, including Waterloo (the largest London railway station), Victoria, Charing Cross, Cannon Street and London Bridge (the oldest London terminus).

Other assets

• Locomotives: 2390; coaching vehicles: 10,800; freight vehicles: 37,500; electric vehicles: 460; rail motor cars: 14

Notable people

O. V. S. Bulleid CME (1937 until nationalisation). Bulleid moved to the Southern from the LNER, bringing several ideas for improving the efficiency of steam locomotives. Such innovations were used on the Merchant Navy class, West Country and Battle of Britain classes ("Bulleid Light Pacifics"), Q1 and experimental Leader designs. He also developed a host of innovative electric units and locomotives.

R. E. L. Maunsell, the Southern's first CME (1922 to 1937). Maunsell was responsible for initial attempts at locomotive standardisation on the Southern, as well as overseeing the introduction of electric traction.

Sir Herbert Ashcombe Walker General Manager (1923-1937). Walker was an astute administrator of railways, having gained experience as General Manager of the LSWR from 1912. After retiring in 1937 he was a director of the Southern until the end of its existence in 1947. Three significant events occurred under Walker's tenure as General Manager: the rebuilding of Waterloo station, completed in 1922; electrification in mid-1920s; and the appointment of Bulleid as CME in 1937.

See also

• Locomotives of the Southern Railway
• SR locomotive numbering and classification
• SR multiple unit numbering and classification
• Southern Railway routes west of Salisbury

External links

• Southern E-mail Group - extensive source of information concerning the Southern Railway, its predecessors and successors
• Southern Posters - collection of Southern Railway promotional material
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