Wimbledon, Mitcham, Merton, Morden, to East Croydon. This was the journey I used to take to visit my grandmother in Lansdowne Road in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Many thanks for this one, I'd forgotten a lot of it!
Myself and my brother and our mates used have a camp on the old line from Merton Park to The coal Yard just behond Merton Abbey and Great shame there is a road now.
I grew up round the corner from Addiscombe station and I always wondered why we didn't use it when going to London. When I was old enough I popped in there and it was like a bygone era with slam-door trains in old BR livery with the NSE and Kent Link logos crudely added. The trains by then were just a shuttle to Elmers End (I think they did some peak hour commuter services to London but that was it). There was a suggestion to include it in the Tramlink system but it never came to anything; they just wanted to build that as cheaply as possible. One thing though; the Woodside/Sanderstead line is nowhere near the Wandle valley (if there is such a thing). Nobody uses that name for the Croydon area. The Wandle runs from Croydon up through Merton to join the Thames at Wandsworth; the line Addiscombe links to actually runs along the Ravensbourne.
Its interesting to see the old railway workers homes I wonder if they were built by the railway? In comparison to the slums which were the lot of many others I imagine they were much better. Here in Derby when the Midland Railway arrived and built its HQ, station and works they also built what was in effect a small village for its employees, including shops and a few pubs of course! They were scheduled for demolition in the 70's but thankfully some very enlightened people got together and saved them and the excellent Brunswick pub. Unfortunately they couldn't save the station itself which was "modernised"!! Love these videos by the way, excellently researched and produced, thank you.
Love the shot of the ex-LBSC C2X on a coal train at 14'13". Those were the quintessential 'Brighton goods plodder and occasional secondary passenger branch loco. A class which went extinct as late as 1962. 😔
Way back in the early 70s on the way back from Millwall I used to see and chat to a couple of guys who got a train from New Cross to Addiscombe. If I remember rightly, they got off at Woodside. They said the trains were very infrequent.
Ikea want to pull down those chimneys , council say no so they put the colours at the top is now the best advertising they could have as can see them from miles away in certain directions
Wimbledon, Mitcham, Merton, Morden, to East Croydon. This was the journey I used to take to visit my grandmother in Lansdowne Road in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Many thanks for this one, I'd forgotten a lot of it!
Thanks for sharing!
Myself and my brother and our mates used have a camp on the old line from Merton Park to The coal Yard just behond Merton Abbey and Great shame there is a road now.
I grew up round the corner from Addiscombe station and I always wondered why we didn't use it when going to London. When I was old enough I popped in there and it was like a bygone era with slam-door trains in old BR livery with the NSE and Kent Link logos crudely added. The trains by then were just a shuttle to Elmers End (I think they did some peak hour commuter services to London but that was it). There was a suggestion to include it in the Tramlink system but it never came to anything; they just wanted to build that as cheaply as possible. One thing though; the Woodside/Sanderstead line is nowhere near the Wandle valley (if there is such a thing). Nobody uses that name for the Croydon area. The Wandle runs from Croydon up through Merton to join the Thames at Wandsworth; the line Addiscombe links to actually runs along the Ravensbourne.
Its interesting to see the old railway workers homes I wonder if they were built by the railway? In comparison to the slums which were the lot of many others I imagine they were much better. Here in Derby when the Midland Railway arrived and built its HQ, station and works they also built what was in effect a small village for its employees, including shops and a few pubs of course! They were scheduled for demolition in the 70's but thankfully some very enlightened people got together and saved them and the excellent Brunswick pub. Unfortunately they couldn't save the station itself which was "modernised"!!
Love these videos by the way, excellently researched and produced, thank you.
Love the shot of the ex-LBSC C2X on a coal train at 14'13". Those were the quintessential 'Brighton goods plodder and occasional secondary passenger branch loco. A class which went extinct as late as 1962. 😔
Great combination of pictures, and short vids, very nostalgic plus the music. Subscribed 🤓Eddie
Thanks for the sub!
Have a cab ride, along the branch, need to find it.
Way back in the early 70s on the way back from Millwall I used to see and chat to a couple of guys who got a train from New Cross to Addiscombe. If I remember rightly, they got off at Woodside. They said the trains were very infrequent.
Very nicely done, and I loved the Suk! Very atmospheric and complimentary.
Outstanding
If you look at the wall at West Croydon station you can see a curve in the wall which is where a turn table used to be. thank you for showing this
Bingham Road station appears in the opening scenes of 'The Rebel' (1960)
Where is the bridge? 😍😍😍
South Croydon
Ikea want to pull down those chimneys , council say no so they put the colours at the top is now the best advertising they could have as can see them from miles away in certain directions
Where is this lovely bridge?
Croham Rd South Croydon
I have walked this route .the strange thing is I'm now a train driver 👍🏾
Nice one! Cool!
Very interesting video but progress? Hmmm.............
"Bespoke waterwheel?" Does it mean "spoked"? I don't think waterwheels are tailor-made!
You have put a lot of work into this. You should fix the typos.