Station Name:EPSOM DOWNS

[Source: Nick Catford]



An aerial view of Epsom Downs station looking south-east in May 1922. Visible are the station buildings and all platforms, albeit with Nos.1 and 2 partly obscured by trees. It would appear that the west side platforms doubled as goods faculties and apart from on race days probably served this purpose for much of their active life. The single-storey building alongside platform 1 was probably offices and, if the gardens behind it are anything to go by, staff accommodation. The reason for the large circulating area at the head of platforms 8 and 9 is unclear but was probably for the benefit of royalty and entourage as the Royal Train seems to have usually used these platforms. It is likely that road vehicles waited here to transport the regal arrivals onward to the racecourse. Towards top left can be seen the locomotive turntable with, to its left, what appears to be a grounded van body in use as a hut. Not at all clear in this view is that south of the turntable, i.e. to its left, the turntable road split into two sidings but of unequal length with the shorter being furthest from the camera. At the end of the longer siding once stood a water tower (out of view in this picture) but little is known about it. The signal box, centre left, dated from 1879. It contained a 72-lever frame of the Saxby & Farmer spindle-locking type which had served at London Bridge from 1866 until 1878. Despite being modified to tappet-locking in 1908, it became the last in-use surviving frame of its type and remained in operation until the box was destroyed by fire on 16 November 1981. At some point in Southern Railway days the box was given an additional 2-lever frame to operate detonator-placing equipment.
Photo from Britain from Above reporoduced under the terms of their non-commercial licence


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