Station Name: SWANLEY JUNCTIONSwanley Junction Station Gallery 3:
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Stationmaster Cutbush is standing alongside the junction signal box on the main line down platform in 1938. Mr Cutbush remained in his job when the station was resited the following year. His daughter, Jean, bought the first ticket from the new station.
In July 1939 electric outer-suburban trains began operating east of Swanley to Gillingham, the line from Swanley Junction towards Sevenoaks having been so-treated four years previously. This photograph dates from sometime in 1938 and, if the bare trees are anything to go by, probably towards the end of that year. The scene shows what appears to be a ‘C’ class 0-6-0 hauling a suburban EMU being used to check what would today be called the 'interface' between conductor rail and collector shoe. The EMU may also have been used as a load bank to check correct operation of substation equipment. The two men on the track are standing beside the motor bogie of the EMU (there was another motor bogie at the other end of the unit) on the side of which can be seen the wooden shoebeam which carried, on its underside, the collector shoe. Shoebeams are of wood for insulation purposes and are mounted on the axleboxes to ensure constant distance between collector shoe and conductor rail. Motor bogies have shoebeams on both sides to allow for conductors rails alternating from one side of the running rails to the other. Where there are station platforms, conductor rails are positioned in the 'six foot' away from the platform edge, as seen here. The location may not be immediately obvious; on the right is part of Swanley Junction's up main platform. These platforms were staggered and what looks like a down platform in the background is just a retaining wall at the bottom of the cutting. In the extreme right background part of Swanley High Street bridge can just be discerned.
Photo from Jim Lake collection junction_old13c.jpg)
This view was taken on the same occasion and shows that the train was standing at the east end of the down platform. The voltages of the Southern's third rail network have a complex history. When the Southern decided to abandon the LB&SCR overhead electrification the company adopted the L&SWR's third rail 660v DC system. The line through Swanley Junction to Sevenoaks and the subsequent electrification as far as Gillingham appears to have originally been at 600v DC and later upgraded to 660v DC. Electrification of the Kent Coast lines saw an upgrade to 750v DC but with the pre-existing 660v DC lines remaining as such. The Bournemouth/Weymouth line is also 750v DC outside of Greater London and this voltage is now the standard for new third rail schemes. The third rail system is robust, reliable and requires little if any alterations to bridges, tunnels etc. and is not an eyesore. In contrast overhead electrification requires enormous initial expenditure, is an eyesore and is prone to damage. The one disadvantage of DC third rail is that it requires electricity substations at more frequent intervals compared to AC overhead. It is also not entirely suitable for high speeds above 100 - 110mph but for commuter services and the relatively short main lines of the Southern network it is perfectly suitable. The age-old problem of ice on conductor rails can now be adequately dealt with - most of the time. Despite the advantages of the third rail, in the early 21st century somebody within the rail industry had the bright idea that all third rail routes, on the Southern at least, should be converted to AC overhead. This seemingly failed to take into account the massive cost against little advantage (for the Southern network) and seems to have been based on nothing more than that modern obsession for getting rid of anything which appears outdated no matter how reliable and robust it may be. However, changes to the regulations, brought about by the EU, saw costs increase and as a result the conversion scheme appears to have been quietly dropped - for now anyway.
Photo from Jim Lake collection junction_old13d.jpg) Widening of the High Street bridge over the main line underway in 1938. Station Road is to the right at the traffic lights.
Photo from Jim Lake collection junction_old9a.jpg)
Built at a cost of £130,000 the new Swanley station is seen shortly after opening in 1939. Outstanding features of the new station are long platforms, bright comfortable waiting rooms and lifts for luggage. The first train to arrive at the station on Sunday 16 April 1939 was a test train and at the end of the journey the rolling stock superintendent, a passenger aboard the train, reported his complete satisfaction with working conditions. The footbridge links Southern Place to a footpath to Goldsel Road; it does not give access to the platforms. This view is looking north-east from a signal gantry.
Photo
from Swanley History Group
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The new Swanley station looking east from the up island platform in 1939, shortly after the station opened. The loco cannot be positively identified but the headcode tells us that it is a Dover - Victoria via Herne Hill or Catford Loop service.
Photo from Jim Lake collection junction_old15.jpg)
The disused Swanley Junction station, or rather the remains of it, seen here in September 1948. By this time local services are operated by electric multiple units but longer distance trains to the Kent coast are still steam-hauled and would remain so for a further 13 years. The stabled stock on the right is of interest. It is one of the 3-SUB (3 car suburban) EMUs formed in the 1920s but which were strengthened post WWWII to 4-SUB by the addition of a new Bulleid trailer, second vehicle from the right. Over a decade or so there were several variants of these units formed up from stock of various originals; for example some coaches had began life as steam-hauled stock and others were converted from former LB&SCR overhead electric stock. The Southern Railway had intended to use the newly-formed units on routes or in broader areas commensurate with the vehicles origins but in practice they came to be used indiscriminately around the London suburban network. Apart from the postwar addition of the Bulleid trailers there were a number of reformations which resulted in a few oddities, perhaps the best known of which was unit No.4352. These reformations and oddities may explain why the coach on the right looks suspiciously like one of the converted ex-LB&SCR trailers. The third vehicle from the right is one of the driving motor cars (the other is off the picture to the right). These units, which could fairly be described as 'makeshift', gave good service and the last examples did not bow out until circa 1960. One of the driving motor cars is preserved at the National Railway Museum; it is one of the South Western 'wedge ended' cars but from the same breed of conversions and adaptations.
Copyright photo from John Alsop collection
junction_old16.jpg) Swanley Junction station forecourt in the 1950s. After closure of the station in 1939 the Sevenoaks line platforms and the main line down platform were demolished almost immediately. The main line up platform (to the right), main station building and water tank lingered until the mid 1960s. A coal heap is seen on the forecourt. The car is an Austin Cambridge and, going by the smaller rear window, is either an A40 or an A50 (same body, different engines). The A55 was similar but had a larger rear window. The range was introduced in 1954 so that is the earliest possible year for this photograph.
Photo from John Mann collection junction_old17.jpg)
Station Road seen from the top of the cutting on the north side of the main line.
Photo
from John Mann collection
junction_old18.jpg) BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0 No.73081 coasts through the site of Swanley Junction station, steam to spare, with the 3.35pm Victoria to Ramsgate service on 3 June 1959. Her train is a mixture of BR Mk1 and Bulleid stock. Electric trains would take over these services from January 1961. The 1939 Swanley station can be seen in the background while on the left some EMU stock can be seen. The BR standard 5 4-6-0 totalled 172 examples of which 20 were intended for, and indeed went to, the Southern Region. This batch of 20 were to receive names from withdrawn N15 (King Arthur) class locomotives, with No.73081 becoming ‘Excalibur’ soon after this photograph was taken. It would appear that nameplates were not transferred but new plates produced or, if they were transferred, the King Arthur plates were modified. Either way, on both classes the nameplates were somewhat silly-looking, being shallow and fitting onto the edge of the running plates. As such they were not always easy to see, especially when dirty. A few of the Standard 5s have survived into preservation but No.73081 is not among them, lasting only until July 1966 when just 11 years old. Her final appointment was with Cashmore's, Newport, soon afterwards.Photo by Roger Joanes Click here for Swanley Junction Station Gallery 4: 1959 - April 2017
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A mishap at Swanley Cross in 1938 saw a Ford BB lorry almost descend onto the Chatham line passing through the cutting below. The station was a short distance behind and left of the camera. The lorry belonged to Messrs J & A Boulton of Tunstall, Stoke on Trent and would appear under magnification to bear registration number CEH 861. The letters 'EH' being those issued by Stoke on Trent at that time and the first letter, 'C', tells us that the lorry was new in 1935. It is interesting to reflect upon road transport of the time. Pre-1935 versions of the Ford BB were capable of a top speed of around 45 - 50mph under the right conditions but the legal speed limit was just 30mph. Given these limitations and the road network of the time the journey from Staffordshire to Kent would have been quite an undertaking compared to today. Dominating the background is Swanley War Memorial, at the junction of Swanley Lane and High Street. Unveiled and dedicated on 1 March 1922 it originally commemorated the First World War and today also the Second World War. Created by Louis Frederick Roslyn RBS it is a sculpted figure of 'The Spirit of Sacrifice', a draped, winged, female figure standing on a globe. She holds a laurel wreath in her right hand and a downward pointing sword, grasped by the blade, in her outstretched left hand. The statue surmounts an obelisk which rises from a square plinth with a two step square base. A bronze wreath is mounted on the obelisk between the plaques with the inscriptions, ‘Among the names on the Memorial is that of Staff Paymaster Joseph Gedge who, with 150 others, lost his life on 6 August 1914 when HMS Amphion struck mines in the Thames Estuary. Joseph Gedge was the first British officer to lose his life during the First World War’. The Memorial was unveiled by his mother. During the Second World War an air raid shelter was constructed beneath the Memorial. Today Swanley Cross is a traffic roundabout and the War Memorial, rededicated in 1980, now stands outside the church of St Mary the Virgin about a quarter of a mile away. The bridge carries Swanley High Street over the railway and the stepped parapet is required because the road is on a gradient. Photographed in 1938 from Station Road, this view of the bridge is not possible today as a footbridge has been constructed alongside it.junction_old13b.jpg)
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