South Eastern and Chatham Railway facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
South Eastern and Chatham Railway

1920 map of the railway
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Length	637 miles 61 chains (1,026.4 km) (1919)
Track length	1,302 miles 24 chains (2,095.8 km) (1919)

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC), known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Eastern Railway (SER) and London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LC&DR), which operated between London and south-east England. Between 1899 and 1923, the SE&CR had a monopoly of railway services in Kent and to the main Channel ports for ferries to France and Belgium.

The companies had competed extensively, with some of the bitterest conflicts between British railway companies. Competing routes to the same destinations were built, so several towns in Kent had been served with a similar frequency service by both companies. In places, unfettered competition allowed two stations and services to multiple London termini.

It would be a constituent of the Southern Railway as part of the 1923 Grouping.

Railway lines in Kent, showing most of the SE&CR network

Formation

By the end of the 19th century, the SER and LC&DR had fought over a small and not particularly lucrative territory for 40 years. Both were notorious for the poor punctuality of their services and the decrepitude of their rolling stock, and the struggles had driven both companies to the verge of bankruptcy. It became inevitable that they must combine or succumb.

The SE&CR was formed on 1 January 1899, when the SER and LC&DR formed a "management committee" comprising the directors of both companies. This merged the two companies' operations, although they remained legally separate, with receipts split 59% to SER and 41% LC&DR until the Grouping, to avoid the costs and risks of a formal merger.

Integration

A SECR O1 Class (rebuilt from SER O class) 0-6-0, originally built in 1896

The SE&CR began connecting the two networks and new services were introduced, reaping the benefits of joint working. A significant step was the construction of a junction in 1902-4 between the SER and LC&DR main lines where they crossed near Bickley and St Mary Cray, east of Bromley; the LC&DR's line via Maidstone to Ashford was connected to the SER station at Ashford; and the SER branch from Strood to Chatham alongside the LC&DR's main line to Chatham was closed prior to World War I. The overlapping networks on the Isle of Thanet (Margate-Broadstairs-Ramsgate) were rationalised by the Southern Railway. Service cuts under BR saw Gravesend lose its second station.

Further development

A 1912 map of the SE&CR network

After the formation of the SE&CR, three minor lines were built before the formation of the Southern Railway in 1923. They were:

• Tattenham Corner branch - Kingswood to Tattenham Corner, in 1901.
• The Sheppey Light Railway - branch off the Sheerness branch, in 1901 (closed 1950).
• Bexhill branch - Crowhurst, on the Hastings Line, to Bexhill West, in 1902 (now closed).

Accidents and incidents

Damaged carriages from the St Johns 1898 train crash.

• On 21 March 1898, a passenger train hauled by F class No. 205 was in a rear-end collision with a passenger train at St Johns, London due to a signalman's error. Three people were killed and twenty were injured.
• In March 1904, a passenger train hauled by C class No. 294 was derailed at Gomshall, Surrey.
• On 6 December 1905, the roof of Charing Cross station collapsed after a tie-rod snapped. Six people were killed and eight were injured.
• On 5 March 1909, an express passenger train overran signals and was in collision with a mail train at Tonbridge Junction, Kent. Two people were killed and eleven were injured.
• On 11 March 1913, a passenger train failed to stop at Ramsgate Town station, Kent and crashed into a van, which was pushed through the buffers. The accident was caused by the failure to connect the brake pipe between the locomotive and its train. Ten people were injured.
• On 5 May 1919, a freight train overran signals and was in collision with a freight train that was being shunted at Paddock Wood, Kent. One person was killed.

SE&CR locomotives

South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) P Class No. 323

The LC&DR's works at Longhedge, Battersea closed in 1911 and production was concentrated at Ashford. Harry Wainwright was replaced by Richard Maunsell as Locomotive Superintendent in 1913.

• List of locomotives

Electrification

With the development and implementation of electrification by the L&SWR, the LB&SCR, the "Tube" companies and tram operators in the early twentieth century, the SE&CR planned to start electrifying its lines. The proposed method would have used four rails, with one of the two additional rails energised at +1500 V DC and the other at −1500 V DC. Current would have been collected by side-contact, with the conductor rails protected by wooden boarding on top and at the sides. Trains would have consisted of multiple-units, each including two motor coaches, each motor coach having two traction motors: one motor coach would have been supplied by the positive conductor rail, the other by the negative. This very high voltage for rail track level systems was used in Britain only on the L&YR's 1200 V DC side-contact third-rail line from Manchester Victoria to Bury. Grouping in 1923 led to the Southern Railway adopting the L&SWR's standard of 660 V DC third rail on the SE&CR's network.

Notable people

• Harry Wainwright, Chief Mechanical Engineer 1899-1913
• Richard Maunsell, Chief Mechanical Engineer 1913-1923
• Alfred Weeks Szlumper, Engineering Assistant 1880–1882.

Ships

The SE&CR operated ships on cross-channel services.

Ex SER ships.

Ex LC&DR ships.

Ships built for the SE&CR.

Other ships operated by the SE&CR