Catford Loop Line

Catford Loop Line
Legend Inner South London Line to London Victoria and Thameslink line to Blackfriars and the North Nunhead Nunhead to Lewisham link CP & SL JR To Crystal Palace BML London Bridge branch Crofton Park Catford Hayes Line Bellingham Bellingham carriage sidings Beckenham Hill Ravensbourne Chatham Main Line Shortlands Chatham Main Line

A 1914 Railway Clearing House map of the western end of the Catford Loop Line, showing how it connects with the South London Line to rejoin the Chatham Main Line, thus creating the Loop. Also note Loughboro Jct to access the city extension (now Thameslink).

The Catford Loop line was opened by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway on 1 July 1892; it had been incorporated as the Shortlands and Nunhead Railway in 1889. The line provides a relief route for trains from London Victoria for the Kent coast (see Chatham Main Line); suburban services for Sevenoaks also use the line.

The line leaves the former Crystal Palace branch and the link to Lewisham (the former Greenwich Park branch) at a junction to the east of Nunhead; however, in current railway usage the section from the main line at Brixton to Nunhead, with stations at Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye, is also included.

There are five stations on the original route, all opened in 1892. They are as follows:

• Crofton Park
• Catford
• Bellingham
  • here are carriage sidings
• Beckenham Hill
• Ravensbourne

The line joins the main line at Shortlands Junction, west of Shortlands station. The total length from Nunhead of the Catford Loop is almost five miles (8km), and from Brixton nearly eight miles (12.5km).

The line was electrified with the other SECR urban routes on 12 July 1925 by Southern Railway.

References

External links

stock | retire | vm
Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History