Dorking Station Siding

[al.currie93]

Hi people!

Like many stations, Dorking used to have sidings, which have long since fallen into disuse (only one was visible throughout my lifetime!), and a few months ago it looked like Network Rail had decided to remove them.

However, one, the one parallel to Platform 3, is now (I believe) being rebuilt and reinstated; while I find this nice, it also strikes me as being quite odd, given the station and line in question! I can't believe a disused siding is being reinstated for no reason! Does anyone have any information regarding this as I haven't been able to find anything anywhere as to why it's being rebuilt and what it will be used for!

I've taken a photograph which I shall put up once I've got it developed (yes, I do still use 35mm film )

 

[SussexSpotter]

Hi people!

Like many stations, Dorking used to have sidings, which have long since fallen into disuse (only one was visible throughout my lifetime!), and a few months ago it looked like Network Rail had decided to remove them.

However, one, the one parallel to Platform 3, is now (I believe) being rebuilt and reinstated; while I find this nice, it also strikes me as being quite odd, given the station and line in question! I can't believe a disused siding is being reinstated for no reason! Does anyone have any information regarding this as I haven't been able to find anything anywhere as to why it's being rebuilt and what it will be used for!

I've taken a photograph which I shall put up once I've got it developed (yes, I do still use 35mm film )

I have heard Southern will be running out of space to stable their trains as they have the new batch of 377's to deal with.....so I strongly suspect it will be used for that!

 

[455driver]

Its for stabling the 377s when the new ones get delivered.

Guildford is having 2 sidings brought back into use (for when the 456s turn up) which run between the down main and up Cobham lines, well the old ones are being completely ripped out and new ones will be put in their place.

 

[Surreyman]

Its for stabling the 377s when the new ones get delivered.

Guildford is having 2 sidings brought back into use (for when the 456s turn up) which run between the down main and up Cobham lines, well the old ones are being completely ripped out and new ones will be put in their place.

I was wondering about where they would be located, thats the only place they could go I suppose.

 

[zoneking]

The sidings at Redhill on the Reigate side are extensive and seem like a waste of space.

 

[SussexSpotter]

The sidings at Redhill on the Reigate side are extensive and seem like a waste of space.

Yes, they were well used by goods trains at one time. They are rarely used now though, I havn't seen anything in there for a long time....

 

[al.currie93]

I have heard Southern will be running out of space to stable their trains as they have the new batch of 377's to deal with.....so I strongly suspect it will be used for that!

Ahh that's nice to see it will be used been going to Dorking station all my life and never seen it used once ha!

 

[30907]

Ahh that's nice to see it will be used been going to Dorking station all my life and never seen it used once ha!

Maybe I'm older, but I'm sure they used to be used for berthing 4SUBs - indeed, so was a siding at Holmwood at one time.

 

[wimbledonpete]

Maybe I'm older, but I'm sure they used to be used for berthing 4SUBs - indeed, so was a siding at Holmwood at one time.

Ah! Is that why I seem to remember the odd Waterloo to Holmwood train in days of yore? I wasn't making it up?

 

[30907]

The 1956 t/t shows a basically hourly Waterloo-Holmwood all day, around winter 1958 it was cut back to peak hours only (as part of major cuts to Southern suburban services). These may have disappeared with the 1967 timetable rewrite, or lasted into the early 70's, I'm not sure.

 

[SussexSpotter]

Maybe I'm older, but I'm sure they used to be used for berthing 4SUBs - indeed, so was a siding at Holmwood at one time.

There's also an old siding at Warnham.....

 

[30909]

Maybe I'm older, but I'm sure they used to be used for berthing 4SUBs - indeed, so was a siding at Holmwood at one time.

Yes indeed 4 SUBs in as many as 4 roads 3 of which were on the downside south of the signal box, accessed, if memory serves, by a shunt move towards Horsham and back into the yard. This complicated things when there was a regular through Victoria- Bognor- Portsmouth Semi Fast I think hourly through the day. These 4 COR 4 BUF combinations colloquially know to Dorking North commuters as “Bognor Boozers”
See picture attached from The Railway in Surrey Alan A Jackson 1999 Atlantic Transport Publishers

 

[455driver]

I was wondering about where they would be located, thats the only place they could go I suppose.

Work has started there ripping up the old (rotten) sleepers.

 

[tsr]

Yes, they were well used by goods trains at one time. They are rarely used now though, I havn't seen anything in there for a long time....

Most of the Goods Sidings are very, very rarely used for anything of any significance. The goods lines adjacent to the Platform 1 Line have been used a couple of times recently - the most interesting thing I've seen in them over the last 6 months have been about 4 cement (?) wagons. So nope, not much going on...

The Redhill Platform 0 proposals may well mean that access to the Up Sidings will be severely restricted or cut off entirely. There will be some compensation due to DB Schenker, I think.

 

[al.currie93]

Maybe I'm older, but I'm sure they used to be used for berthing 4SUBs - indeed, so was a siding at Holmwood at one time.

Ahh I'm only 20 so I never got to see any 4SUBs, grew up with the 455s, probably why I love the class ha!

The 1956 t/t shows a basically hourly Waterloo-Holmwood all day, around winter 1958 it was cut back to peak hours only (as part of major cuts to Southern suburban services). These may have disappeared with the 1967 timetable rewrite, or lasted into the early 70's, I'm not sure.

Wow, I knew Holmwood used to have goods sidings (for a gunpower factory, I believe), but never knew that it was once a terminus point! Does anyone know what Ockley (which is my local station ) used to be like with passenger services??

 

[SussexSpotter]

Most of the Goods Sidings are very, very rarely used for anything of any significance. The goods lines adjacent to the Platform 1 Line have been used a couple of times recently - the most interesting thing I've seen in them over the last 6 months have been about 4 cement (?) wagons. So nope, not much going on...

The Redhill Platform 0 proposals may well mean that access to the Up Sidings will be severely restricted or cut off entirely. There will be some compensation due to DB Schenker, I think.

Yes I didn't think much had been in there. A few years ago I did happen to see an engineers train (66 hauled) sat in the siding next to platform 1.....

 

[30909]

Most of the Goods Sidings are very, very rarely used for anything of any significance. The goods lines adjacent to the Platform 1 Line have been used a couple of times recently - the most interesting thing I've seen in them over the last 6 months have been about 4 cement (?) wagons. So nope, not much going on...

The Redhill Platform 0 proposals may well mean that access to the Up Sidings will be severely restricted or cut off entirely. There will be some compensation due to DB Schenker, I think.

In the 50’s & 60’s these Redhill sidings were used to remarshall the Tonbridge to Redhill and Guildford to Redhill pickup goods, interregional ex Western Region and if required the Meldon Quarry ballast. IIRC all the above would arrive in the goods road outside platform one and either be split immediately and lose shunted in to the appropriate road with a shunter sprinting after the trucks with pole to pin down the brakes, or put in to the longest road, next to the up Reading line or pulled forward in to the up goods loop opposite Redhill A Box to await the shunters or clear sidings. Some completed trains would leave directly to one of the routes, Redhill bound loads would be tripped to Redhill Goods, in between the Redhill and Quarry Line junction just of Hooley Lane. The down end of platform 1-2 was a lively place to observe the action, with the benefit of a distant view of the loco shed throat too.

 

[30907]

Does anyone know what Ockley (which is my local station ) used to be like with passenger services??

The Holmwood siding was separate from the goods yard I believe - wonder if it was originally a goods layby?

Ockley's offpeak service was hourly from both W'loo and Vic from electrification through to 1967 when I think it was cut to hourly before becoming peak hours only for quite a number of years.

@SussexSpotter AFIAK Warnham was just a goods siding and not electrified

 

[PN42]

The Holmwood siding was separate from the goods yard I believe - wonder if it was originally a goods layby?

Ockley's offpeak service was hourly from both W'loo and Vic from electrification through to 1967 when I think it was cut to hourly before becoming peak hours only for quite a number of years.

@SussexSpotter AFIAK Warnham was just a goods siding and not electrified

Ockley was served by alternate services from London Bridge via Tulse Hill and Sutton (89) that ran hourly, and Waterloo via Worcester Park (17) that also ran hourly to give a half hourly service until the recast service of July 10th 1967. There was no service from Victoria apart from the fast trains that did not stop.

 

[sbt]

Wow, I knew Holmwood used to have goods sidings (for a gunpower factory, I believe),

The factory was in Newdigate and received, rather than produced, raw explosives. It produced Distress Flares etc.

You may be getting confused with Chilworth, to the north on the North Downs Line, where the Narrow Gauge system within the nearby Explosives Works had a spur that extended into the station Goods Yard.

 

[30907]

Ockley was served by alternate services from London Bridge via Tulse Hill and Sutton (89) that ran hourly, and Waterloo via Worcester Park (17) that also ran hourly to give a half hourly service until the recast service of July 10th 1967. There was no service from Victoria apart from the fast trains that did not stop.

Should have remembered, as my one and only trip to Holmwood (around 1965) was from Tulse Hill.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Wow, I knew Holmwood used to have goods sidings (for a gunpower factory, I believe), but never knew that it was once a terminus point! Does anyone know what Ockley (which is my local station ) used to be like with passenger services??

The 1960 timetable for Mon-Fri shows an hourly train on the Waterloo-Horsham route and a second hourly train London Bridge-Horsham, both running throughout the day. The station was called Ockley and Capel at that time.

I imagine a timetable from the 1970s or 1980s would show a rather less frequent service