Goods train passing through West Croydon Station in 1959

West Croydon Railway Station c1959
A goods train passes through West Croydon Station in 1959
Click on picture [503] for an enlarged version

From: "Ted Hamer" <edwardhamer@btconnect.com>

Just in view is the bay platform [No.2] for electric trains serving the Wimbledon branch. To the top left of the picture, a number of support poles for the trolleybus overhead in Station Road can be seen.

The locomotive looks very much like an ex-LBSC E6, presumably based at 75C.

The West Croydon-Wimbledon branch closed on 31 May 1997.


From: "Alan Osborn" <alan@amosborn.demon.co.uk>

The West Croydon to Wimbledon service was replaced by a bus service at the expiry of the Winter 1996/7 timetable. The Elmers End to Addiscombe branch closed the same day. Both were closed for Tramlink construction.

Interestingly the bay platform at West Croydon, used by the Wimbledon trains, has been fenced off and track lifted. I would have thought it could have been used for the SWT Guildford to West Croydon service, which terminates in the only London bound through platform, thus blocking the route until its departure, wrong line, towards Sutton.

I used this service once, it was late and made more so by having to follow an all-stations service. The all-stations service would have been unable to access West Croydon otherwise.

From: "John" <vpfluke@AOL.COM>

I worked in the booking office at West Croydon station for several months during 1954, soon after leaving school. We lived less than a mile from the 630 trolleybus route terminus in West Croydon. The 630 trolleybus route was one of the longest trolleybus routes in London,if not the longest. The route was via Mitcham, Tooting, Wandsworth, over the Thames by Putney Bridge, Hammersmith Broadway and Wood Lane. This trolleybus route had replaced a tram route in the 1930s.

I once rode the 630 route with a friend on a bus spotting trip almost to the end of the route. The terminus at the other end was near the junction of Harrow Road and Scrubs Lane, Harlesden and not far from Willesden Junction station. The journey was scheduled to take one hour and 16 minutes. Scheduled frequency was 3 to 4 minutes throughout the day from 05.50 through to 22.40 on Monday to Friday with frequencies of 3 to 5 minutes on Saturdays and 5 to 7 minutes on Sundays.

My mum used the 630 trolleybus from West Croydon to Mitcham on her way to work as a District Nurse. She worked part time in the mornings/early afternoons so that she could be home for me coming back from school. She was a qualified registered nurse and midwife. She used to ride round Mitcham on a push bike [with her black medicine bag on a carrier] visiting patients in their homes.

red line
Peter Gibbon's Tramlink map is from:
sjplogo

diagram