The
Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was a narrow gauge railway that linked the
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford...
towns of
WandsworthWandsworth is an inner suburb of London on the south bank of the River Thames in south-west London. Wandsworth takes its name from the River Wandle, which enters the Thames at Wandsworth. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Wandsworth appears in...
and
CroydonCroydon is a major commercial centre in Greater London and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon. It is south of Charing Cross, and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
via
MitchamMitcham is a district in South London, in the London Borough of Merton. The area is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is both residentially and financially developed, well served by Transport for London, and home to Mitcham Town Centre, Mitcham Library, and Mitcham Cricket...
(all now in
South LondonSouth London is the southern part of London, England. The area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes.-Boundary Commission:...
). It was constructed in the early years of the 19th century, opening on 26 July 1803.
Short publicly subscribed plateways, like that to the Caldon Low quarries and the
Little Eaton GangwayThe Little Eaton Gangway, or, to give it its official title, the Derby Canal Railway, was a narrow gauge industrial wagonway serving the Derby Canal at Little Eaton in Derbyshire.- The Derby Canal :...
, had already been built. However, they were all part of canal projects.
The
Surrey Iron Railway (SIR) was a narrow gauge railway that linked the
SurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford...
towns of
WandsworthWandsworth is an inner suburb of London on the south bank of the River Thames in south-west London. Wandsworth takes its name from the River Wandle, which enters the Thames at Wandsworth. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Wandsworth appears in...
and
CroydonCroydon is a major commercial centre in Greater London and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon. It is south of Charing Cross, and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan...
via
MitchamMitcham is a district in South London, in the London Borough of Merton. The area is located on the border of Inner London and Outer London. It is both residentially and financially developed, well served by Transport for London, and home to Mitcham Town Centre, Mitcham Library, and Mitcham Cricket...
(all now in
South LondonSouth London is the southern part of London, England. The area it covers is defined differently for a range of purposes.-Boundary Commission:...
). It was constructed in the early years of the 19th century, opening on 26 July 1803.
Origins
Short publicly subscribed plateways, like that to the Caldon Low quarries and the
Little Eaton GangwayThe Little Eaton Gangway, or, to give it its official title, the Derby Canal Railway, was a narrow gauge industrial wagonway serving the Derby Canal at Little Eaton in Derbyshire.- The Derby Canal :...
, had already been built. However, they were all part of canal projects. The original plan, first mooted in 1799, had been for a canal, but to take the necessary water from the streams in the area would have deprived the many water-powered mills and factories. This was the world's first railway to be
publicPublic, adj, is of or pertaining to the people; relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community; opposed to private; as, the public treasury, a road or lake...
ly subscribed by Act of Parliament as a railway throughout.
Operation
It was
horseThe horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
-drawn, dedicated to goods. It was essentially a form of turnpike as users had to provide their own wagons and horses, paying a fee for use of the plateway (tramroad). This is remarkably similar to the modern arrangement under which a
Train operating companyThe term train operating company is used in the United Kingdom to describe the various businesses operating passenger trains on the railway system of mainland Great Britain under the collective National Rail brand...
pays track access charges to
Network RailNetwork Rail owns and operates Britain’s rail infrastructure. It is a British "not for dividend" company limited by guarantee whose principal asset is Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, a company limited by shares....
.
Route
The nine-mile route followed the shallow valley of the
River WandleThe River Wandle is a river in southeast England. It runs through southwest London and is approximately 9 miles long. It flows into the River Thames on the Tideway at Wandsworth....
, then heavily industrialised with numerous factories and mills, from the
River ThamesThe River Thames is a major river flowing through southern England. While best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows through several other towns and cities, including Oxford, Reading and Windsor....
at Wandsworth southwards to Croydon. A short branch also ran from Mitcham to
HackbridgeHackbridge in the London Borough of Sutton is a suburb and railway station in south-west London with services to London Victoria and Blackfriars . Hackbridge was home to the first Country dogs home opened by the Duke and Duchess of Portland...
. The line was subsequently extended as the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway through
PurleyPurley is a place in the London Borough of Croydon. It is a suburban development situated 11.7 miles south of Charing Cross.The name derives from "pirlea", which means 'Peartree lea'. Purley has a population of about 72,000.-Local government:...
and
CoulsdonCoulsdon , known by locals and historically as Coalsden, is a town on the southernmost boundary of the London Borough of Croydon. It is surrounded by the Greater London greenbelt of the Farthing Downs, Coulsdon Common and Kenley Common.-History:...
to serve quarries near
MersthamMerstham is a village in the Reigate and Banstead borough of Surrey, England, in the London commuter belt. It is just north of Redhill, near the intersection of the M25 and M23 motorways, on the edge of the North Downs and on the North Downs Way.-History:...
, opened 1805, closed 1838.
History
William JessopWilliam Jessop was a noted English civil engineer, particularly famed for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.-Early life:...
was chief engineer of the latter venture only and the flat alignment of his route proved more long-lasting than the railway. The advent of faster and more powerful steam
locomotiveA locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
s spelled the end for horse-drawn railways. In 1823, William James, a powerful shareholder in the SIR, tried to persuade
George StephensonGeorge Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives, and he is renowned as being the "Father of Railways"...
to supply a locomotive for the line. However Stephenson realised that the cast-iron plateway could not support the weight of a steam locomotive and declined the offer. The SIR closed in 1846. Part of the route was reopened in 1855 by the Wimbledon & Croydon Railway, which was later absorbed by the
London, Brighton and South Coast RailwayThe London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
. Much of the route remains in use by
TramlinkTramlink is a tramway system in south London in the United Kingdom which began operation in May 2000...
.
External links