The Main Brighton Railway Line

 

The London and Brighton Company's Act of July 15, 1837, autlioriscd a capital of £1,800,000, with loans to the extent of £600.000, most of which was spent on the 41 miles between Norwood Junction and Brighton, on which the engineering works were heavy and correspondingly costly.

 

The route was laid out by Sir John Rennie. but the engineer appointed for the work of construction was John Urpeth Rastrick, and he made a detailed survey of the route which lasted nearly a year. The general contour had thus been greatly improved by the time the first sod was cut at the deepest section of Merstham cutting on July 12, 1838.

 

The earthworks were very extensive, averaging 156,000 cubic yards per mile. The Merstham cutting referred to was extremely deep, ranging from 80 to 120 feet below the contour of the North Downs. A ruling gradient of one in 264 was obtained as a result of Rastrick's more detailed survey, and this occurs on either side of the Merstham, Balcombe and Clayton tunnels.

 

Ouse viaduct on the Brighton Main Line - Still in use today

 

The route enters Sussex at Tinsley Green, between Gatwick Race Course and Three Bridges. Much of the embankment across the High Weald was difficult to construct, the marshy ground absorbing the material as fast as it was laid down. In the 4.5 miles between Three Bridges and Balcombe the Balcombe tunnel under the St. Leonard's Forest ridge was an important feature, being 1,122 yards long.

 

In the next stage of nearly four miles occurs the splendidly designed Ouse Viaduct. John Rastrick produced in this one of the biggest and most pleasing railway viaducts in the south of England, 1,476 feet long, and varying in height from 40 feet where it joins the embankment on either side to 96 feet at the point where the Ouse is crossed. There are 37 semi-circular brick arches, the piers of which are hollow for lightness and strength. One can thus get a peculiar " window " vista through the section of the viaduct.

 

Sectional view through the Ouse Viaduct

 

This work cost £58,000. South of Haywards Heath came a short 297 yard tunnel under Folly Hill, and in 3.75 miles Burgess Hill station was reached. On the embankment south of the station difficulty was found in getting the material to "bind" owing to the boggy nature of the subsoil, but it was eventually drained sufficiently well to accomplish what was required. Just over two miles further on Hassocks Gate station was reached. At a later stage the name Ditchling was applied to this station.

 

It is now given in Bradshaw as Hassocks, with a note that it is l.5 miles from Hurstpierpoint.

Clayton Tunnel under the South Downs is 2,266 yards long, and is 270 feet below the surface at its deepest. The entrances are somewhat ornate, in Gothic style, executed in Caen stone and white brick. The ventilating shaft is the highest point in the neighbourhood and vies with the " Jack and Jill " windmills as a landmark. patcham tunnel was originally called the " Compulsory Tunnel," as Major Payne, the landowner, managed to get a clause inserted in the Act of Parliament, requiring a tunnel there instead of the open cutting which would have sufficed.

 

It is 583 yards long. The journey thence to the terminus at Brighton. seven miles from Hassocks, is through deep cut- tings and over embankments, in one of which is the 45 foot high New England viaduct, built in brick and stone. The terminus is on the site of a steep hill, and was much criticised when first projected. Generations of railwaymen have probably since wished it had been constructed on some less restricted site, where room could have been found to deal with the vast traffic more easily. The locomotive works, which were originally planned to be at Horley, were set down alongside the station, and their site was, as a result, equally confined and difficult to deal with.

 

Electrification of the London-Brighton route and the closing of the engine repair works (the carriage department was moved early this century to Lancing) will mitigate the difficulties to some extent. It is computed that more than 3,500 men and 570 horses were engaged on the work of constructing the line. which lasted nearly three years. The first section, from Croydon to Haywards Heath, was opened on July 12, 1841.

 

A special service of coaches connected with the trains, and an enormous business was worked up in a short time, so that three hundred horses were eventually engaged in covering this section by stage coach The official opening throughout took place on a misty autumn morning. Tuesday, September 21, 1841. A testimony to the fascination of the railway in those days. and to the Spartan habits of a past generation is afforded by the fact that the band played the first train out at the uncomfortable hour of 6.45 a.m. Then the directors and their friends left on a special train at 8.45 a.m., travelling from Brighton to London Bridge in 1hour 45 minutes.

 

The crowd remained behind, for the first train was due back at 1p.m., and actually came in at 12.50, whereat the Scots Greys' rendering of the National Anthem was drowned in a vast burst of cheering. An important day for Brighton was concluded by the Town Commissioners giving a dinner to the directors at the Old Ship Hotel. At this dinner John Harinan. the first Chairman of the Company, proclaimed the intention of making a number of the trains first class only.

 

These trains called only at first class stations, conveyed only first class passengers, except that the first two compartments of the leading coach were allocated to " Servants in attendance on their Employers, at Second Class Fares."

 

The first, second and third class fares were 14s. 6d., 9s. 6d. and 6s., respectively, from London to Brighton, but cheap day tickets were issued, at £1 and 15s., for first and second class. Only two trains each way at first had third class accommodation, these being the 7.45 a.m. down from London Bridge, and the 8 p.m. up. In any event, little better accommodation than is afforded in an open goods wagon was provided for third class passenger's at that time, and forty years were to lapse before the innauguration of' modern ideas of the importance of the class.

 

There were altogether seven down and eight up trains, most of which took 2.5 hours. But there were first class expresses from London Bridge at 9.43 a.m., and 4.30 p.m., and from Brighton at 9 a.m., and 3.30 p.m., which covered the distance in two hours, while calling at Haywards Heath, Three Bridges, Red Hill and Croydon in each direction. For the summer of 1842 the service became eight trains each way. It is worth noting that the gauge was originally laid as 4 ft. 9 ins., instead of the standard 4 ft. 8.5 ins. adopted in this country, it being thought that more play for the wheels would be beneficial.

 

Some of the rails were laid on stone blocks, the chairs being seated on a felt pad, but this fashion was giving way to wooden cross sleepers at that time. The rails were in 15 feet lengths, and of cast iron, a shape known as double parallel being used. Cheap steel had not yet made steel rails possible. The space between the parallel tracks usually called the six foot way actually measured 6ft. 5 ins. throughout.

 

An indication of expansion of traffic on the main line to Brighton, before the long branches on either side were opened, is afforded by the revenue in the first three years, which rose from £166,620 in 1842 to £187,162 in 1843, and £212,464 in 1844.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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