Trains at: London Bridge, SEML, 11/05/24

Описание: A fantastic afternoon session spent at London Bridge on the South Eastern Mainline where we see plenty of services from Southeastern, Southern and Thameslink.

The station has a huge amount of history so I'll try to condense it as much as possible.

The original station was opened in 1836 by the London and Greenwich Railway, this makes it the oldest railway terminus in London. The original station was 60 feet wide and 400 feet long with a grand total of 4 tracks leading into the station. For the first four years of the stations operation it was entirely open to the elements, it wasn't until 1840 when a roof was put over the platforms to protect the station staff and passengers.

In 1839 the London and Croydon Railway enlarged the station as other companies wanted to use the station as the entrance to London. These companies were The London and Brighton Railway and the South Eastern Railway wishing to run their trains from Brighton and Dover into London.

In 1841 The Brighton Railway started using the station after the opening of their line and in 1842 the South Eastern Railway started their operations.

For the next 70 or so years there were various changes made to the changes, different companies were coming and going, The London and Greenwich Railway were on the brink of bankruptcy so they had to lease their lines to the South Eastern Railway who would eventually take complete control over their network. There were plans for a joint station but these were always getting changed. There was supposed to be a bell tower constructed but it never saw the light of day. In 1846 all the small companies running into the station merged together to form the London Brighton and South Coast Railway, the joint station remained unfinished until it was demolished in 1849.

The South Eastern Railway took over the London and Greenwich station and saw it as an opportunity to expand on the current plans for a newer and larger station, so instead of spending money on a new site somewhere they would invest in the site and start creating a larger station.

In the years 1847 to 1850 the station was rebuilt and enlarged, the station approaches were improved upon and the amount of tracks were increased from 4 to 6.

In the remaining years hotels were built and goods sheds were constructed which was common practice for a lot stations around London at the time.

By the time 1923 made an appearance all of the railway operating in the south of the country came under the operation of the Southern Railway, between 1926 and 1928 some of the network started to get electrified with the first services operating between London Bridge and Crystal Palace.

British Railways started taking over operations of every line in the country in 1948, steam and electric trains were sharing the network right up until 1964 when the very last steam service departed London Bridge and headed for Tonbridge. After that all services were either electric or diesel.

Throughout the next few years the levels of traffic were increasing at a huge rate and the station was beginning to struggle with the demands, so in 1972 and 1978 British Railways began to redevelop the station and the approach along with a £21 Million investment into the signalling system which greatly improved the running of trains into and out of the station.

The next and possibly biggest project to be undertaken between 2009 and 2017 for the Thameslink project, station approaches were changed, signalling altered accordingly and the main station concourse getting a complete overhaul with new ticketing offices and shops.

The overall cost was £1Billion and was officially opened in 2019.

I loved coming to this station and it was become of the best stations in London I've ever filmed at.

My next station will be Waterloo East.

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