*Historical* Here’s some facts and figures about Carshalton Railway Station. It was rebuilt in 1902, and still features the distinctive logo of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway above the entrance.
The original 1868 station was a simple wood clad structure. It’s likely that at this time money was tight.
The reason being, that two years earlier in 1866 saw the collapse of bankers Overend, Gurney and Company, heavy investors of the new railway line. Samuel Gurney, the banks CEO lived at Culvers House in Hackbridge and owned large swathes of North Street.
However the railway brought investment to the area. The Black Dog pub opposite Station Approach was joined by two other drinking establishments nearby: The Sun Inn and the Railway Tavern.
Over time the fortunes of the railway had greatly improved, the Financial Times in 1890 reported the line had “the highest return on investment, with the best prospect of future appreciation and the smallest risk of retrogression”. Just over 10 years later the station we use today was built.
There was an even older Carshalton station, but this was somewhere else altogether. It was built in 1847 on the Croydon to Epsom route, twenty years before moving to North Street. It stood where Wallington station is now.
Below is a pic of a train you would have seen stopping at Carshalton at the turn of the last century. You can still travel with the exact same style of train if you visit the Bluebell Railway in Sussex. The A class Terrier was the first type of steam train the Bluebell purchased back in 1960. It was called Stepney, from the same fleet as the Sutton one pictured.
Sutton council own a Terrier steam train, similar to the picture above, currently kept at the Spa Valley Railway.
“Withdrawn in November 1963 the locomotive was purchased for £750 in 1964 by the London Borough of Sutton and Merton after missing out on the original No.61 ‘Sutton. The intention had been to display the locomotive at the new civic centre. Repainted into lime green and renumbered No.10 and gaining ‘Sutton’ nameplates she hauled the opening service on the KESR in 1974, running services till the early 1990’s when it was put into store following cylinder block damage.”
© Words, collating research and colour pics Secret Carshalton. © Old pics London Borough of Sutton Museum and Heritage Sutton Heritage
Strictly speaking, a Terrier is a steam locomotive, rather than a whole train.
The LB&SCR built 50 of the A class (later A1 and A1X) in the 1870s, mostly named after places in east and south London. Although the first were withdrawn as long ago as 1902, no less than 10 survive today.
Locallly named examples were Nos 65 Tooting, 58 Wandle, 60 Ewell and 45 Merton, all withdrawn in 1902-04; 59 Cheam, 61 Sutton and 35 Morden, withdrawn in 1963; and 54 Waddon, now preserved in Canada. The one owned by the borough, now carrying the name Sutton, was originally No 50, Whitechapel, which lasted in BR service until 1964.
Please be aware that the Terrier locomotive “Stepney” is no longer in Steam, but has been cosmetically restored and in in display in “Steamworks” at Sheffield Park station at the Bluebell Railway. However the Terrier “Fenchurch” has recently completed her rebuild and is now in steam at the Bluebell. She is now finished in Stroudley’s “improved engine green”, for looks simular to “Stepney” now.
https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/loco_news/oh_72_fenchurch.html