SOUTHERN RAILWAY
Suburban commuter services were key to the future of the Southern Railway, which had inherited 75 miles of electrified lines – a third of which was supported by overhead wires on the former LBSCR. This was replaced with third-rail Direct Current power and electrified mileage had doubled by the end of 1926.
The EMUS that powered the newly introduced clockface timetable were antiquated rebuilds of LBSCR, SECR and LSWR wooden bodied, steam-hauled passenger stock.
Suburban tank engines, displaced by the burgeoning EMUS, were cascaded onto secondary routes. For instance, many of London’s Drummond ‘M7s’ were pushed out of the metropolis and replaced their Adams 0-4-4T ‘O2’ predecessors on country branch lines; some of the ‘O2s’ in turn being shipped to backwaters like the Isle of Wight.
SECR chief mechanical engineer Richard Maunsell was selected to continue his role with the SR. There was no dramatic change to what had gone before. Robert Urie’s LSWR express passenger ‘N15’ 4-6-0s evolved into Maunsell ‘King Arthurs’; SECR ‘D’ and ‘E’ 4-4-0s progressed as a new ‘L1s’, and ‘River Tanks’ were rebuilt as ‘U’ 2-6-0s (a derivative of the ‘N’ 2-6-0s).
The obvious exception to this evolutionary strategy was the introduction in 1926 of the first of 16 four-cylinder ‘Lord Nelson’ 4-6-0s for heavy boat trains to the Kent and Hampshire ports.
Inspired by LSWR style, dark olive green with white lining and black edging was selected for passenger locomotives, adapted with orange lining for carriages.
Toward the end of the 1920s, it was discovered that by tying two redundant bullhead rails together, cheap yet robust signal posts could be created.
Concrete was also heavily deployed thanks to a massive expansion of a dedicated manufacturing plant at Exmouth Junction. Pre-cast pieces ranged from mileposts to footbridge ‘kits’.
The SR’S choice of green and stone was a sweeping departure from the reddish-brown and stone colours of its predecessors.
The GWR’S public relations dominance for south-western holiday traffic was challenged by the SR with the introduction of the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’; a multiportioned train that dropped off one or two carriages at various branch line junction stations. Its furthest destination was Padstow, 259 miles from Waterloo.