Holmwood Railway Station - Historical Perspective

Historical Perspective

Holmwood was until the new timetable of 10 July 1967 quite a busy station. There was an hourly service to and from Waterloo / Horsham and an hourly service to and from London Bridge via Tulse Hill / Horsham. And once an hour a non-stop express Victoria service went through the station from Bognor Regis.

Further, Holmwood was a terminus for various additional trains to and from Waterloo. The reader is referred to British Railways Southern Region passenger and working timetables for 1966-1967.

Notice the faster speeds than today's fastest time to Victoria of 59 minutes. Unlike today, no slack, giving the appearance of on-time performance, was built into the timetables in those days.

Prior to 1963 the use of Holmwood as a terminus was implemented for much of the day. For example, a serious accident at Motspur Park on 6 Nov 1947 involved the 16:45 Southern Railway train from Holmwood to Waterloo. This service was withdrawn in 1963, the later 17:45 being the last of a series of hourly trains from Holmwood to Waterloo to be retained in the 1963 timetable, as shown above. The accident in 1947 resulted from incorrect manual fog signalling when the driver of the Holmwood train was given permission to enter the junction at Motspur Park before the down Chessington train had cleared the junction, and before the signals and points were changed by the signal box. This is one of the few references one can find to the important role that Holmwood station played in the Waterloo to Dorking electric service initiated by the Southern Railway. The reader should note that the Southern Railway of those days built, owned and operated all trains from Victoria, Waterloo and London Bridge and has no connection with its modern day namesake.

However the earlier timetables for services on the line from London Victoria to Horsham in both 1905 and 1917 to be found at http://www.lbscr.org.uk/timetables/Nov1805/NEW-9B.jpg and http://www.lbscr.org.uk/timetables/Nov1017/NEW-12.jpg show that services to both London Waterloo and London Bridge were a development that presumably only followed on from the electrification of the line between Dorking and Horsham in 1938 with the original Victorian service pattern from Holmwood, Ockley and Warnham being to London Victoria only, just as it is once again today. Some features of the very unusual service pattern of today from Holmwood (for a commuter station in Surrey with direct rush hour services to a London terminus) such as the last evening weekday rush hour service from London Victoria at 7.20pm (apart from the 11.26pm weekday service only added to the timetable in December 2004 following several years of pressure from a local campaigner) can even be traced back to those far off Victorian/Edwardian origins. However it is worth noting that back in Victorian and Edwardian times the line also enjoyed four through services a day from Holmwood both to and from London Victoria. Two in the early morning and two in the late afternoon/early evening making Sunday outings to the Capital and elsewhere possible in this still largely pre motor car era. It is not known at what point in time Holmwood and the neighbouring two stations of Holmwood and Warnham lost their Sunday railway services.