Dartford Loop Line - History

History

In June 1862 the South Eastern Railway obtained powers for a second ten mile line between London and Dartford from a junction with the main line at Hither Green to the North Kent line at Dartford in order to reduce congestion on the North Kent line and to give a more direct route between London and Dartford. This was to be routed via the town of Sidcup.

The Dartford Loop Line opened on 1 September 1866. (A loop line in railway terminology is a line which leaves the main line and then rejoins it later on.) The line initially had only five new stations : Lee, Eltham (now Mottingham), Sidcup, Bexley and Crayford. The station at Hither Green, near Lewisham, where the line deviates from the main line, was built after the opening of the third North Kent route, the Bexleyheath Line in 1895.

Pope Street, now New Eltham station, opened in 1878 between Eltham and Sidcup stations. Hither Green finally opened in 1895 serving both the Dartford Loop Line and the main line via Tonbridge. The final station to open was Albany Park in 1935. The Loop Line originally passed through mainly open country and farm land but it stimulated development around the new stations.

In 1899 the Lee Spur, a single track link between the up line of the Dartford Loop Line and the Hither Green goods yards, was built. The spur is occasionally used by freight and engineering works trains.

The Loop Line was electrified by the Southern Railway in 1926 along with the two other lines to Dartford.

In 1942 a double-track loop (the ‘’Dartford Loop’) came into use between the North Kent and Dartford Loop Lines, creating a triangular junction. This allowed direct running between the two routes, avoiding the need for a reversing manoeuvre at Dartford.

In 1955 the platforms on all Loop Line stations were extended to accommodate ten carriage trains, although many peak services continued to be operated by eight carriage trains. Most stations had goods yards which closed during the 1960s and became car parks.

In the late 1960s the Dartford Loop Line along with the two other North Kent routes were re-signalled which saw the replacement of semaphores with colour light signals. In November 1970 most of the mechanical signal boxes on the line closed. In the mid-late 2000s the Dartford Area Resignalling Scheme saw the line resignalled.<><