London and South Western Railway

The London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Its network extended from London to Plymouth via Salisbury and Exeter, with branches to Ilfracombe and Padstow and via Southampton to Bournemouth and Weymouth. It also had many routes connecting towns in Hampshire and Berkshire, including Portsmouth and Reading. In the grouping of railways in 1923 the L&SWR became part of the Southern Railway.

Among significant achievements of the L&SWR were the electrification of suburban lines, the introduction of power signalling, the development of Southampton Docks, the rebuilding of Waterloo Station as one of the great stations of the world, and the handling of the massive traffic involved in the First World War.

Read more about London And South Western Railway:  Origins, Construction of The Southampton Line, Gauge Wars, Early Expansion, London Terminal Stations, West of Salisbury, Suburban Lines, Routes in Hampshire, Electrification, LSWR Infrastructure, Ships, Other Details

Famous quotes containing the words london, south, western and/or railway:

    “You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
    —Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)

    “Biography is a very definite region bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium.”
    —Philip Guedalla (1889–1944)

    “It is so manifestly incompatible with those precautions for our peace and safety, which all the great powers habitually observe and enforce in matters affecting them, that a shorter water way between our eastern and western seaboards should be dominated by any European government, that we may confidently expect that such a purpose will not be entertained by any friendly power.”
    —Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)

    “Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
    —Angela Carter (1940–1992)