Electrification of the London and South Western Railway information
This article is about the development of the electrification of the surface lines of the LSWR and Southern Railway. For Waterloo & City line, see Waterloo and City Railway.
The Electrification of the LSWR refers to the installation of electric traction on the London and South Western Railway surface network, and its successor the Western Section of the Southern Railway, in England. The LSWR started a programme of electrification in response to rising costs and loss of traffic to street tramways; the first installation was to Kingston, Richmond, Hounslow, Hampton Court and Shepperton, starting in 1917. The third rail DC system was used, as it was assessed to be considerably cheaper to install and maintain than the overhead systems then in use. The rolling stock was constructed by the conversion of relatively new coaches built for suburban steam-hauled operation. The LSWR generated its own electric power at a new power station near Wimbledon. A frequent regular-interval timetable was implemented and the system was a considerable success.
The Government forced the Grouping of the railways in 1923, under the Railways Act 1921 and the LSWR was part of the larger Southern Railway, together with the South Eastern and Chatham Railway and the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). The LBSCR had adopted an overhead contact system at 6.6kV25Hz for its suburban network. The Southern Railway considered the two systems and decided to adopt the LSWR third rail system, and in due course the LBSCR system was converted, and the third rail system was installed over a large proportion of the suburban area of the Southern Railway, as well as some main line installations. The Portsmouth Direct line was electrified in 1937.
The Southern Railway was nationalised in 1948 and further extensions of the system were installed by British Railways. An overhead contact system was adopted as standard for new routes that were not an extension of existing third rail networks. The third rail system is now (2022) operational over 14% of the total rail network in Great Britain, equating to 36% of the electrified network.
LSWR electrified routes in 1939 (in red)
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