History of the West Loco Shed

West Croydon today is simply another suburban station in South , although it is also now a terminus for London Overground Services from north of the City via the Thames tunnel.

The station and shed both opened concurrently with the London & Croydon Railway’s line to London Bridge on 5 June, 1839, four years to the day since the company was authorised. The station is mainly located on the site of the barge basin of the Croydon , incorporated on 27 June, 1801, although the original lay on the canal bed’s north/south axis.

Such were the financial and physical difficulties that the canal did not open until 22 Oct., 1809. Hampered from the first by sharply rising costs during construction and a shortage of capital, the waterway never really prospered. The railway company purchased it on 26 July, 1836 for the arbitrated sum of £40,250 or about one-quarter of the capital invested, which was three times the original estimate. (The arbitrators also awarded the company one shilling for lost profits!)

Little is known of the first loco shed, standing remotely from the station against the southeast wall of the site. But following extension of the line to in 1846—which required complete reconstruction of the station on a slightly realigned north north-east/south south-west axis—the shed was relocated to the west side of the layout.

Strictly speaking it wasn’t a “shed” as there was no covering shelter. But four sidings and a turntable were in place by 1850. Further station rebuilding took place when the single-track line from Wimbledon—much of which followed the southern end of the route of the Surrey Iron Railway—arrived at the south end in 1855. By 1870, besides six roads for carriage storage, three undercover, the loco depot now had a two-road shed squeezed tightly against the western boundary with a 46-feet diameter turntable in the arrival/departure line. The shed was some 130 feet long, brick-built and ridge-roofed with raised segments and “chimney” vents to disperse smoke.

The depot was responsible for both commuter passenger and local freight work, with an allocation that included Brighton Terriers up until the end of the 19th century. But suburban electrification had, by the early 1930s, reduced its responsibilities to local freight and shunting duties. The turntable was removed around this time as the bulk of the allocation by then consisted of Billinton radial tanks of classes E3 and E4.

The opening of Norwood Junction shed in 1935 spelled the end for West Croydon. It closed late in that year, its duties and engines being divided between Norwood and Bricklayers Arms. Demolition followed shortly afterwards, the site providing further carriage berthing accommodation.

By Jeremy Clarke