1864
SEAFORD MUSEUM COLLECTION
Seaford Station opens March 1864
SEAFORD MUSEUM COLLECTION
Seaford station looking towards the turntable & town
GETTING THE POINT ACROSS
The maker’s of locomotives always used best quality materials and often substituted more
expensive items than those required by John Chester Craven, Locomotive Superintendent for the L.B. & S.C.R. Generally this was to the Company’s advantage, although in the case of the footplate floor boards on the Standard Craven Passenger Locomotives 2-4-0’s, this was definitely not so, for pitch pine replaced oak planking. This was beautifully grained, and as long as it remained dry greatly improved the appearance of the footplate, but a drop of water turned the flooring into a skating rink. Craven discovered this when travelling on loco No. 187 from Croydon to Brighton with the 4 p.m. express in c1864.
Near Horley track repairs necessitated the up line being used for several hundred yards and
when the driver entered the loop at 25 to 30 M.P.H. the whole party slid across the footplate
to end up in an untidy pile of arms and legs, the floorboards having been well swept and
watered in honour of Craven’s presence. Scrambling hurriedly to their feet, all forgot that the loop has two ends and as the engine it the second crossover the jerk sent them again flying across the footplate. Craven broke his collar bone and the fireman his wrist, which left the driver to keep the train running to Brighton. First-hand knowledge is a wonderful thing, and within ten days all of the class had oak planking, which, if less decorative, gave firm footing come rain or shine.
* Depot of loco-men not known
Bognor (Bog) 1864-1962
Bognor locomotive shed was opened on the 1st June 1864 by the London, Brighton & South
Coast Railway. The first locomotive shed was located at the North end of the station on the
east side of the line. The locomotive shed was a timber built two track straight dead-ended
shed which also included a turntable across the access line.
In 1903 the shed was closed and demolished and was replaced by a brick built 2 track
straight through shed with a transverse pitched style slate roof and was located nearby. The
facilities included a 55ft turntable sited at the north end, a coal stage and a water tank. The
shed was closed in 1953 but the facilities continued in use as a servicing area. The shed and
the steam locomotive depot closed in November 1962, the Shed was demolished in the same
year.
The Bognor shed, serving the expanding seaside resort just west of Brighton, was opened in the early 1860s as the terminus of the Bognor branch. It functioned as both operating shed and minor maintenance facility for passenger and goods engine. Its location made it directly sensitive to disruptions-Bognor’s tourism and market traffic depended on reliable railway service, and disruptions here reverberated along regional connections.