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S.E.C.R. Railmotor in Woodside Bay Platform
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The railmotor era on this line ended on 15th march 1915 when the service was withdrawn as a wartime economy. Coombe Lane and Selsdon Road stayed open for the occasional through train but the halts were closed. Through traffic and goods services continued until the end of 1916 when the line was closed completely. The Oxted Line platforms and the goods yard at Selsdon Road were not effected by the closure. For the next year the only use of the line was for the storage of surplus wagons near Bingham Road Halt. About four years later the S.E.C.R. resumed running their light engines from Purley to Hayes and soon after the daily pick-up goods from Bricklayers Arms to Tonbridge began calling at Woodside and Selsdon Road on its down run. The return trip was by way of Redhill and East Croydon.
Early in 1927 the track was relayed throughout and rumours circulated locally of restoration of local passenger services. This was not to be, but August Bank Holiday that year saw a rush of excursions using the newly laid track. These excursions ran to Hastings, Brighton, Margate and Ramsgate. A regular run was booked to Canterbury West every Wednesday from Lewisham Junction, as well as a number of Hop-Pickers specials in the season. The Hop-Pickers specials departed from London Bridge Low Level to destinations on the Kent & East Sussex Railway. Special stock was set aside for these trains consisting of antiquated S.E.C.R. & L.C.D.R. four wheel stock plus up to six luggage vans. Instructions were issued to staff that all stock should be de-loused after use and that hop pickers luggage should be specially labelled and kept apart from that of other passengers at railheads. A documented run on the 19th August 1948, when the quality of the rolling stock had improved, records the train consisting of an ex S.E.C.R. six-coach set No.906 hauled by L1 1758 running from Northiam to London Bridge by way of Robertsbridge, Tonbridge and the Mid Kent.
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Early in 1935 both tracks were again relaid, this time with the addition of an electric conductor rail. The attending ballast trains provided an interesting assortment of locomotives, including 4-4-0 'B1' No.1101 and 0-6-0 'C' No.2354 from Tonbride and E3 No 2454 from Newhaven. At the same time Coombe Lane was rebuilt in Southern Railway style and renamed Coombe Road, Bingham Road Halt was also rebuilt as a station which was to have been called Ashburton, but for obvious reasons eventually retained the less attractive but accurate name of Bingham Road. Selsdon Road remained unaltered except for the extension of the down branch platform and the demolition of the north signal box. Suprisingly the station was renamed plain Selsdon, very misleading if you wanted Selsdon village two miles away uphill. The new electric trains started running with little publicity on 30th September 1935 from their terminus at Sanderstead to Charing Cross and Cannon Street. A half-hourly service was provided seven day a week with extra trains at peak hours. The opening day attracted a fair number of curious travellers, 400 being recorded using the as yet unfinished station at Bingham Road. The early enthusiasm soon waned so that when the service was reduced during the was little inconvenience was caused by the loss of the Sunday trains and the curtailment of the Saturday afternoon services.
The coal traffic over this route increased considerably during the war years with through trains and local deliveries to Sydenham Gas Works. Two late trips are well remembered by residence living close to the line at Coombe Road. Their sleep was regularly shattered by the 22.30 and 01.50 Norwood Yard to Sydenham Gas Works runs which passed Coombe Road at 23.10 & 02.25 with their heavy loads, whistles screaming as they approached the tunnels. There was just time to get off to sleep again before the empties returned at 00.50 & 03.37. These trains ran until the late fifties.
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After the war the Sunday service was not reinstated and the off peak trains were terminated at Elmers End to connect with the Hayes trains to London. The line never regained its previous level of passenger use and inevitably the announcement came from B.R. that the line was to closed from 4th March 1963 in order to save an estimated #8000.00 per year. Opposition to the closure took B.R. by suprise. The Croydon Transport Users' Association was formed to fight the proposals, and did so twice within three years.
The Transport users' Consultative Committee for London held its public meeting at Caxton Hall on 7th March and reported to the Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples that there seemed to be no alternative transport available and as they could not make any recommendations for the relief of hardship caused to the 650 people using the service each day, the line must remain open. Eventually a reprieve of three years was granted to see if more passengers could be attracted to the line. The Croydon Transport Users' Association in co-operation with B.R. set about the wooing of new customers with a poster to be displayed at local stations asking "Why change at London Bridge?" and a handbill proclaiming "seating accommodation available".
Predictably things did not improve. A B.R. survey showed an average of 12 passengers on each Saturday train. This service, which only ran until mid-afternoon, was withdrawn completely from 2nd January 1967, and later that year the weekday service to London was reduced to peak hours only. By 1976 the number of passengers travelling to London by this route had dropped to a mere handful and so from the start of the new timetable the service was reduced to a shuttle between Sanderstead and Elmers End. Several trains were terminated at Seldon, where there had been no interchange with the Oxted line trains since 1959. There had always been the odd train stopped short at Selsdon due to the problems of interleaving the branch trains with the Oxted service, especially if either service was running late.Since electrification the Sanderstead to London service has been the only passenger use of the line, except on rare occasions when specials have visited the line, or it has been used as a diversionary route. Perhaps the most unusual of these occurred on the night of 20th March 1954, when the Brighton line was closed north of East Croydon due to re-signalling work.
The 21 28 Margate to London Bridge mails ran normally as far as East Croydon where N class No.31871 was attached at the rear and with the train engine U1 No. 31893 now assisting from behind, ran back to Selsdon where the few passengers were de-trained while the train was shunted to the up branch platform. The train then proceeded to London Bridge via Elmers End & Parks Bridge Junction with the original engine once more in charge.
The 04.44 London Bridge to Brighton headed by 34039 Boscastle was routed non-stop to Preston Park via Woodside, Selsdon, Oxted, Horsted Keynes and Haywards Heath. However the train was halted at Selsdon to detach the Bognor Portion which was taken by 31871 to East Croydon where it resumed its normal pathway.
The 01.33 vans and the 00.36 empties from East Croydon joined forces at Selsdon for the run to Victoria via Lewisham and Nunhead.
On the 19th March 1967 a special organised by the Southern Counties Touring Society ran from Victoria to Eastbourne via Nunhead and Selsdon, hauled by West Country 34108 Wincanton. The local paper advertised the train as the last steam hauled train to pass through Croydon and so attracted a lot of local interest. The enterprising booking clerk at Selsdon opened the booking office especially for the occasion and sold 121 platform tickets. Other unusual stock to traverse the line on special runs include the Hastings unit 1036, D6529 with a 3TC set No.422 and West Country 34102 Lapford.
In recent years the only stock seen on the line in regular service has been 2 EPB
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