South Western Railway, Southern, GX and LO Trains at Clapham Junction on March 6th 2020

3rd time filming at Clapham Junction on the South Western Main Line, Brighton Main Line, Windsor Lines.

Featuring services from South Western Railway, Southern, Gatwick Express and London Overground plus a freighter.

Clapham Junction station is actually not in Clapham itself in fact it's located over a mile to the South east to nearby St Johns Hill.

The station has 17 platforms including the South Western Main Line, Brighton Main Line, Windsor Lines, London Overground as well as Southern services via Shepherds Bush to Watford Junction and Milton Keynes Central with the carriage sidings for South Western Railway Trains located between Platforms 6 and 7.

It’s one of the busiest rail junctions in Europe averaging between 120 and 180 trains per hour passing through here with the latter occurring mostly during peak times.

In 1838 the former London & South Western Railway (L&SWR) opened its line from Nine Elms to Woking which 10 years later in 1848 was eventually extended to Waterloo Bridge now todays London Waterloo. The Brighton Main Line was next to open in 1860 however it wasn’t until October 2nd 1863 when Clapham Junction first opened.

Gatwick Express running services every 15 minutes today operated by Class 387s which run alternatively with 2 trains per hour to Gatwick Airport with the other 2 extending to Brighton. With both Southern and Gatwick Express operating under Govia Thameslink Railway.

London Overground took over the North London Line from Silverlink in 2007 now run services 2 trains per hour to Stratford however December 2012 East London Line services began running from Surrey Quays via Clapham High Street although run to Highbury & Islington however Clapham services mostly terminate at Dalston Junction.

Management of the station originally was managed by British Rail before privatisation before being taken over by South West Trains now South Western Railway however since April 2018 the station is now managed by Network Rail.

Surprisingly Clapham Junction has no connection to London Underground although Crossrail 2 and Northern Line Extension from Kennington to Battersea Power Station have been mooted future proposals to provide an interchange however at present plans for either of these two won’t happen due to high costs.

A fatal collision occurred on the fast lines of the SWML on the morning of Monday December 12th 1988 when a service from Poole collided with the rear of a stationary Basingstoke stopper which then hit an empty stock movement to Haslemere heading in the opposite direction.

The cause of the collision was because Signal WF37 wasn’t rewired properly when it was replaced 2 weeks before the accident which on the morning of December 12th led to one of the wires short circuiting. The Basingstoke train ended up passing a red light although wasn't able to slow down any faster.

Before the days of in cab radio drivers had to contact the controller via line side telephones. The driver was cleared by the controller in the signal box to proceed into the station.

Unfortunately whilst the Basingstoke train was just beginning to proceed into the station, the following train from Poole was approaching had been given clear signals instead of 2 yellows and a Red and as it rounded the curve despite the driver’s best efforts sadly wasn't able to stop his train.

35 People sadly died and 484 were injured

The inquiry found that practices breached Health and Safety guidelines, Radio systems needed to be introduced as a matter of urgency.

However there was one recommendation in the Clapham Junction Accident Report to install ATP (Automatic Train Protection) across the entire British rail network was controversially vetoed in 1997 due to high costs.

The Class 455s and 456s on South Western Railway on borrowed time which are due to be replaced by Class 701s.

They will also replace the Class 458s and the Class 707s with the latter due to move to Southeastern which a deal was agreed a month after filming to lease all 30 sets after the 701s have entered service although that won’t be until sometime due to ongoing problems with the trains Train Management Control system.

Although a lot has changed over the years however one thing at Clapham Junction that stands out is that for any rail enthusiast whether your old or young it's not hardly surprising during anytime of the day that the activity of trains through the station doesn't quieten down eventhough it can be a challenge for anyone to keep up with constant trains passing or stopping however that is one of the main reasons that give the station its reputation of being one of the busiest junctions in both Britain and Europe.

Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS

Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
   • JJD - Adventure | Glitch Hop | NCS - ...  

Filmed on iPhone 11 on Friday March 6th 2020 and edited on iMovie

#southwesternrailway #southern #londonoverground #london #class450 #class377