The London and South Western Railway was the largest of the companies that came together to form the Southern Railway in 1923. From its terminus at Waterloo it ran to the west of England and to the South Coast, carrying heavy holiday and residential traffic as well as the naval business of Portsmouth and Southampton, and it took a strong locomotive tradition into the Southern.
Waterloo and the western main line
The London and South Western worked south and west from its terminus at Waterloo, the largest station in the country, along a main line through Salisbury and on to Exeter and the West of England. A second principal route carried the busy traffic to Bournemouth and Weymouth, and the company served the naval and shipping centres of Portsmouth and Southampton. It also built up dense suburban and residential services in the districts south west of London, so that Waterloo handled both long-distance expresses and a heavy commuter business.
Nine Elms, Eastleigh and Drummond
Locomotive work was carried on at Nine Elms in London before the company concentrated building and repair at a new works at Eastleigh, near Southampton, in the years before the First World War. The London and South Western is closely associated with Dugald Drummond, whose 4-4-0 express engines and other designs served the company well and remained at work for many years. The Drummond locomotives, sturdy and long-lived, formed a large part of the fleet the company took into the Grouping.
Grouping and after
At the 1923 Grouping the London and South Western became the largest constituent of the Southern Railway, and Eastleigh continued as one of the Southern’s principal works. On nationalisation in 1948 the lines passed to British Railways and were worked by the Southern Region. The Waterloo to West of England route and the Bournemouth line remained important main lines, and London and South Western engines worked on into the 1950s and beyond. For the wider family of pre-nationalisation companies, see the constituents index.
- Awdry, C. (1990) Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies, PSL, London and South Western section.
- RCTS Locomotives of the Southern Railway series, for the London and South Western designs absorbed into the Southern.
- Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, Combined Volume, for the 1960 allocation snapshot.