The West Sussex Railway was an long standard gauge light railway between Chichester and Selsey, in West Sussex. The line, which opened in 1897, was also known as Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway. It was opened as a rail tramway in order to avoid having to comply with regulations that managed conventional railways in the United Kingdom. The line was built under the auspices of the light railway entrepreneur, Colonel Stephens, who would later manage the line as the West Sussex Railway (Tramway Section).
In December 1910 the line was inundated (flooded by seawater) when an embankment failed at Pagham Harbour. It was not reinstated so work had to be carried out to raise the line above the waters. Although the line was successful in the decades before the First World War, it suffered financially as road transport increased in the 1920s. Despite attempts to be more efficient through modernisations, such as the introduction of petroleum driven rail car services, the railway closed to all traffic in January 1935. Very little remains of the railway's infrastructure because of land redevelopment and urban expansion along its permanent way.
Origins
The passing of the Light Railways Act 1896 prompted local businessmen to consider whether a light railway connection to Selsey could be made. The town lies on the coast about south of the City of Chichester. As they prepared their scheme, they found that it would be possible to get authorisation much more simply under the Railway Construction Facilities Act 1864. By structuring the line as a tramway, the numerous public road level crossings would not require the special safety arrangements required for railway operation, and accordingly they formed the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway. The company was incorporated on 29 April 1896.E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959
H. F. Stephens was appointed as engineer to design the line and supervise construction;this was his second such role, after the Rye and Camber Tramway. His subsequent career pursued several very local lines often run on minimal finance; during war service he became (Lieutenant-) Colonel Stephens, by which he is better known.
The land was acquired from co-operative landowners without the need for compulsory powers, although this forced a slightly indirect route. It started from a point a little to the south of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) station at Chichester; it left westwards and immediately turned south, running broadly southwards to Selsey itself, a distance of . Just south of Chichester, the line crossed the Chichester Canal, which still had some small traffic volume passing, and a simple manually operated lifting bridge was provided there.
The contractor for the construction needed a locomotive for the work, and the locomotive was moved on the public road to get to the line south of the Chichester Canal. It was hauled by a traction engine, and it ran on rails placed on their sides in the roadway; workmen progressively moved the rails to the front of the engine as it made its slow movement. The locomotive was later named Chichester.
Whitechurch describes the event; referring to the Chichester and Birdham Canal (i.e. the Chichester Canal), he says:
I am able to supply a unique photograph of an incident that happened during the construction of the line owing to this canal. The engine had been brought down to Chichester and was much wanted on the other side of the canal, but as the bridge was not completed for traffic it was impossible to cross. The little locomotive, therefore, had to perform a slow and circuitous journey by road of over , being hauled by a traction engine on rails, simply placed down on the road in front of the railway engine and taken up from behind it alternately.
The line was built to standard gauge, , with Vignoles (flat-bottom) rails spiked to light transverse sleepers, "the whole of the line being ballasted with gravel, and, if I mistake not, a goodly bulk of sea shingle mixed therewith".Victor L Whitechurch, A Trip on the H. of M. and S. T., in the Railway Magazine, 1897, p329 et seq
The line opened to Selsey Town station on 27 August 1897 and it was extended to Selsey Beach in 1898. The construction and land purchase had cost £21,570 and rolling stock had cost £3,268.Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, Branch Line to Selsey, Middleton Press, Midhurst, 1983,
Operation The first passenger coaches were newly built bogie vehicles with open verandas at the end; one was built by Hurst Nelson, and three by Falcon of Loughborough. About 1900 another new coach of similar design was acquired from Hurst Nelson.
The stations on the line were: Chichester; the station was a short distance south of the LB&SCR station Hunston, where there was a level crossing and a short siding; there was also a brickworks with an independent loop siding north of the station for some years; Hoe Farm [Halt]; this was a private halt for the farm owner; Chalder; the access was over a private farm road, and the Company paid the landowner £2 per annum for the wayleave; Mill Pond Halt;this was the closest station to Sidlesham village; opened 15 October 1910 and closed May 1911; reopened 9 July 1928; Sidlesham; the station name seems to have been spelt Siddlesham at first; this was a variant spelling of the village name, although the 1880 Ordnance Survey Map uses the modern spelling;Ordnance Survey 1:10,560 map, 1880 the station was some distance south of the village. Suffering from the 1910 inundation, the station was closed from 15 December 1910 until June 1911; the track level was raised by about at the station level crossing; there was a loop siding here; Ferry; ButtR V J Butt, The Directory of Railway Stations, Patrick Stephens Limited, Sparkford, 1995, names this Ferry Siding Halt; CobbCol M H Cobb, The Railways of Great Britain – A Historical Atlas, Ian Allan Publishing Limited, Shepperton, 2003, says Ferry Siding at first and renamed Ferry in 1911; Golf Club Halt; this was private Selsey Bridge; the main road crossed the line here, the only road bridge on the line; there was a short siding and, some time after 1911 a brick works had a private siding; Selsey Town; renamed Selsey from 1911; the engine shed was located here, with a goods siding and run-round loop; Selsey Beach; opened 1 August 1898 and closed October 1904; the train service may have operated in summer only; there was a simple run-round loop and single platform.
In 1910 there were seven trains each way on weekdays (one extra on Mondays) and three on Sundays. Journey time for the was 30 minutes.
Whitechurch gave a description of a trip on the line in 1897:
One car stood by the little platform, ready to start. ... This was a third class car. A first class stood in a siding. ... Another car of which I caught a glimpse at Selsey completes, I believe, the "passenger rolling stock" of the little railway. ... The Company own two engines, the "Selsey" and the "Chichester", the former for "passenger" and the latter, a "six-wheels coupled" for "goods" traffic. The "Selsey", a trim-looking little side-tank locomotive, is painted dark blue with a red lining ... The boiler is surmounted with a handsome brass dome on which are two spring balances [for the safety valves], while a neat copper ring is an adornment to the chimney.
Before we got away on the journey, a very remarkable operation in shunting had to be performed, albeit it was commenced two minutes after the time for starting. Two trucks were brought in from a siding, and so manipulated with engine and by hand, that finally one was attached in rear of the car, and the other in front of the locomotive!
[Later we came] to Hunston Station, a tiny iron building with a little platform, but a most important point of the line, in that it is the coaling and water depôt, and supplies of both were taken in by the engine, the train backing to allow this to be done, so that our car stood right across the main road during the operation. ... Chalder, another little station was reached at 10.58. We left our rear truck in the siding here ... [At Siddlesham] we performed some marvellous shunting operations, which occupied six minutes, and which resulted in our entering on the last stage of our journey, with three trucks in front of the engine and two behind our carriage—the very best example of a mixed train it has ever been my fortune to behold! ... Just before reaching Selsey we passed through the only cutting and under the only road-bridge the line possesses, pausing a few minutes to get rid of our five trucks at a siding.
About midway on the journey home, I, who was seated in the front compartment of the car, saw a red flag being violently waved a few hundred yards ahead. ... as the train slowed down, the individual in question, a stalwart, gaitered farmer, removed the danger signal from his stick, and calmly came aboard the car, doubtless thanking his lucky stars for the little railway that ran within a few feet of the garden of his house.
There were no signals on the line; the train control system was train staff and ticket with two sections, broken at Sidlesham.
Inundation of 1910 A fierce and prolonged storm took place in December 1910, culminating in a breach of the sea wall during the night of 15 December. of land were flooded, including the railway line north of Ferry. Part of the line was said to be under 12 feet of water.
During the inundation, trains ran from each end of the line, and a horse-drawn omnibus operated in the gap, from Mill Pond Halt to Ferry station. At this time the company was relatively prosperous, and had the resources to raise the line by up to over a considerable length.
After 1919 Following the end of the First World War, independent operators of road lorries, and, gradually, road passenger vehicles, became numerous, and the inconvenience of using the tramway became prominent: agricultural produce and supplies needed to be carted to and from the tramway station, and the thinly distributed population were more easily serviced by a road vehicle, especially when that could run to the centre of Chichester or direct to the LB&SCR station there. Traffic declined seriously in the 1920s.
In 1924 the company changed its name to West Sussex Railway (Tramway Section) in 1924. Mitchell and Smith suggest that this was a preliminary to securing a takeover by the Southern Railway, the successor to the LB&SCR. The Southern Railway considered the matter but declined to proceed. Southdown Motor Services had been formed in 1915 and was running timetabled bus services locally, and increasingly passengers preferred to take the bus—at a higher fare—and passenger receipts declined further.Selsey Tramway on the H F Stephens Museum website
Year Passengers Receipts 1919 102,292 £3,912 1924 31,352 £949 1929 22,676 £557 1933 21,088 £427
During this period freight traffic remained relatively steady at about £2,000 a year.
Steam locomotives The following steam locomotives were used on the line: Name Number Builder Datebuilt Wheelarrangement Drivingwheels Cylinders Boilerpressure Notes Selsey 2 Peckett and Sons 1897 2-4-2T 2 ft 9in 10" x 15" 140 psi New Sidlesham 3 or 2 Manning Wardle 1861 0-6-0ST 3 ft 2in 11" x 17" 120 psi Ex-industrial Hesperus 4 or 2 Neilson and Company 1871 or 1872 0-4-2ST 3 ft 1in 10" x 18" 90 psi Ex-PDSWJR Ringing Rock 5 or 2 Manning Wardle 1883 0-6-0ST 3 ft 2in 12" x 17" 120 psi Ex-industrial Chichester (first) 1 or 3 Dodds of Rotherhamc 1865 0-4-2ST 3 ft 6in 11" x 18" 120 psiBuilt as 0-6-0ST Chichester (second) 6 or 4 Hudswell Clarke 1903 0-6-0ST 3 ft 1in 12" x 18" 120 psi Ex-industrial Morous 7 or 4 Manning Wardle 1866 0-6-0ST 3 ft 2in 11" x 17" 120 psi Ex-SMR