The London, Tilbury and Southend Railway (LT&SR), was a British railway company, whose network connected Fenchurch Street station, in central London, with destinations in east London and Essex, including , , , Tilbury, Southend and . The company and its assets were sold to the Midland Railway in 1912. The network over which they operated is largely intact and is currently operated as part of c2c.
History Prior to opening In the mid-18th century south Essex was a thinly populated area, and Barking, Southend and Leigh-on-sea were little more than villages.
In June 1840 the London and Blackwall Railway (L&BR) started operation from Blackwall to a station called Minories and after a year this was extended to Fenchurch Street which was located close to the Tower of London. A month later in July 1840, the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) opened their new station at Spitalfields and commenced running services to Brentwood and by 1843 this line had been extended to Colchester. The London and Blackwall Extension Railway (LBER), was opened from Stepney (now Limehouse) linking to the Eastern Counties Railway at Bow was opened in 1849. Unfortunately agreement between the L&BR and the ECR about operation of the services over the LBER could not be reached so the actual junction was not completed. An interchange station called Victoria Park and Bow was opened, but the ECR stopped few services there so most services terminated at Bromley and Bow. Services were withdrawn from Victoria Park and Bow on 6 January 1851.
Bills The first railway proposed in 1835–6 was the Southend and Hole-Haven Railway which was opposed by another nascent railway company - the Thames Haven Dock and Railway Company. This company presented a bill in 1842 linking Stepney to Southend with a branch from South Ockendon to Tilbury which failed and their attempts to get the bills presented in the 1843 and 1844 parliamentary sessions foundered due to lack of funds. The ECR also considered presenting an act in 1844 but it was not until 1846 that four separate schemes were presented to Parliament that the idea gained any real traction.
The four schemes were:
The London and South Essex Railway The London and Southend Railway Eastern Counties and Southend Railway The North Gravesend railway.
The North Gravesend Railway was so named as it ran to Tilbury where a ferry would connect across the Thames to Gravesend in Kent. This line would have had a junction with another line being built to North Woolwich in London. It was notable in that it did not have any plans for Southend whilst the Eastern Counties and Southend Railway and London & South Essex Railway schemes had branches to both. The London and Southend Railway only had a Southend line proposed with a junction at Shenfield. As it was none of these passed and in 1847, the ECR presented the Eastern Counties Extension bill which had a new junction on the Eastern Counties main line at Forest Gate. The bill was suspended in 1847 due to a log jam of schemes and in 1848 due to irregularities in the subscription list the bill was withdrawn. 1848 saw a slump in such schemes and it was not until 1851 that the L&BR presented a bill linking their railway at Gas Factory Junction and thence via the ECR to a new junction at Forest Gate with a line via Stratford, Barking, Rainham, Purfleet, Grays and Tilbury Fort.
The early 1851 bill was thrown out because of concerns over the lease clauses that Samuel Morton Peto and Thomas Brassey were putting forward. George Parker Bidder however kept the momentum going between the L&BR and the ECR and by October they had agreed a bid round a line from Forest Gate Junction to Southend via Tilbury. The new bill promoted by both railways was presented in November 1851 and was known as the London Tilbury and Southend Extension Railway bill. The line would be double track as far as Tilbury and single track onwards to Southend and included a single line branch to Thames Haven (although this was dropped during the passage of the bill). The line was to be managed by a committee of four ECR and four L&BR directors but there were no actual shareholder directors.
After several months of back and forth negotiations which included the completion of the junction at Bow to allow a through route from Stratford, a third line from Stepney to Fenchurch Street and additional platforms being provided at that station, the bill finally got royal assent on 17 June 1852 as the (15 & 16 Vict. c. lxxxiv).
Joint committee
The following ECR directors sat on the committee
Lord Alfred Paget David Waddington – then the chairman of the ECR Richard Patterson – deputy chairman ECR Samuel Anderson
The L&BR directors were
James Nugent Daniel – chairman L&BR William Haigh – deputy chairman L&BR Joseph Bishop Josiah Wilson
Other notable figures were Bidder (Engineer), William Tite architect and Arthur Wightman (Superintendent and Traffic Manager).
The joint committee (JC) entered into a £400,000 contract with Peto, Brassey and Betts to build and manage the line for a period of 25 (later reduced to 21) years.
Construction and opening The railway was authorised in 1852 and work started about September 1852 on the Forest Gate to Tilbury section. The countryside was mostly flat and with the exception of a reasonably substantial cutting at Forest Gate there were only three other short cutting on the route. As part of the work dredging was undertaken between Gravesend and Tilbury and new pontoons for the ferries provided.
In parallel with the work on the line the ECR were preparing a third line between Stratford and Bow and the disputed junction at Bow was finally being connected to allow the LT&SR and ECR Woodford and Loughton services to access Fenchurch Street. The third line and new junctions were finished in February 1854. A special train ran on 11 April 1854 from Fenchurch Street to Tilbury which was the day of the formal Board of Trade inspection. Full services to the public began on 13 April 1854 with all Tilbury trains splitting at Stratford into a Bishopsgate and Fenchurch Street portion to reflect the joint ownership of the ECR and L&BR.
Work meanwhile was proceeding on the line to Southend via Stanford-le-hope and Pitsea. Predicted construction difficulties, among other reasons, saw a different (cheaper) route selected. Three miles of work had been done east of Tilbury by April 1854 and construction proceeded apace to allow opening to Leigh-on-Sea on 1 July 1855 with new intermediate stations at Benfleet and Pitsea. The line was built as single track with a passing loop at Pitsea but the Board of Trade official took a dislike to the arrangements, so a second track was built and opened in May 1856. Leigh-on-Sea station was built between the high street and the sea and many properties had their long gardens shortened as a result.
The next section to Southend opened on 1 March 1856 and was built as double track. The station was positioned away from the sea front near the High Street to avoid opposition from residents of the Royal Terrace in Southend. The original London, Tilbury and Southend Extension Railway Act 1852 had the line terminating by the pier, but this was changed by the (17 & 18 Vict. c. cxxxiii).
Finally in this early phase, the branch to Thames Haven was constructed, but this was actually built by the Thames Haven Dock and Railway Authority (THR&DA) who had planned one of the early schemes to Romford with the LBR as early as 1836. The engineer was George Berkley (also the L&BR engineer at this date) and the line was built as a separate contract by Peto, Brassey and Betts. The railway was inspected on 27 April and opened to passengers and goods on 7 June 1855. The line was then sold to the LT&SR on 8 September 1855. The THR&DA still existed but were unable to construct the dock they hoped would bring additional rail traffic and eventually the scheme was abandoned in 1861. There were goods facilities at Thames Haven and a Margate boat train ran until 1880.
Locomotives and coaching stock was leased from the ECR. This stock was built by the ECR under John Viret Gooch and the LT&SR paid mileage costs.
The lessees railway (1854-1875) The arrangements between ECR chairman David Waddington and Peto were being investigated by Horatio Love at the behest of dissatisfied ECR shareholders. One, of several issues, was the rental being paid by the LTSR for the new stock (cost £47,159) built at Stratford Works amounted to £400 per year which was not enough to cover the annual depreciation costs. By February 1856 it looked like Waddington might be forced out by the shareholders but Peto, Brassey, Betts and Bidder bought up large number of shares to ensure his survival. The lessees did agree to pay more money in 1861 on an agreed seven year review of the line.
In October 1855 Peto had approached the LTS Joint Committee for funds to build the Barking Branch linking the LBER at a point north-east of Gas Factory Junction to Barking West Junction. The new line had two purposes:
To avoid Stratford railway station which with the growth of ECR services was becoming increasingly congested. To have an LTSR route free of the ECR should Waddington be deposed and relationships deteriorate between the lessees and the ECR (remember Fenchurch Street was L&BR at this time).
The price of the ECR supporting the bill was extensive with the LTSR still having to pay for the use of the route through Stratford. ECR Fenchurch Street services to North Woolwich and Loughton would have running rights over the line and provide a pair of new curves at Abbey Mills (east of Bromley) to access the North Woolwich line. The (19 & 20 Vict. c. xv) received royal assent in July 1856. The Joint Committee had already appointed Peto, Brassey, Betts to undertake the work which started the same month. Progress was swift and by 31 March 1858 the new line and Abbey Mills south curve was opened. The north curve was never opened and although it periodically was raised in GE/LT&SR meetings, the (38 & 39 Vict. c. lvii) formally abandoned this proposed line.
The connection on the LBER to the LTSR was too far from the Gas Factory Junction signal box, under the rules at that time, for the LTSR junction to be controlled from the Gas Factory Junction signal box. Therefore, an extra box was built in 1858 by the new junction, and the new junction was named Bromley Junction. In 1866 the GER took control of the LBR and LBER, and in 1869 resignalled those lines. This resulted in a new signal box for Gas Factory Junction but closer to the LTSR, and both the old signal box and that at Bromley Junction being closed. To solve the problem of Bromley Junction being too far from the new Gas Factory Junction box, the LTSR points were moved down to the new box, and the LTSR rails gauntletted amongst the LBER rails until they reached the track bed junction. By this method, the new box was able to control both the NLR junction and the LTSR junction. The name Bromley Junction was re-used at the junction on the LTSR at Bromley-by-Bow where the line from the NLR joined, also in 1869. In 1886, the GER built a goods depot at Bow Road which had to connect to the LBER, between the NLR and LTSR junctions. This caused the GER to have to resolve the gauntletted track here. As a result, they built yet another new box which was again a little nearer to the LTSR, and at last they were able to move the LTSR points back to their original position and rid themselves of the gauntletting.
During 1854 through to 1856 the line from Tilbury was extended in stages to Southend finally opening on 1 March 1856.
Waddington resigned in July 1856 (days after the Barking Branch had its royal assent) and was replaced by Horatio Love as ECR chairman. Both sides engaged in presenting schemes to parliament to try and win some advantage but all failed and this effectively finished Peto as a major player in the East Anglian rail scene.