Every day I drive past this old railway which I never saw in action
but have often heard about:

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/...ht_railway.htm

....but the map of 1932 doesn't show the original track to Long Grove.
Does anyone know exactly where it went and if there are any traces? It
ought to be visible from the air:

http://tinyurl.com/4xhvu

‘Puffing Billy' ran down and killed 64-year-old Mary Tobin at the Hook
Road crossing...

....but where was that crossing?

Troy Steadman wrote:
Every day I drive past this old railway which I never saw in action
but have often heard about:

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/...ht_railway.htm

...but the map of 1932 doesn't show the original track to Long
Grove. Does anyone know exactly where it went and if there are any
traces? It ought to be visible from the air:

http://tinyurl.com/4xhvu

Not sure if it helps your search, but there's a higher-resolution aerial
photo on Streetmap at
http://tinyurl.com/4zx4o


--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

In message , Troy
Steadman writes

Every day I drive past this old railway which I never saw in action
but have often heard about:

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/...ht_railway.htm

...but the map of 1932 doesn't show the original track to Long Grove.

The original route is shown in "Epsom's Hospital Railway" by R. I. Essen
(1991) - I got my copy from Pullinger's (who published it) in Epsom High
Street. I don't think they are still there, but other local bookshops
might have it, and I expect Epsom library will have a copy.

Does anyone know exactly where it went and if there are any traces?

The route skirted the grounds of St Ebba's (i.e. south of the later
Horton Light Railway), crossed Hook Road just north of its junction with
Horton lane, then it turned sharply SW in order to skirt the NW edge of
Great Wood and then finally enter the Long Grove site.

It ought to be visible from the air:

I can't see any obvious remains. The area has been ploughed up and parts
re-developed many times since 1907. And remember that the original was
only a contractor's railway which would have been lightly laid with no
substantial earthworks.

‘Puffing Billy' ran down and killed 64-year -old Mary Tobin at the
Hook Road crossing...

...but where was that crossing?

I would say about he

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.sr...app=newmap.srf

--
Paul Terry

"Richard J." wrote in message
. uk

Troy Steadman wrote:
Every day I drive past this old railway which I never saw in action
but have often heard about:

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/...ht_railway.htm

...but the map of 1932 doesn't show the original track to Long
Grove. Does anyone know exactly where it went and if there are any
traces? It ought to be visible from the air:

http://tinyurl.com/4xhvu

Not sure if it helps your search, but there's a higher-resolution aerial
photo on Streetmap at
http://tinyurl.com/4zx4o

Thanks, I went down there today and walked the fields but still no
trace. There's only one way it can senibly have proceeded, straight on
at the "kink" where the rails dive off to the right for the later
bridge (which is still there), and then in a shallow loop to join up
with the "spur" shown at Long Grove on the 1932 map.

Couldn't find the "bridge over the Hogsmill" or the "gate on to the
mainline" mentioned on the website. The country park proper is lovely
but *very* muddy in winter.




--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

In message , Troy
Steadman writes

‘Puffing Billy' ran down and killed 64-year-old Mary Tobin at the Hook
Road crossing...

...but where was that crossing?

Further to my earlier post, I see that the area is now called Tobin's
Copse on the map at:

http://www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/epsom/...ges/hcpmap.htm

--
Paul Terry

"Paul Terry" wrote in message


In message , Troy
Steadman writes

‘Puffing Billy' ran down and killed 64-year-old Mary Tobin at the Hook
Road crossing...

...but where was that crossing?

Further to my earlier post, I see that the area is now called Tobin's
Copse on the map at:

http://www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/epsom/...ges/hcpmap.htm

I've read "Epsom's Hospital Railway" by R. I. Essen several times (it's
in all the local libraries) and although it is a good book I could
never reconcile his rather crude diagram to the geography of the area.

Mind you I think I had assumed the houses predated the railway, it is
amazing what an empty place Surrey was around the turn of the century:

click "Ewell" at:

http://www.old-maps.co.uk/gazetteer/...urr341gazE.htm

then "Enlarged view"

In Richard’s high resolution aerial view there is a prominent line south
and west of the Horton track, which is highly visible in the field
itself and doesn’t seem to go from anywhere to anywhere, reaches Hook
Road about where it ought to, but how could it then merge into the
Horton line before Gibraltar as R. I. Essen alleges it did?

Back to the library in the morning, thanks for all your help.







--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

In message , Paul Terry
writes
In message , Troy
Steadman writes

‘Puffing Billy' ran down and killed 64-year-old Mary Tobin at the Hook
Road crossing...

...but where was that crossing?

Further to my earlier post, I see that the area is now called Tobin's
Copse on the map at:

Is that a typo for 'Tobin's Corpse'?

http://www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/epsom/...ges/hcpmap.htm

Mike
--
M.J.Powell

In message
ilgate.org, Troy
Steadman writes

I've read "Epsom's Hospital Railway" by R. I. Essen several times (it's
in all the local libraries) and although it is a good book I could
never reconcile his rather crude diagram to the geography of the area.

His route for the Horton line matches my 1932 Bartholomew's atlas of the
area pretty exactly. Unfortunately there is absolutely no sign of the
original Long Grove line in that atlas.

--
Paul Terry

Troy Steadman wrote:
Every day I drive past this old railway which I never saw in action
but have often heard about:

http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/...ht_railway.htm

...but the map of 1932 doesn't show the original track to Long Grove.
Does anyone know exactly where it went and if there are any traces? It
ought to be visible from the air:


The bridge under Hook Road was still there until a few years ago. One
side of the road is Hook Road Arena, the other is a golf driving range
but the bridge was fenced off and not used (it might even have been
filled in underneath)

Recently though they've totally remodelled the road layout in the area,
including the juction of Hook and Chessington Roads and the 'bridge' has
gone

Stuart wrote:

Recently though they've totally remodelled the road layout in the area,
including the juction of Hook and Chessington Roads and the 'bridge' has
gone


Alhough looking at the multimap aerial photo the new road is just to the
left of the old one, so it might still be there