European Railroad Discussion > A country station

Dormans - formerly Dormansland - is the penultimate station on the Croydon, Oxted and East Grinstead, situated 28 miles south of London. It's a very good example of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's domestic style of architecture and is representative of the high standard of station construction the Brighton employed. The platforms are rather utilitarian today, they would have had more substantial buildings in the past. The train is the 17:11 to Victoria (17:07 ex East Grinstead).

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Thank you Nick for an interesting set of pictures and story!

Outside third rail?

boejoe Wrote:
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> Outside third rail?

Yes, laid in the mid 1980s, one of the more recent extensions of the Southern Electric network.

I can't recall ever seeing uncovered 3rd rail before. My experience in the USA such as Long Island Rail Road, Hudson & Manhattan, Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and many other large city subway/surface mass transit systems all had protective covering over the electrified rail for safety reasons.

Is the voltage here 750V and DC?

boejoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can't recall ever seeing uncovered 3rd rail
> before. My experience in the USA such as Long
> Island Rail Road, Hudson & Manhattan,
> Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and many other
> large city subway/surface mass transit systems all
> had protective covering over the electrified rail
> for safety reasons.


Chicago subway/el is uncovered

boejoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can't recall ever seeing uncovered 3rd rail
> before. My experience in the USA such as Long
> Island Rail Road, Hudson & Manhattan,
> Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and many other
> large city subway/surface mass transit psystems all
> had protective covering over the electrified rail
> for safety reasons.

The Southern and the London Underground have always used an uncovered, over running conductor rail system, it may have something to do with our right of way being fenced. Indeed apart from the 1200v side contact system used on the Manchester to Bury electrification ALL third rail systems in Britain were over running and uncovered.

Today the Southern remains the largest third rail electrification in the world, with over 1000 track miles, the longest route is 150 miles from London to Weymouth.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/14 13:27 by 86235.

boejoe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can't recall ever seeing uncovered 3rd rail
> before. My experience in the USA such as Long
> Island Rail Road, Hudson & Manhattan,
> Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and many other
> large city subway/surface mass transit systems all
> had protective covering over the electrified rail
> for safety reasons.

Actually other than the lines in NY and Philly historically third rail in the states has never been covered. CTA and MBTA are not covered today. Most of the third rail interurbans were not covered including the L&WV in Pennsylvania. I don't count any of the modern installations as the consultants involved in the designs all came from NY.

So, is this 1200V DC too?

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> boejoe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I can't recall ever seeing uncovered 3rd rail
> > before. My experience in the USA such as Long
> > Island Rail Road, Hudson & Manhattan,
> > Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines and many
> other
> > large city subway/surface mass transit psystems
> all
> > had protective covering over the electrified
> rail
> > for safety reasons.
>
> The Southern and the London Underground have
> always used an uncovered, over running conductor
> rail system, it may have something to do with our
> right of way being fenced. Indeed apart from the
> 1200v side contact system used on the Manchester
> to Bury electrification ALL third rail systems in
> Britain were over running and uncovered.
>
> Today the Southern remains the largest third rail
> electrification in the world, with over 1000 track
> miles, the longest route is 150 miles from London
> to Weymouth.

The Southern Electrification is primarily 750V DC, with a few minor lines still at 650V. The voltage on the most important lines was raised to cope with longer and heavier trains after WW2.

A railway map showing lines in the UK that are electrified can be found here -

http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/map.php?file=maps/british-isles/british-isles.gif

The south of England (London area) can be seen here -

http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/map.php?file=maps/london-area/london-area.gif

The main page showing all the maps can be found here -

http://www.bueker.net/trainspotting/maps.php

Note: this site was last updated in 2010 so some of these maps may be out of date.