ELECTRIFICATION OF THE RAILWAY Jeremy Knight from Horsham Museum & Art Gallery has written this article on how the trains were electrified and the impact it had on Horsham
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oday we take electric trains for granted. In fact it is a bit of a shock to find, when travelling north, that the trains are still diesel as the line to Horsham has been electric for over 80 years. It is equally remarkable that such a large investment was made in electrifying the railway in the years following the Great Depression. However, electrification went hand in hand with the growing housing market, and the expansion of the entire electric grid, as electricity began to power industry and not be used simply for lighting. In effect the electrification of the railways provided the core infrastructure for commuters in a distinct contrast to today’s ever expanding road network. As accounts of the day show, electrification wasn’t straightforward, and did take some time to reach fruition. The whole question of electrification was not as simple as an outsider would imagine. For a start, what method do you use; the third line, or overhead cables? Overhead cables were safer for maintenance workers who might stumble on the
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track, and reduced the risk of conductor rail icing up and breaking the contact. However, the third rail was a lot cheaper and a lot of the South Eastern rail network had been built cheaply and as such many tunnels and road bridges didn’t have the headroom to take the overhead wiring. “The third-rail system therefore had the advantage that it could be applied throughout the Southern Railway and, since it was cheaper and simpler to fit” therefore, it was adopted. One of the first lines to be electrified was Waterloo to Guilford and Dorking, which was completed in 1925. There was then a 12 year hiatus before the line was electrified to Horsham and beyond. But why change to electrically powered railways? After all this was not an era of green thinking. Electrification “allowed for much faster acceleration and breaking, which meant that capacity on the railway could be greatly increased and trains could call at more stops within the same timetable”. In addition every line that was
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