London, Brighton and South Coast Railway

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB & SCR, commonly referred to as the Brighton line known) was a British railway company that existed from 1846 to 1922. Their territory was formed about a triangle with London at the top and almost the entire coastline of Sussex as a base. It was on the west by the stretching of the London and South Western Railway ( LSWR ) limited, to the east by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway ( SE & CR). The LB & SCR offered the most direct connections to the seaside resorts of the south coast, such as Brighton, Eastbourne and Worthing. In the southern suburbs of London there was a complex network of suburban lines.

History

The first lines of the LB & SCR were first operated by two different companies:

• The London and Croydon Railway in 1835 (L & CR) built a line from London Bridge to West Croydon, which was opened on 15 June 1839.
• The London and Brighton Railway ( L & BR) was founded in 1837 and opened in sections: Brighton - Shoreham- by-Sea on 12 May 1840 Norwood ( joint station with the L & CR) - Haywards Heath on 12 July 1841 Haywards Heath - Brighton on 21 September 1841.

The two companies merged on 27 July 1846. The main stations of the Company in London were Victoria and London Bridge. With the entry into force of the Railways Act 1921, the LB & SCR was merged on January 1, 1923, together with the LSWR and the SE & CR for Southern Railway. Some steam locomotives of the LB & SCR are still on museum railways in operation.

With the electrification of the LB & SCR was one of the pioneers in the UK. As early as 1903 she received permission to rebuild the suburban lines. Although the routes of the Midland Railway from Lancaster to Morecambe and Heysham had already been changed previously, the LB & SCR was at the changeover before more consistently and had a much larger network of electrified railway lines as the Midland Railway. Both companies have opted for a system with catenary and 6600 volts AC, the main supplier was the AEG in Berlin. However, the overhead network lasted only a few years since the London and South Western Railway in equipping a system with busbars and their power was far greater than that of the LB & SCR. After the merger, the former LB & SCR were also equipped routes with bus bars.