Last days of the Cranleigh branch line

Bullied Q1 class 0-6-0 33006 with a special farewell train.

THIS weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the last trains to run on the Guildford to Horsham line. And this week we feature some nostalgic pictures from those final days.

The branch line, which opened in 1865 and operated for just under 100 years, was axed as part of the infamous Dr Richard Beeching's cuts to Britain's railways in the 1960s. Sadly, it was one of those routes that had seen a sharp decline in usage as both passengers and freight made the change to road travel instead. It was losing money and therefore had to go.

The last scheduled service train from Guildford to Horsham at Bramley and Wonersh station.

With hindsight, perhaps the track should not have been ripped up, considering the volume of motor vehicles on the A281 today. The line ran through the villages of Bramley and Cranleigh and since its closure plans have been put forward on several occasions to reinstate it as a light railway.

The overall feasibility of the scheme, plus opposition from some quarters, means it still remains a dream for those campaigning for it. However, the trackbed remains and forms part of the popular Downs Link footpath.

Class 2 2-6-2T loco 41301 at Baynards station.

The line was built by the Horsham & Guildford Direct Railway, but was taken over and run by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway until 1923, when the Southern Railway was formed.

Most people will remember it in the days of British Railways and those final years with several Class 2 2-6-0 black tank engines pulling three green coaches.

A train pulls into Bramley station.

Baynards station has been preserved and is now a private residence.

The northern end of the tunnel has been completely filled in, but the entrance at the southern end can be found, deep within the woods near the county border. Until more recent times it was possible to gain access to the 381-yard long tunnel. However, the entrance is now barred.

A train leaves Bramley station.

RICHARD Christophers, who took these colour photographs of the railway at Bramley, lived in the village from 1939 and commuted regularly on the train from 1958 until closure.

He recalled that his first annual season ticket in 1959 cost about £57 and he still has the cutting from the Surrey Advertiser of March 14, 1964, reporting the inquiry into the proposed closure of the line that was held in Cranleigh and at which he and many others “objected fruitlessly”.

One of the last trains at Bramley.

A number of the photographs featured in this article (including the two above)  have been supplied by the Photos From The Fifties photographic archive.

This is run by Hugh Davies, who occasionally travelled on the line with his wife Jean to shop in Horsham.

The archive has been operating for 32 years and consists of nearly 90,000 negatives of black and white photographs taken by 12 enthusiasts, mostly members of the Railway Enthusiasts Club, from about 1947 to about 1965. Most were taken before the widespread closures of railways in the mid-1950s. “We specialise in branch lines, but most transport subjects are covered – main lines, locomotives, signalling, industrial railways, narrow gauge, trams, buses and all sorts of related subjects,” explained Mr Davies.

Guildford station, Whitsun 1965.

Pictured here is Surrey Advertiser chief sub-editor David Rose at the tender age of five on Guildford station with his dad looking at a train from the “Cranleigh line”.

David says: “We never knew this picture was being taken of us, but some years later it appeared in a book titled Steam Portfolio, published by Ian Allen. The photo was taken by Roderick Hoyle.

“The photo was taken at  Whitsun 1965, so this must have been a few weeks before the branch closed.