Why did New Beckenham have 3 tracks?

[frankmoh]

Track layout of New Beckenham, 1935, courtesy of David Glasspool from Kentrail

As the title says, why did New Beckenham have 3 tracks at one point? When were they removed?

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Track layout of New Beckenham, 1935, courtesy of David Glasspool from Kentrail

As the title says, why did New Beckenham have 3 tracks at one point? When were they removed?

I was wondering this last night! But I thought it was Bellingham that had this arrangement. Were there ever trains that terminated at Lower Sydenham and reversed there?

 

[frankmoh]

I was wondering this last night! But I thought it was Bellingham that had this arrangement.

Bellingham does still have a 3-track section leading to the station, but it's a siding.

 

[Gloster]

Maps from 1895, 1930 and 1954 all show it as a refuge siding. Probably chosen as the best place to put away a goods off either line that that might get in the way at St John’s.

 

[30907]

Maps from 1895, 1930 and 1954 all show it as a refuge siding. Probably chosen as the best place to put away a goods off either line that that might get in the way at St John’s.

It was a carriage siding for much of its life, not sure when it ceased to be used but pre-Networker.
New Beckenham itself had a centre road (which I assumed the OP was asking about!) - I believe it was used to allow up trains to be combined off both routes.

Confirmed by Hajducki's book: introduced in 1897 when the station was rebuilt, removed after electrification. The space is still there.

I have a vague recollection that the berthing siding was used for the Clock House emergency train (the Chaffinch Brook under that station being extremely prone to flood until about 1960).

 

[Gloster]

It was a carriage siding for much of its life, not sure when it ceased to be used but pre-Networker.
New Beckenham itself had a centre road (which I assumed the OP was asking about!) - I believe it was used to allow up trains to be combined off both routes.

A look at various OS maps shows that the centre road did not appear until after 1894 and had gone by 1930. It looks, although the scale is small, as though it was only connected to the Up road.

The siding to the south appears to have been there both before and after the through road, although it may have been extended slightly at some point. The 1971 box diagram just shows it as ’Up Branch Siding’.