Southern Railway/Region DC Overhead in Yards Question - Which ones and Which Years

Kentish RYS · 22 Sep 2026

Pretty much as the title suggests, as a quick search only gives some vague answers;

The Southern Railway/Region DC Overhead in Yards for use by what BR called the class 70 & 71 (were there more than these 2?)
Which yards were fitted? As I have found articles that say among or including but no full lists
When was it first installed and how long did it last? Obviously the class 73 with a small diesel engine & the MLVs with batteries for yards was the alternative idea so presumably not tremendously long lasting?

RailUK Forums

eastwestdivide · 22 Sep 2026

A quick search for "southern region overhead" took me here, a maker of model overhead equipment

SR/Southern Region ‘Tram/Trolley’ style overhead cantilever mast kits available from West Hill Wagon Works in 00 gauge

West Hill Wagon Works have released SR/Southern Region ‘Tram/trolley’ style lightweight overhead cantilever mast kits in 00 Gauge. To enable the Bulleid Raworth Booster and class 71 el…

southern-railway.com

from which

750v DC overhead catenary was, in 1941, installed at Brighton and Balcombe initially for testing CC1/2. The overhead was later installed at Angerstein Wharf, Betteshanger Colliery, Bricklayers Arms, Deal, Dover Town, Faversham, Hither Green Goods, Hoo Junction, Maidstone West, Plumstead, Shepherdswell, Sittingbourne, and Snowdown Colliery.

I'm kind of surprised it didn't list Norwood Junction, as an important Brighton line yard, when CC1/2 (20001/2) were predominantly on that route.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2026 ==

Also some extra info on this old thread at rmweb:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/104612-srsouthern-region-overhead-electrification-equipment/

Gloster · 22 Sep 2026

By the time the wires were put up the first of the SR’s 350 hp shunters had gone to Norwood Junction and could be used (even though the War Department took them), although so could a steam loco. My understanding is that the wires were installed at locations where there was a fair amount of traffic that could best be handled by electric locos, but where it wasn’t worth basing a steam shunter.

contrex · 22 Sep 2026

eastwestdivide said:
A quick search for "southern region overhead" took me here, a maker of model overhead equipment

SR/Southern Region ‘Tram/Trolley’ style overhead cantilever mast kits available from West Hill Wagon Works in 00 gauge

West Hill Wagon Works have released SR/Southern Region ‘Tram/trolley’ style lightweight overhead cantilever mast kits in 00 Gauge. To enable the Bulleid Raworth Booster and class 71 el…

southern-railway.com

from which

I'm kind of surprised it didn't list Norwood Junction, as an important Brighton line yard, when CC1/2 (20001/2) were predominantly on that route.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 22 Sep 2026 ==

Also some extra info on this old thread at rmweb:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/104612-srsouthern-region-overhead-electrification-equipment/

Coincidentally, I'm reading 'The Story of the Big Four Railway Companies' by Colin Maggs (2022), and in the 'Southern Electric' chapter, he wrote:

In 1942 a Co-Co electric locomotive No CC1 appeared [...] Two more of the class were built and were used on trains varying from a heavy freight to a Newhaven boat express. The catenaries over goods yards never appeared.

Did he not do enough research, or is there some definition of a 'goods yard' that he may have used, or were the wires put up in BR days and thus nominally outside the scope of the book?

Rescars · 22 Sep 2026

Was the idea that the entire yard could be shunted by the electric loco, without involving any other motive power? Presumably the wiring had to extend beyond the yard perimeter, at least far enough for the electric loco to pick up the third rail.

Taunton · 22 Sep 2026

Strangely there were hardly any electric locomotives to use such wires. The interval between the first E5000 loco (the couple previously being experiments) and the first Electro-diesel (when they realised that was the better way) was just a couple of years. Steam lasted surprisingly late in the electrified areas, and they moved on to diesel for anything not mainstream passenger services. I remember passing Snowdown colliery in Kent in the late 1970s and it still having wires, but wonder what had ever used them.

There was however wiring elsewhere in the country that was hardly, if ever, used by electric locos. The big installation all across Basford Hall yard at Crewe seemed likewise always shunted by diesel shunters.

marshlinker · 22 Sep 2026

Rescars said:
Was the idea that the entire yard could be shunted by the electric loco, without involving any other motive power? Presumably the wiring had to extend beyond the yard perimeter, at least far enough for the electric loco to pick up the third rail.

Think here in East Kent it was mostly used in Colliery Exchange sidings and associated yards so that the mainline engine could pull the coal train out on to the third rail. The shunting having already been completed by steam engines.

Kentish RYS · 22 Sep 2026

Thanks all, interesting info! And interesting how short lived it was in use

eastwestdivide said:
A quick search for "southern region overhead" took me here, a maker of model overhead equipment

I tried the exact search term and didn't get what you did, so I'm obviously not using the same search engine!

Rescars · 22 Sep 2026

marshlinker said:
Think here in East Kent it was mostly used in Colliery Exchange sidings and associated yards so that the mainline engine could pull the coal train out on to the third rail. The shunting having already been completed by steam engines.

This makes good sense. Difficult to see how a colliery could load wagons easily with tramway style OHE potentially getting in the way.

norbitonflyer · 22 Sep 2026

Taunton said:
Strangely there were hardly any electric locomotives to use such wires. The interval between the first E5000 loco (the couple previously being experiments) and the first Electro-diesel (when they realised that was the better way) was just a couple of years.

The ectro diesels did arrive shortly after the E5000s, but I'm fairly sure i saw the wires still up at Hither Green in the late 70s

30907 · 22 Sep 2026

contrex said:
Coincidentally, I'm reading 'The Story of the Big Four Railway Companies' by Colin Maggs (2022), and in the 'Southern Electric' chapter, he wrote:

Did he not do enough research, or is there some definition of a 'goods yard' that he may have used, or were the wires put up in BR days and thus nominally outside the scope of the book?

The context is CC1/2 and overhead wires never appeared on their patch - the Kent Coast project was 17 years later.
Not sure about Lovers' Walk though

Harlequinuk · 24 Sep 2026

Brighton Station Approaches, Mar/Apr 1965

Lovers Walk sidings, Brighton Station, Sussex, England. Between 28 Mar & 9 Apr 1965 (inclusive) 65C005_01

www.flickr.com

The poles on the right hand side were for the dc overhead at Lovers Walk

testertrev · 25 Sep 2026

SREmG

Enthusiasts, Historians, and Modellers of the Southern Railway, including its predecessors and successors, corresponding over the internet.

sremg.org.uk

Rescars · 25 Sep 2026

Just a thought, but I assume no parts of the LBSC DC OHE was reused in the SR yard installations. IIRC a few masts survived for a long time after the LBSC lines were converted to third rail.

John Webb · 25 Sep 2026

Angerstein Wharf is mentioned on the model maker's site linked to in post #2. According to "Charing Cross to Dartford" (V Mitchell and K Smith, Middleton Press, 1990) the OLE was installed on this branch in 1959 and removed in 1976. A diagram in the same book shows the branch was electrified by third rail for the first 600 feet and then 530ft of OLE covering basically the reception and departure loop. No other part of the branch was electrified. I recall seeing more class C 0-6-0 goods engines on the branch than I did electric locos up to 1964, when I stopped passing along that road after leaving school.
The same book makes no mention of any OLE at Plumstead goods yard although I have memories of seeing it.

Southern Railway/Region DC Overhead in Yards Question - Which ones and Which Years

Kentish RYS

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eastwestdivide

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SR/Southern Region ‘Tram/Trolley’ style overhead cantilever mast kits available from West Hill Wagon Works in 00 gauge

Gloster

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contrex

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SR/Southern Region ‘Tram/Trolley’ style overhead cantilever mast kits available from West Hill Wagon Works in 00 gauge

Rescars

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Taunton

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marshlinker

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Kentish RYS

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Rescars

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norbitonflyer

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30907

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Harlequinuk

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Brighton Station Approaches, Mar/Apr 1965

testertrev

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