The Horton Light Railway was built in 1905 to transport materials for building London County Council's Long Grove Asylum to the west of the English town of Epsom. It never (officially) carried passengers, its main purpose being to carry building materials and coal and other supplies to Long Grove and the other psychiatric hospitals in the Epsom Cluster. The railway connected with the mainline network near to Ewell West railway station.
Hospital construction
Up to nine hundred workers travelled from Waterloo station to Ewell West station every day to build the hospitals. The workers had to walk the two and a half miles from Ewell West station to the hospitals as passengers were not permitted to be carried on the railway.
Locomotives
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It was a standard gauge light railway built by Forster & Dicksee with the help of a "Puffing Billy".[1] Other locomotives used on the line included "Crossness", "Hendon" and "Sherwood".
The site today
The railway closed and the track was lifted circa 1950. The trackbed is now used as a walking and riding path through Horton Country Park.
References
- ^ "Letters 18". Industrial Railway Society. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
External links