Crowborough 1977

CROWBOROUGH

AND

JARVIS BROOK

(All 4.7.1977 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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Back in 1977 Crowborough station was an impressive place, complete with a fine array of Southern Region signage. Services were provided by first generation DEMUs and the whole place was in a bit of a time warp even then!

The station had of course been on a secondary main line until 8 years before these pics, when the Uckfield to Lewes section was inexplicably closed, converting this useful diversionary route into a long branch line, and cutting off the tradd from the south coast. Nearly 50 years later we are STILL trying to get this short 8 mile section reopened!

crowborough 1977

(Both 4.7.1977 © Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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A couple of shots of Crowborough, on the Uckfield branch. I particularly llike the second shot with its array of BR(S) enamel signs, no doubt worth a fortune today!

This was (is?) a superb large intermediate station on what has been a rather neglected line since it was truncated at Uckfield, but is likely to become far busier when the Uckfield-Lewes section is restored, making this a second through route to Brighton from London, a long overdue move.

More info (from Wikipedia)

Crowborough railway station serves Crowborough in East Sussex, England. Train services from the station are provided by Southern, and the station is on the Uckfield branch of the Oxted Line.

History

The station was opened by the Brighton, Uckfield and Tunbridge Wells Railway on 3 August 1868 and was originally named Rotherfield.^[1] It was renamed several times: to Crowborough on 1 August 1880; to Crowborough and Jarvis Brook on 1 May 1897, before resuming the name Crowborough on 12 May 1980.

The station was also used to transport goods from the nearby brickyard and the old platform still remains, although not used any more. The old track still exists around the goods yard, however, like the platform, these are overgrown and unused.

Services

The typical off-peak service is one train per hour to London Bridge via Oxted and one train per hour to Uckfield.

Annual rail passenger usage
2004/05	0.175 million
2005/06	0.259 million
2006/07	0.324 million
2007/08	0.366 million
2008/09	0.353 million
2009/10	0.325 million
2010/11	0.363 million
2011/12	0.402 million
2012/13	0.406 million