Pulborough
| Pulborough is one of those many stations that had a glorious
past, but has now been reduced to a very simple status. Opening as part of the
LB&SC's extension from Horsham to Petworth on 15th October 1859, it soon
developed as the railway grew. In 1863 a new line opened, leaving the existing
one at Hardham, just south of Pulborough, for Arundel and, eventually, the west
coast line. Once this happened the main line ran from Pulborough to Arundel
with the line to Petworth (eventually, in 1866, to Midhurst) worked as a branch
starting from Pulborough, which then developed sidings on both sides of the
line and locomotive servicing facilities, including a turntable. The trains for
the Midhurst branch used a bay platform that was connected to the up line at
both ends, this platform seeing life after the closure of the branch to
passenger traffic in 1964 as one EMU from London each weekday evening
terminated at Pulborough, until the 1967 "new" timetable, and left as
an up service the following morning.
The formation of the Southern Railway ended one of those silly territorial situations so common on our railways and, at the same time, increased the importance of Pulborough. The L&SW had reached Midhurst from Petersfield in 1864, to their own station half a mile from the proposed Brighton one, and on the opposite side of the road. A connecting line was built in 1866 but it crossed a very weak bridge so locomotives were prohibited from using it! In 1925 the SR strengthened the bridge and from 12th July that year commenced a service from Pulborough to Petersfield which lasted until 5th February 1955 after which all traffic ceased on the Midhurst-Petersfield section and only the occasional goods or ramblers' special worked through to Midhurst. From 1963 the goods service was cut back to Petworth until final closure on 2nd May 1966. Pulborough station now has just an up line and a down line, but you can still see where the up sidings and the turntable were. |
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The station building is on the left with the former goods shed on the right
with its external canopy still extant. The windows in the goods shed are the
same type as at Billingshurst.
photograph by Glen Woods |
| Pulborough Signalbox, showing its many hanging baskets. A
little to the left of here was a large water tank and coaling facilities for
the engines.
photograph by Glen Woods |
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4-Cig 1704 calls at Pulborough whilst working the 1:32pm Victoria to
Chichester. The bay on the up side was where the Midhurst/Petersfield trains
once terminated.
photograph by Glen Woods |
| The up side platform showing the rise in platform level when
it was extended towards Amberley to accomodate 12 car trains. The down platform
was extended at the London end of the station.
photograph by Glen Woods |
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This page was last updated 3 December 2002
