Salfords in Surrey

18th November 2008

Salfords (not to be confused with the City of Salford) is a village in Surrey which straggles along the A23 between Redhill and Gatwick Airport. Ignored by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway it was left to the Southern Railway to open a halt on the slow lines in the 1920s. Today not much has changed, the old SR buildings on the Up platform remain intact (and in use) and the service is still pretty basic, an hourly train to London Bridge and Horsham.

Up until relatively recently Salfords also saw a fair amount of freight traffic; aviation fuel for Gatwick Airport and a stone terminal served by trains of sea dredged aggregate from both Newhaven and Cliffe. Today there is little sign of the fuel storage tanks and the aggregate terminal hasn't been served since August 2007. Still, we live in hope.

These pictures were taken on Tuesday 18th November from both the footbridge which spans the mainline and from the north end of the down platform, all taken in 3/4 of an hour around about lunchtime.

A southbound FCC 319 heading into the sun-light. The hills behind are a combination of the North Downs and the Upper Greensand Ridge. 3589x2387 20081118_01.jpg	Hot on the heels of the 319 came this 460, in Emirates advertising livery. 3836x2532 20081118_02.jpg	Tuesday's 7Y36 was running on time, following the 13:02 Victoria to Bognor and Portsmouth Harbour semi-fast. 4004x2696 20081118_03.jpg	Passing the freight yard on the right, the Lower Greensand Ridge forms the hills in the background. 3956x2444 20081118_04.jpg
A pair of Southern 377s on a Littlehampton/Ore semi-fast. 3808x2588 20081118_05.jpg	It's easy to catch two or three trains in a picture on the Brighton mainline. There are three here. A northbound Southern 377 has just passed signal T222, it's hidden behind the 166. The 319s are running late, signalling problems at Hassocks are causing problems on the Brighton Line today. 3776x2572 20081118_06.jpg	And finally, just before my train back to Crawley, another class 460 speeds towards Gatwick Airport. 3988x2580 20081118_07.jpg