 me today I'm at Grove Park Station in the London borough of Lewisham that way is looking towards central London and that way where the past 465 just went that's going towards Tunbridge. Come here today to do another episode of Branchline Britain because here is where the Bromley North branch starts it's a little self-contained little branch line just over there but this these platforms here this is the Southeastern Mainline so going towards Dover and Hastings this opened in 1871 but it's the branch that was opened in 1878 that we've come here to see so there's four platforms on the Mainline two island platforms we come down here onto platform one and this is the little branch platform where I've just painted the footbridge it seems to have bits of its roof missing but other than that it does look really nice to see it painted we're about a mess so you can actually see you know the lattice footbridge which is really nice so we come down here and this is what we're going to do today we're looking for and look at the Sundridge Park and Bromley North station so for those of you who have seen branchline Britain episodes in the past what we do is we start at the station usually the Mainline junction station and then we walk to the other end stopping at stations on the way there's another class 465 passing through behind the Palisade fence so you can't see it very well so this is the little branch platform it is connected with and here comes the little branch I say little branch train it's a four car EMU like you get on the Mainline plus 465 465 169 so this is our branch train for today so we're not going to get on it but we will follow it and we'll see a couple of other places along the line for a little branch line I only has one train going up and down it's quite luxury and apart from this section here it's got two tracks there's two platforms at Sundridge Park and there's two platforms at Bromley North it's just this section here where there's only single track up until 1990 there were through trains into London Termini but as the Southwest of Mainline got busier they had to curtail them to this little branch platform it's very long platform you almost could run an 8 possibly even a 10 car train I'm not gonna walk right down to the end but the branch just branch off over there what I think we'll do we'll go round and under the Southeastern Mainline there's a park around the corner so perhaps what we'll do is we're going to have a look at that and that's where we should be able to see where the branch line is that's quite interesting there's two ways you could fewer one of those people like just got the train most of them are going out of the bridge which suggests they are probably changing trains here they're probably Grofark isn't their final destination you can go out of the station that way but there's another bridge which I can see one or two people have taken a more modern bridge at this end of the platform which I quite like because it sort of takes you basically a separate route out to the front of the station so when we get out there that's where I'll go and find that park oh and also the other thing you can come here to do which one they will perhaps do in the future is the green chain walk and the capital ring walk they are things I do plan to do at some point in the future not sure when especially on nice day up today so as we come up the stairs here gives us a view of the rest of growth park station and you can see down there the connection with the main line I think there's a connection in fact pretty short as a connection at the other end just in a very distance see the tunnels on the main line so there's our branch train down there and we follow this sort of long is it a corridor because it's kind of outside or is it just a long bridge bridge like corridor out to front station until 1952 you could have caught a tram here but nearest trams get to here now it's Beckham Junction we'll talk more about trams later because never say never trams may return because there's talk of what to do with the line in the future you can see the long ramps up from the station so it looks as though this station is step 3 except the Bromley North branch because there wasn't a lift was there there's no lift unfortunately to get on to the Bromley North branch but and the rest of the platform the rest of the platforms already were step 3 on our ticket barriers here because I haven't got my travel card to hand Mr Riesling I've to stop filming doesn't look like it I just want to show you this picture this is called Grove Park home of the railway children not sure why that is the railway children goes out about it but maybe the maybe that was written here if anyone knows the link between Grove Park and Railway children do comment and tell me so I said I've got Riesling not touching in or out there aren't a ticket barriers I've got a paper travel card today so I don't need to worry about that you just walk out and so here we are we're outside the front of Grove Park station I'm going to go down to the park now where the line where we'll be able to see the apex or we'll be in between the apex of the two lines I've come away from the hustle and bustle of the railway stations it's rather pleasant park called Chimbrick meadows beside me this is the Quaggy River which flows from on the golf course near Sundridge Park one of the stations on the line about five miles in that direction to join the River Ravensbourne and then that in turn joins the Thames now the southeast and main line is just behind these popper trees and the Quaggy River is going to have to be is culverted underneath so we'll have a look at that and then we'll pass under the railway ourself this river doesn't actually cross the Bromley North Branch there so the Bromley North Branch as I said this line was already here it was added seven years later by the Bromley direct railway company so another company basically to introduce a bit of competition and they're working with Southeastern Railway there was already a railway station what is now Bromley South that was already there there's the Quaggy River so that had opened 20 years prior the Quaggy River now because under this footpath and you can just see the culvert just there so what we're going to do is we're going to follow the path around to where we can go under the railway and hopefully we will find the river on the other side of the main line just coming this way up the path running parallel with the Southeastern Main Line I mentioned the Green Chain Walk there's some signs pointing you in that direction so we'll see more of this in one day I'll actually do a video on the Green Chain Walk so now we're going to walk under the Southeastern Main Line so I said this would have gone to over the other line at Bromley South that was the Southeastern and Chatham Railway so that would have gone to Chatham but you could also get to Dover that way we're nine miles and 22 chains from London from the Terminal I know that because it says it there let's walk through this tunnel now nice and cool on a hot day and then it's when we get to the other side it gives the illusion of a vibe up pretty much it side on way even though it's in a tunnel it's quite cool we get to the other side we will have a look at the Quaggy River and we'll be kind of in the apex of the junction with the Bromley South Front so as we come to here I can already see where fairly obviously river flows and here a train coming off the Bromley South Front so the culvert will be we get to see the culvert as nettles along by the river but we can certainly go and see hmm we're going to see oh no I don't know come all fence stops obviously we're not going to go inside but then we'll go over the bridge and oh yeah look we can actually go right to the culvert that's useful so here is the Quaggy River and there's the culvert so this is the first time the river crosses a railway and it's fairly short and short distance I think from here where's a housing estate there there must be culverted under the housing estate this river seems to be almost stealing the show at the moment bit now perhaps once I have to come to a video on this river like we have done rivers in the past the river of Mistborn in Buckinshire followed that from source to Confluence that was quite exciting doing that not a lot of water in but it is summer it's not dried up though like chalk streams have a habit of doing so across this bridge here and this takes us into another little park and basically it's not a huge amount to see but the reason I'm bringing you this way is to show you the apex of the two lines so you can see the tunnel on the other side of the river or the bridge which we walked under southeast the main line goes that way and then the Bromley North Branch goes there to the apex it's just down where those trees are I'm going to now head off into the housing estate and we'll go and try and find some more of the Bromley North Branch I'm now walking through a housing estate I have already crossed the railway once but there wasn't great deal to see and the bridge has all scaffolding right so I thought I'd show you this bit so this is where we cross back under the railway so again it's double track which is a narrow road for Greater London feels more like an out in the countryside I suppose when this was built this would have been fairly rural interestingly I am one thing I have since found out I said about the railway children been home at the railway children that's because Nesbitt lived in the area so I understand it now although the railway children wasn't set in this area and Nesbitt came from this area so we're gonna walk away this footpath kind of goes around the about way up towards Sundry's Park station I think it goes up here because these modern houses so I'm gonna keep walking and soon we'll be at Sundry's Park well now following is rather pleasant footpath the lane got narrow and narrow so it came a footpath railway line is just there there's a footbridge here so what I thought I'd do we're quite close to Sundry's Park if I can see over we'll wait and see the train come pass if I can see over the fence and okay can just sit right so that's Sundry's Park station just down there and the train is there so we'll wait here and see the train go by as the train disappears towards Grove Park I'm going to continue down into this housing estate and round to the station an interesting thing about it's bridge I've noticed this side's just got typical brick parapet but on this side it's been one point been covered with a system which I think is banned now to stop people climbing over it now we get past a fence we used to break up glass bottles and set them into the cement and it would basically do the same job as past their fence with my wife's it's a better example there but it does look like they've been along and smoothed it all off but it's not something you see much of anymore I'm going to continue now down to find Sundry's Park station this is Plasto Lane and down there is Sundry's Park station platforms go underneath the lane now Plasto Lane and Sundry's Park the station was originally called Plasto not to be confused with Plasto on the district line and then in 1894 is renamed Sundry's Park you can just see the footbridge ticket office and there's the London end of the platform just beyond the trees is the bridge where we saw the train I'm going to cross the road and we're going to go and have a look at the state so as we come across Plasto Lane now you can see we have another lattice footbridge which is quite nice that one's in the south-eastern colours we're now 10 miles and 12 chains from the London Terminal and you can also see these links to the Green Chain Walk so I think I've basically been following part of the Green Chain Walk but as I said Green Chain Walk is a video for another day a few videos for another day here is the station building so it's got weather board it's brick I think but it's got weather board clad doesn't like ticket voucher anything so we're going to go we probably could go straight down the slope there but I want to go over the bridge so we'll come into the station this way so the ticket office it looks like it is open some time but not currently and here we are very nice and cool for hot then it's got the breeze blowing its way through the road bridge where we were a moment ago it's a very small station not a lot here there's a train in 10 minutes I'll probably sit down have a drink I think and wait and see that pass through so this side trains to Grove Park everybody knows from New Cross and London that side it probably I didn't read it before yeah it does I can just see the sign says to Romney North I suppose you could get trained here to Romney North walk to Romney South and that would open up a few more journey opportunities I wonder what be quicker to go from here to Bromley South and walk or to go from here back up to Hiver Green and rounds and rounds to Bromley South by train I'm not sure anyway oh there is a way out so as I'm going to continue walking to Bromley North one I'm going to leave the station through that that gateway over there and follow that path but now let's just wait and see a train arrive I've now come back over the other side so we saw the train arrive and depart on its way from Grove Park to Bromley North calling it's only into media station just looking at the line it's going up quite a hill now I'm not sure if they ever have done any charters on this line I think there might have been one or two where there's ever been any steam but the fact is it's basically double track the whole way in theory you could run a steam train up and down here it'd be quite cool if they could do that a weekend so you just get a loco a couple of carriages maybe diesel on the end to go up and down you know it could almost you know work around the existing service because you know it's it's extravagant to have two tracks for one train I mean it's nice I'm not saying they should rationalize it I think it's a bit of a miracle hasn't been rationalized but yeah two tracks all the way so at the other end of the line at Bromley North we'll see when we get there there's two platforms but while we're here what's quite interesting we won't see it now because the train's gone up there you can see a red light and above the red light there was a number two indicating the train was going into number two so so the train's going to platform one it would say number one there's also two little lights beside the red lights called a dolly signal that must be but that's also to go into platform one or maybe there's a siding I'm not sure but we'll see when we get there I'm gonna follow this slope now up and out the station and we're gonna now walk to Bromley North I'm almost at the top of the slope interestingly as a gate here so looks like they could close it off if they wanted to so it's probably not a public right away ah now this road has also been closed off so you can't drive through here that said that makes easier for looking at the station from the bridge the last thing is if we looked on here I know it's not for oh yeah I say it's not far to Bromley North I can actually just see Bromley North the camera's not gonna be out but as soon as the track disappears literally there is Bromley North station so the line is about two miles long or probably slightly less than two miles probably about maybe just under one and a half miles from Grove Park to Sundris Park and I would say it's a quarter of a mile to Bromley North so we're talking a very short railway possibly not the shortest branch line in London I think that might go to Mill Hill East certainly one of the shortest again nice for the station there so I'm gonna continue my way that way and eventually well we know it's not far to walk to Bromley North I've now reached a very caged-in footbridge or least the stairs are caged in I think the bridge itself isn't too bad this takes us over the branch this is the last bridge I've realized now it's not necessarily a thing of branch line Britain I got to go over every bridge on the line but on this occasion we have been over every bridge on the line could almost be forgiven thinking this is a bridge over in disused line I reckon that must have been a good shard once the railway is there it's hiding behind these trees here so and the other interesting thing is we should be able to see you know I was looking down the track bed or not track it's not a disused line we should be able to see the next bridge it's just around the corner there I can just see it I don't know if the camera's picking it out so from each bridge on this line we've been able to see the next bridge joys of a short branch there's the station itself interestingly there is a train sat on the other platform but that's been sat there the whole time because it's been the same unit 4 6 5 1 6 9 going up and down all day see the station I'll talk a bit about station building when we get down there so it's currently worked by class 4 6 5's they have used 4 6 6's in the past the other thing I've realized with branch line Britain it's not necessarily been the intention but well the first episode was at Beckinscott that was like the introductory episode but then we did Greenford then we did Henley all three branches have been networkers that's not probably going to continue there will be a few more branches where we get networkers either diesel or electric but yeah it just so happens how it's been I wonder if that's a base of an old Superbox there possibly we can see the track layer I'm still not sure what that dolly signals for because it really is only there's the crossover and that's it really and then there's station anyway let's walk around to the railway station itself I have made it to Bromley North there you go Bromley North pretty soon quite clearly but the station is actually on the other side of the road Bromley Town Centre is down there so we are at the northern part of Bromley Town Centre but there's the railway station just there in front of us now the railway as we already know opened in 1878 station building we see there is not the original in 1925 Southern Railway decided to rebuild the station and they got the architect James Rob Scott who designed many Southern Railway stations to rebuild it so building so James Rob Scott this is his design other stations he built quite a lot in London such as Richmond Serbetton and Chessington branch which will be a future episode of branch line Britain thinking of other future episodes of branch line Britain when we get round to doing the Seath of branch we'll see Durrington on the Seath that's another sister of this station a station built by James Rob Scott so he did a lot of railway stations on Southern region we'll run across here now it proudly says Southern Railway and we'll go and have a look inside plus this stop just here so yeah Southern Railway nicely displayed one interesting thing we'll talk a bit about future uses of the line there has been talk of extending Croydon's tram link from Beckinham Junction through to Bromley I can almost just imagine trams coming up this road here and terminating either here or possibly there has been talk whether it'll ever happen of the line being converted to a tramway but we'll talk about that in a minute let's just have another look at the front of the station unfortunately the ticket office is closed so we can't walk through it so I have to go around the side entrance there you go that is the station it's a listed building in 1990 they listed the station building so it's never going to be demolished which is good to know so if any changes were to happen to the line in the future I'll talk about the other soon but the tram link idea because we're walking along here I reckon it was to happen the trams would come along here this is the side entrance and probably that building would get demolished and the trams would have to run there and on to the line and you can almost run it as below what they have on the line from Beckinham Junction to Crystal Palace you can have trams on one side and trains on the other so here we are just let you have a look into the closed ticket office and put the camera through the mesh so you can see it so yeah it's quite an impressive station building shame we can't go inside just as well my arms slightly longer I have two trains waiting for us but we can only get on the one we've been seeing going up and down the track in five minutes so I've got five minutes I don't need to rush interestingly we can compare class four six five because this is a class six four plus four six five nine whilst that's a class four six five zero the difference is four six five nines have first class you don't really get any perks except it's first class but this line I believe doesn't have the first class service so if that unit was the train then we could sit in first class because it would be declassified which is something I always do always look on real-time trains if I find out the train doesn't have first-class accommodation or isn't booked to have first-class accommodation means it's declassified and I go and sit in it and I've had some quite enjoyable journeys in the past on various lines in declassified first-class accommodation often though for very short journeys but still nice to go first class and not pay first class so it also has first class at this end of the train so we're going to go right down here and we're going to get on the train so have a look at the front train just for the sake of it so these platforms could probably take eight car trains I'm fairly sure to have been some charters up here at some point in the past whether one of the buffer puffs has been up here that's a train that goes up and the charters train local order goes up and down various branches I wonder if the Hastings unit has ever been up there talking of which have a look at my shirt it's not the Hastings unit but those of you who know will know what its connection has to Southern Railway diesel so whether they ever come up here I'm not entirely sure anyway if we're going to now leave Bromley North and get on the train for the journey back so this is the interior of a network he's haven't really been refurbished much in there so they're fairly I mean the moquettes have changed but the seating layouts haven't says no ironing board seats or anything like that so I'm going to enjoy the journey now back to Grove Park so as we depart Bromley North for the short journey to Grove Park we'll talk a bit about the future of the line there's no plans at the moment to change anything as far as I'm aware but there have been other ideas have been mooted I mentioned them about trams there's always been talk of extending the tram link from Beckilham Junction through to Bromley now Bromley town centre is quite big so to me a logical thing would be it could serve Bromley South so that's that's just under park between actually in there so there's talk of extending it if it was extended to Bromley South to me it would be logical then to extend it to Bromley North and then say if you wanted to get on this train at Grove Park or Sundarys Park where we're shortly going to be arriving at you could get on the train and then jump on the tram say the tram-terminated outside Bromley North and travel on Tobacco and Junkton or to Bromley South and get the train out you know towards Kent. I did mention obviously it's two tracks you very rarely ever pass another train because I think there's only ever one train going up and down. There is another unit stable there so at some point they must swap the trains over and obviously the train goes back to the depot. I'm just coming into Sundress Park. So one idea I've got is if you effectively made one half heavy rail one half light rail but then might be slightly complicated what you'll do here with heights of platforms and everything. So I think it's unlikely but it would potentially get converted to a tram line going all the way up to Grove Park and then when it gets to Grove Park potentially the tram line could go further. Other ideas that have come across is there's always been talk of extending the Bakerloo line from Elephant and Castle. Nothing's ever come with that but the plan is basically to serve the Campbell area and it's looking more likely they're leaning towards extending it down the Hayes branch which is perhaps another one. The Hayes branch is basically like a longer version of this it's a line that sort of goes up to a similar station at Hayes but it's got a few more stations on the way we'll do that one one day. There's talk of the Bakerloo line coming there you could potentially bore tunnels all the way to Grove Park and then have the Bakerloo line running along here. Again I don't know if it'll ever happen. Another idea has been to extend the London overground from New Cross but then the problem is the reason why you don't have through trains to London is because basically the southeastern mainline is pretty full to capacity so there isn't the capacity to run these into London so there wouldn't really be the capacity for the London overground trains to run along here so I don't think that's going to happen either. So I think really this line will just continue to exist as it does. The bridge is being walked under the brick footbridge so I walked along the footpath all along there. So yes I don't know what's going to happen really with this line I think it will just I mean there is no real plans it's just ideas as to what may or may not happen I think it will continue as it is but I really would love to see a special charter run down here or if they've had one weekend where they just ran a steam train up and down as like a service train it has been done in places it's unusual but has been done on and this will be the where these just past these houses this will be where the road bridge which we walked under was and then there's one more road bridge where I have plans to film a train and there's milepost nine and three quarters that's from London not from Grove Park. If I'd looked at a milepost when I was at Bromley North I could have probably worked out exactly how long the line is but it's it we're talking less than two miles it's a very short little branch line so like I say it's quite extravagant it's double tracked running besides some allotments now fairly soon we'll come to the apex of with the southeastern line passing more allotments this is the other road bridge this is where I plan to film the train but with the scaffolding it made it not quite as easy as I planned so I walked all through these houses and um I'll very shortly be arriving at Grove Park there's a lot of mature trees these big oak trees on the line I don't know if they have enough trouble with leaves on the line milepost nine and a half there so um it's there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of maintenance of the embankment I expect once in a while time these would have been completely bare these embankments we're slowing right down we've still got two tracks I'm interested in my reflection um interesting to see what will happen when we get to Grove Park because I think the train potentially could carry on through the the branch lines bay platform and on towards London I think there is also a connection this ends because obviously trains do have to come on and off the branch to go to the depot that's the last of the houses so the the park we were in um will be just down there you can't really see because of the trees and that's where the quaggy river will flow through there the second tracks are splitting apart from us now you can see it slightly further you could almost be forgiven for thinking we're passing through a disuse station here it's what it looks a bit like but I don't think it is oh and there's a train on the main line you might just we should go on to Grove Park just say for Bromley North change here surely if you have that's a bit of an odd announcement because you just go back the other way maybe that's in case you've got on the wrong train got the train going the wrong way at Sundris Park um I don't know what's about anyway we're now coming into Grove Park so we'll get off we'll see the front of the train and then I'm going to get on a train haven't decided where I'm going yeah there's quite a lot of people waiting to get on we're even going to go back to Bromley and have a walk around there or I might get a train back into London I haven't quite decided but that is the joys of having a travel guard you can go pretty much whatever you like here we go we're just pulling in now to Grove Park we'll get out and see the front of the train and then here we are we've arrived at Grove Park we saw this at the beginning of the video this long bridge like thing corridor in the sky if you look the line set as a track point so if the driver didn't stop the train would hit the wall but you can see it's connected to the main line so I hope you enjoyed this little explore of one of London's quite nice little branch lines that's not such a busy line thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like subscribe and comment and from the branch train at Grove Park goodbye