Box Hill & Westhumble railway station

For Box Hill stations in Australia and New Zealand, see Box Hill railway station, Melbourne and Box Hill railway station, Wellington.
Box Hill and Westhumble National Rail
Location
Place Westhumble
Local authority District of Mole Valley
Grid reference TQ167518
Operations
Station code BXW
Managed by Southern
Number of platforms 2
DfT category F2
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2010/11 Increase 62,772
2011/12 Increase 81,122
2012/13 Increase 0.104 million
2013/14 Decrease 83,914
2014/15 Increase 0.103 million
History
Key dates Opened 11 March 1867 (11 March 1867)
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Box Hill and Westhumble from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Box Hill & Westhumble railway station is a railway station in the village of Westhumble in Surrey, England,[1] approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Dorking town centre. Box Hill is located approximately 1⁄2 mile (800 m) to the east.

The station is served by one train every hour towards London Victoria and one train every hour towards Horsham off peak, operated by Southern. More trains operate at peak times, when some South West Trains services to and from London Waterloo also stop here, along with a limited number of trains from London Bridge via West Croydon (p.m only). Most evening SWT services also call in the southbound direction, giving the station a better service after the evening peak than during the daytime. On Sundays the service is half-hourly and runs exclusively between Victoria & Dorking.[2]

The station is the end point for the Thames Down Link long distance footpath from Kingston upon Thames,[3] and lies close to the midpoint of the Mole Gap Trail between Leatherhead and Dorking.[4] The station is within  1⁄2 mile of the North Downs Way.

History

The station was constructed at the insistence of Thomas Grissell the owner of Norbury Park, in part compensation for the railway cutting across his land to the north of the village. The main building was designed by Charles Henry Driver[5] in the Châteauesque style and included steeply pitched roofs with patterned tiles and an ornamental turret topped with a decorative grille and weather vane.[6] The building is currently in use as a private dwelling and commercial premises and is protected by a Grade II listing.[7]

Grissell also obtained the right from the LBSCR to stop any train on request, a privilege subsequently exercised by Leopold Salomons, who purchased Norbury Park in 1890. This concession was legally abolished by the Transport Act of 1962, however there is no evidence to suggest that it was regularly used after 1910.[6]

The name of the station has changed many times over the years with "Box Hill" & "Boxhill" and "Westhumble" & "West Humble" used in varying combinations for signs, timetables and railway maps, with many inconsistencies. In 2006, after consultation with local residents, the station's name was changed to "Box Hill and Westhumble" from "Boxhill and Westhumble".[8]

Year Name of station
1867 West Humble for Box Hill
1870 Box Hill and Burford Bridge
1896 Box Hill
1904 Box Hill and Burford Bridge
1958 Boxhill and Westhumble
2006 Box Hill and Westhumble

Terrier tank engine

Boxhill is preserved as part of the National Collection at the National Railway Museum.

A Terrier tank engine, built by the LBSCR in 1880, was named Boxhill after the station.[9] It was used to haul commuter trains in South London and Surrey until the 1920s, when it was moved to become a shunting engine at Brighton. Unlike other engines of its class, its smokebox was not modified in the early 20th century, and it was restored by the Southern Railway in 1947 to its original condition and painted in its original Stroudley yellow ochre livery.[10] It is now preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.[9]

Typical off-peak journey times

December 2006 – May 2007 timetable
Frequency in trains per hour

Destination Platform Journey time Frequency Operator
Leatherhead 2 6 minutes 1 tph Southern
Epsom 2 10 minutes 1 tph Southern
Sutton 2 22 minutes 1 tph Southern
Clapham Junction 2 36 minutes 1 tph Southern
London Victoria 2 46 minutes 1 tph Southern
Holmwood 1 10 minutes 1 tph Southern
Horsham 1 25 minutes 1 tph Southern
Preceding station National Rail Following station
Leatherhead   Southern
Mole Valley Line		   Dorking
Leatherhead   South West Trains
Monday - Fridays peak hours,
and summer Sundays only		   Dorking

References

  1. ↑ "National Rail Enquiries – Station Facilities for Box Hill and Westhumble". National Rail. Retrieved 20 October 2010.
  2. ↑ GB eNRT 2015-16 Edition, Table 180
  3. ↑ "Thames Down Link" (PDF). Surrey County Council. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  4. ↑ "Mole Gap Trail" (PDF). 60 Walks for 60 Years. Natural England. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  5. ↑ "Opening of the Dorking and Letherhead Railway". Brighton Gazette. British Newspaper Archive. 21 March 1867. Retrieved 8 August 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive. (subscription required (help)).
  6. 1 2 Jackson, Alan (1988). Dorking's Railways. Dorking Local History Group. ISBN 1-870912-01-2.
  7. ↑ Heritage Gateway listing NGR TQ1674451848
  8. ↑ Shepperd, Ronald (1991). Micklam the story of a parish. Mickleham Publications. ISBN 0-9518305-0-3.
  9. 1 2 NRM | Collections | Locomotives
  10. ↑ The Terrier Trust On The Web
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Coordinates: 51°15′14″N 0°19′44″W / 51.254°N 0.329°W / 51.254; -0.329

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