On 8 Jan, 17:04, "Batman55" wrote:

It used to be known as the Engineer's Siding

I think the two wagons that I saw on it were engineer's ones, so that
would make sense. It's still a bit of a mystery as to why it was
electrified, unless it ever an engineer's train worked by a class 71,
ar one of the handful (3?) of Southern Railway d.c. locomotives. It
seems far more likely that such a train would have been steam, or
possibly Diesel in later years, worked.

If I remember correctly the access to the siding was controlled by an
elecric point machine, not ba a ground frame, and there was a buffer
stop at the extreme Southern end, beyond the point connecting to the
main line, by the bridge over the road junction. This consisted of a
wooden beam as far as I can remember, with a pair of wagon buffers
attached to it. Between these was mounted a coupling hook, whose
purpose was not clear. I suppose that if you were to propel a train
into the siding and then haul it back right up to the buffers then you
could attach a coupling to the hook, but then you couldn't release the
loco; indeed, it would be the loco which was coupled to it.

The siding was shortened at least twice, one of these occurring not
very long after I saw the siding used, maybe 25 years ago now. An old
bufferstop used to be visible which I suspect was the original end of
the siding, a good part of the way towards Loughborough Junction
station, but I can't remember exactly where.

My mother worked at Elephant and Castle for a while around 1968-70,
and I used the line from time to time, but I don't think the yard at
Herne Hill was there then. There was a coal yard further North,
somewhere near the remains of Camberwell Green station I think.

What's the new siding being used for? Is this something to do with
the re-building of Blackfriers station?