"Troy Steadman" wrote in message
news:f14a68061c839971c15e2082179379ff.125090@mygat e.mailgate.org...

I stand corrected on the dates. According to June Sampson's "All Change"
(1985) the first Eastbound route ran "...through Norbiton and passed
under the Southampton main line at Malden, running parallel with its
south side to Wimbledon. From there it ran direct to Ludgate Hill,
passengers for Waterloo being obliged to change at Wimbledon".

My sources are 'A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Vol 3
Greater London' H P White 2nd ed 1971; 'London Railways' E Course 1962; and
'London's Termini' A A Jackson 1969, which are all usually reliable texts.
It seems unlikely that, on opening the Kingston to New Malden line, the main
service was to Ludgate Hill, as the purpose of building this line was to
speed up the Kingston to London service. I haven't got dates for the
quadrupling of the SWML west from Clapham Junction, or whether the flying
junction for the Kingston branch at New Malden is original or a later
addition.

Is that right? If so what did the Wimbledon to Ludgate Hill route go
via?

This seems to have been promoted by a separate company, the 'Tooting, Merton
& Wimbledon', but sold out to the LSWR and LB&SCR jointly before opening. It
originally had two routes between Wimbledon and Tooting, the current one
used by Thameslink via Haydons Road, and one that took the Tramlink route to
Merton Park then looped via Merton Abbey to Tooting. From Tooting the route
to Ludgate Hill was the Thameslink route via Streatham, Tulse Hill, Herne
Hill and Elephant & Castle to Ludgate Hill.

She also mentions the remains of a line from Kingston to Putney Bridge
(through the fields at Coombe near New Malden) which was started in
around 1886-88 but never completed, which "are still visible today, on
territory north of Kingston By-Pass"

I've never heard of this one.

Peter