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The London and Southampton Railway was an early standard gauge railway company between London and Southampton, in England. It opened in stages from 1838 to 1840 after a difficult construction period, but was commercially successful. On preparing to serve Portsmouth, a rival port to Southampton, it changed its name to the London and South Western Railway in June 1839. Its original termini, at Nine Elms in London and at Southampton Docks, proved inconvenient and the line was extended to better-situated main stations at both ends. The remainder of the original main line continues in use today, as an important part of the national rail network. This article deals with the construction of the original line up to the time of opening throughout. Subsequent information is in the article London and South Western Railway. ==Beginnings== During the Napoleonic Wars, there had been concern about the safety of shipping traffic approaching London from the west (via the English Channel), and a number of canal schemes were put forward. At the same time, much of the packet traffic—urgent messages and small packages from and to foreign locations—used Falmouth as its port of entry and exit, and it was conveyed to and from London by road: a slow and inconvenient journey.〔Hugh Howes, ''The Struggle for the Cornwall Railway—Fated Decisions'', Twelveheads Press, Truro, 2012, ISBN 978 0 906294 74 1〕 An early proposal for a railway came from Robert Johnson and Abel Rous Dottin, member of parliament for Southampton. A prospectus was published〔''Prospectus. Southampton, London and Branch Rail-Way Company'' published in the Hampshire Advertiser, 23 October 1830, reproduced in Williams〕 on 23 October 1830 gave support to the proposals. A private meeting of interested parties was held on 26 February 1831, and a committee of investigation was appointed, and £400 voted for initial expenses, and the services of Francis Giles were secured as engineer.〔Sam Fay, ''A Royal Road'', 1973 reprint of 1882 original, E P Publishing, Wakefield, ISBN 0 85409 769 4〕 A prospectus was issued on 6 April 1831 for the ''Southampton, London and Branch Railway and Dock Company'', which was to have a capital of £1.5 million. The line was to link Southampton and London, and to extend a branch to districts between Hungerford and Bath and Bristol, and the company was to make improvements to the docks at Southampton. The engineer Francis Giles was retained to design the route. A reduction in the price of coal to persons living near the line was forecast, as well as passenger traffic and the import of produce and materials through Southampton docks.〔〔R A Williams, ''The London & South Western Railway, Volume 1: The Formative Years'', David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1968, ISBN 0-7153-4188-X, Chapter 2〕 Giles proceeded with a detailed survey, but the directors were persuaded to hold over submission of their enabling Bill until the 1833 session, possibly to observe how the London and Birmingham Railway bill fared in the 1832 session. Williams suggests that this delay enabled the London and Birmingham Railway to be the first (main line) railway out of London and that it made the implementation of the Great Western Railway easier also.〔 Giles re-surveyed in 1833, revising some income estimates, and the prospectus now proposed a capital of £1 million, the docks development having been made separate once again. The Bill received the Royal Assent on 25 July 1834. No track gauge was specified.〔Williams suggests that this made it easier for Brunel to introduce the broad gauge on the Great Western Railway.〕 At Nine Elms engines would not cross Nine Elms Lane, but horses would draw the wagons to the river wharf, which had a 30 yard (27 metre) frontage. The route was to pass near Battersea, Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Surbiton, Woking Common, Basing, Basingstoke and Winchester, to the shore at Southampton. The railway was now to be called the ''London and Southampton Railway''.〔〔Christopher Awdry, ''Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies'', Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990, ISBN 1 85260 049 7〕〔E F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959〕〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「London and Southampton Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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