The Angerstein Railway handles freight only to
Angerstein wharf and is the only remaining railhead on the River.
John Julius Angerstein was a financiert hought
to be the son of Empress Ann of Russia and a British banker. From 1774 he owned
Woodlands, in Mycenae Road plus land between there and the River - including
Combe Farmhouse, north of Westcombe Park Station. In 1851 his son financed this private
railway running on an embankment and leased to the South Eastern Railway.
There is a crossing over the railway on the
line of a footpath which ran from the Farm to fields and chalk pits. A tunnel may
once have gone under the line- some of it seems to remain. However in 1909 the
Council asked the railway to provide a subway, which was refused. When the Blackwall Tunnel Approach was built
in the 1960s the bridge over the motorway and steps up from Farmdale Road were
installed.
Today the path from Westcombe Park
Station to the crossing is owned by Transport for London, the crossing itself by
Network Rail. On the Charlton side the
strip from Woolwich Road was owned by developers – but may be now by the
railway. The passage into Fairthorn Road belongs
to the house owners adjacent..
Up until the 1970s the line was
more heavily used. Branch lines went to the gas works, to the massive Charlton
glassworks and other industries. Today the line carries about eight trains
daily which have often made very circuitous journeys, frequently from Bardon
Hill, Leicestershire. We
understand there is demand for an increased number of trains and a new signalling
system is being installed. At the moment locomotives travel very slowly and
drivers have a wide view. I am not aware
that there has ever been an accident since 1909.
This little crossing is in a charming and isolated
spot where you can imagine yourself at a 19th century countryside railway. And I can claim to have been on one of
the few passenger trains on this line =- on spotters’ special
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