page_title: Stewarts Lane
section_title: Locomotive allocation
hierarchical_section_title: Stewarts Lane / Locomotive allocation
caption_attribution_description: English: Ex-SE&amp;C 0-4-4T at Stewarts Lane Locomotive Depot. On the occasion of an RCTS visit, ex-SE&amp;C Wainwright H class 0-4-4T No. 31265 (built 5/1905, withdrawn 8/60) is beside another of the same class, employed mainly on empty stock work to Victoria; beyond is a BR Standard 2-6-4T.
context_page_description: Stewarts Lane is a large railway-servicing facility in Battersea in London, England, founded by the London Chatham and Dover Railway in 1862, to serve London Victoria railway station. It is sited in the midst of a maze of railway lines between 'Factory Junction' and 'Stewarts Lane Junction', adjacent to the site of the former Longhedge Railway Works. Prior to 1962 it was one of the largest motive power depots in the UK. Following the end of steam traction in the early 1960s it was converted into a Traction Maintenance Depot which is currently operated by Govia Thameslink Railway.
context_section_description: Stewarts Lane was the largest depot of the former LCDR, providing express passenger locomotives from Victoria and Holborn Viaduct stations to Dover, Ramsgate and Ashford, and suburban trains to Bromley, Crystal Palace and Greenwich Park. After the formation of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1899 the depot became the largest on the new system, with an allocation of well over 100 locomotives. The allocation declined in the early years of the Southern Railway, after 1923, as more suburban lines were electrified, but then increased dramatically to more than 170 locomotives in 1934 after it took over from the former Battersea shed. 159 locomotives were allocated there in 1939 including large numbers of King Arthur and Lord Nelson classes.
  During the early 1950s there were still 126 locomotives allocated and 700 men employed at Stewarts Lane, and the allocation included Pacific locomotives of the Merchant Navy, West Country and Battle of Britain classes and, for a short period, two Britannia class locomotives. The number of locomotives began to decline rapidly after 1959 following the electrification of the Chatham Main Line.
caption: H class 0-4-4T No. 31265 at Stewarts Lane 15 February 1958
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