page_title: Bricklayers Arms railway station
section_title: Motive power depot and repair shop
hierarchical_section_title: Bricklayers Arms railway station / Motive power depot and repair shop
caption_attribution_description: English: Bricklayers Arms Locomotive Depot, with SR 2-6-0 View NW, outside main shed. The prominent 2-6-0 is Maunsell N class No. 31851 (built 2/25, withdrawn 9/63). (See also TQ3378&#160;: LB&amp;SC 0-6-0 at Bricklayer's Arms Locomotive Depot).
context_page_description: Bricklayers Arms was a railway station in Southwark opened by the London and Croydon Railway and the South Eastern Railway in 1844 as an alternative to the London and Greenwich Railway's terminus at London Bridge. The station was at the end of a short branch line from the main line to London Bridge and served as a passenger terminus for a few years before being converted to a goods station and engineering facility. The goods station closed in 1981.
context_section_description: The SER also opened a motive power depot at the site on 1 May 1844, with a turntable large enough to turn the engine and its tender together. This rapidly grew over several buildings and became its principal locomotive depot. It was responsible for an allocation of over 100 locomotives. It operated for nearly 120 years, supplying locomotives and crews for goods and suburban passenger services, as well as the more prestigious express trains from London to the South Coast. It closed on 17 June 1962.
  The other important role was to provide refuelling facilities for visiting trains that had worked services into London. Once uncoupled from their coaches, locomotives from Charing Cross, Cannon Street and London Bridge stations usually ran tender-first down to the Bricklayers Arms' shed to be turned round on the large turntable, rewatered and recoaled. Once this was completed, they again ran tender-first back to the terminus to rejoin their train for the return journey out of London. Access to and from the Bricklayers Arms' complex on the SER side was via a branch line down a long slope which dropped below the viaducts to either side of it.
  The original two-road (two tracks) engine shed lasted from 1844 until 1869. It was supplemented by a nearby four-road shed in 1847, which in turn was enlarged by an adjoining four-road shed in 1865. After 1869 these two sheds became known as the Old Shed and survived until closure. A fourth shed with six roads was opened in 1869, which was known as the New Shed. This was badly damaged during bombing in the Second World War when it lost its roof, and was never repaired. A fifth engine shed with four roads was converted from a carriage shed in 1902 and was known as St Patrick's Shed. This lasted until closure.
  Following the grouping of Britain's railways in 1923, the Southern Railway modernised the depot and in 1934 built a locomotive repair shop. However the facility was badly damaged by enemy action during the Second World War and was never fully repaired afterwards. When British Rail converted from steam to diesel traction in the 1960s the shed became surplus to requirements and closed down, but the goods sidings continued in use until 1981, when the whole complex was sold to developers.
  The wheel drop from the repair shop and the turntable from the shed were rescued for the Watercress Line, in Hampshire. The former has been installed at Ropley shed and the latter has been exchanged (summer 2010) for a tank engine.
caption: The main engine shed in 1959
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