Wimbledon and Dorking Railway


The Wimbledon and Dorking Railway was an early railway company in southern England. The scheme submitted to Parliament was not fully implemented because the proposed route overlapped with other proposed and existing lines. The part actually constructed became the first section of what was later known as the Mole Valley Line.

History

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway had a service to since 1847, supplanting the London and South Western Railway at as the railhead for Epsom races. Determined to get a share of the race traffic, the LSWR backed the WDR, formed by an Act of 27 July 1857. The original plan envisaged a route from via Epsom and the Mole Valley gap to, but this was truncated to accommodate other approved lines in the area. As built it ran from "Epsom Junction", on the LSWR main line, via and to Epsom where it connected end-on to the Epsom and Leatherhead Railway. The continuation to Dorking was abandoned, only to be completed 10 years later under LBSCR auspices by the Horsham, Dorking and Leatherhead Railway.
The 5¾ mile line opened on 4 April 1859 and was worked by the LSWR, which formally acquired the company on 3 June 1862.
Much later the line was the basis for the Chessington branch from to. It was the last line built by the Southern Railway, opened on 28 May 1938 to and to Chessington South on 29 May 1939.

Services

The Raynes Park to Epsom line links the South Western main line to several routes through Surrey. As of 2020 it is used for the following weekday off-peak services by South Western Railway from :
Epsom also has Southern services from and, providing connections beyond Dorking to and back to Sutton and South London.