Chessington Branch Line

Chessington branch line
Class 455 at Chessington South
Overview
Type	Suburban rail
System	National Rail
Status	Operational
Locale	Greater London
Termini	Motspur Park Chessington South
Stations	4
Operation
Opened	1938 - 1939
Owner	Network Rail
Operator(s)	South West Trains
Character	Suburban branch
Depot(s)	Wimbledon
Rolling stock	British Rail Class 455 British Rail Class 456
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	750 V DC third rail

The Chessington branch line is a short National Rail railway line in England, mostly in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, from Motspur Park to Chessington South.

The branch, double track and electrified on the DC third-rail system (660V at the time of its construction), was the last line built by the Southern Railway. It was to serve the housing, industrial, engineering and storage developments south of Surbiton and secondly, never realised, to form a corollary line to Leatherhead.

It was opened on 29 May 1938 from Motspur Park to Tolworth, with an intermediate station at Malden Manor, and extended on 28 May 1939 to Chessington North and Chessington South.

All the stations on the line were of concrete in an Art Deco style, typical of the period.

Work to extend beyond Chessington was halted by the outbreak of World War II, with track laid beyond Chessington South as far as Chalky Lane, and preparatory works continuing further south. This included an embankment built by the Royal Engineers as a military exercise from Chalky Lane as far south as Chessington Wood, close to where the next station at Malden Rushett would have been built. A second station to serve Ashtead, namely at its northern extreme, was also planned. After the war green belt legislation put a stop to any resumption. A goods yard south of Chessington South was used as a coal concentration depot from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1980s.