brighton railway station

took the train to brighton today as it was cheaper than the bus...i've always loved brighton station but today it impressed me even more so did a bit of research and can tell you: The station was built by the London & Brighton Railway in 1840. The passenger station was a three storey building in an Italianate style, designed by David Mocatta in 1839–40 which incorporated the head office of the railway company. The platform accommodation was built by John Urpeth Rastrick.

i spotted on these old clocks the initials LBSCR which i now know stands for...

In 1846 the railway became the London Brighton and South Coast Railway following merger with other railways with lines between Portsmouth and Hastings

we also crossed the london road viaduct which always fascinates me and now i also know: Built in the 1840s for the Brighton, Lewes and Hastings Railway by John Urpeth Rastrick,  the sharply curving structure has 27 arches and about 10 million bricks. In the 1840s, the land northeast of Brighton station was undeveloped, consisting of fields. It lay in a steep-sided valley running from north to south, created by the River Wellesbourne. Rastrick had to decide whether to cross this with an embankment or a viaduct. He laid the foundation stone on 29 May 1845. Construction took 10 months: the structure was ready on 28 March 1846, more than two months before the line to Lewes opened.  In WWII bombing severely damaged London Road Viaduct. At 12.30pm on 25 May 1943, Focke-Wulf fighter-bomber aircraft dropped several bombs on Brighton, five of which landed on the railway. One demolished two arches and one pier at the west end of the viaduct, two arches west of the Preston Road span, leaving the tracks spanning the gap in mid-air. Despite this, a temporary repair allowed trains to start using the viaduct again within 24 hours; in less than a month, the service was back to normal. Until the arches were fully repaired in September 1943, a 15 mph speed restriction was enforced and Preston Road could be seen through the gaps between the sleepers where the brickwork had been blasted away. The replacement brickwork, darker than that of the main structure, can be seen from the road below.

a couple of old dears havin a cuppa before their train ome