Lancing carriage and wagon works was a railway carriage and wagon building and maintenance facility in the village of Lancing near Shoreham-by-Sea in the county of

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an a ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

from 1911 until 1965.

History under the LB&SCR

The cramped situation of Brighton railway works and the lack of space to expand was a constant problem for the chief engineers of London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). In 1902 it was decided to move the carriage and wagon works to Lancing to relieve the pressure on Brighton and in 1905 the company purchased land at Lancing to add to its existing holding giving for a works. The works were constructed in 1907–10, with wagon production started in 1909 and carriage production in early 1912 with many employees transferred from Brighton. Because of the rural situation of the new factory the railway operated a special daily train from Brighton for the workforce. This became known familiarly as the ''Lancing Belle''. In 1913 L. B. Billinton, the Chief Mechanical Engineer, presented proposals to the LB&SCR board to close the Brighton works and concentrate all locomotive building and repair at Lancing, but the advent of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

in 1914 put an end to this plan.

Grouping

Following the merger of the LB&SCR and other railways in southern

to form the Southern Railway as part of the Railways Act grouping of 1923, the Lancing works became one of three such facilities owned by the new railway, the others being at

Ashford Ashford may refer to: Places Australia *Ashford, New South Wales *Ashford, South Australia *Electoral district of Ashford, South Australia Ireland *Ashford, County Wicklow *Ashford Castle, County Galway United Kingdom * Ashford, Kent, a town ** ...

and Eastleigh. The new railway decided to concentrate carriage construction at Lancing and close the carriage works at Ashford. As a result, 500 workmen and their families eventually moved to Lancing. In 1927 a new moving 'assembly line' system was introduced for repairing coaches more efficiently. A plan of the works, dating from 1931, shows large carriage and paint shops, together with smaller shops for springs, frames, wheels, gas and brakes, accumulator cells. There was also a traverser between the roads of the carriage shop, and a separate shop for Pullman cars. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

the works was kept busy repairing bomb damaged carriages and wagons and in converting carriages to mobile hospitals to support the army during the D-Day invasion. The works were also involved in constructing

Bailey bridge A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian and American military engineering units. ...

s and the tailplanes for Airspeed Horsa gliders for the invasion.

British Railways and Closure

The works continued to operate after the nationalisation of

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

ways (BR) in 1948 and gained a reputation for its efficiency and industrial harmony. By the 1960s over 1500 employees worked at Lancing. In 1962 efforts to rationalise BR's manufacturing capacity resulted in the decision to close Lancing in favour of Eastleigh railway works. Many of those concerned felt the decision to close Lancing rather than Eastleigh was for political rather than economic reasons, due to Eastleigh being a marginal Parliamentary constituency in the 'sixties that the Government of

Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986) was a British Conservative statesman and politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Caricatured as " Supermac", ...

was fearful of losing, whilst Lancing fell within a 'safe' Conservative Parliamentary seat. The run down of the carriage works took place over the next three years, with final closure coming on 25 June 1965.

Subsequent use of the site

West Sussex County Council purchased the site, which became the Churchill Industrial Estate. The original carriage shop remained in 2002, occupied by a furniture manufacturer.

Departmental motive power

The works had a number of small locomotives used for shunting purposes. These included LB&SCR A1/A1X classes nos. DS 680 and 681, a four-wheeled petrol locomotive DS499, and two SR USA class locomotives DS 236 and 237.

References

{{Reflist Railway workshops in Great Britain London, Brighton and South Coast Railway