21/9/25
This place has been on my list of places for quite a while but today I finally visited it.
I booked my visit through the Heritage Open Days website.
The description below is from the Network Rail website.
The Woking electrical control room was built in 1936 by Swedish firm Asean for Southern Railways. Used as a control centre after the electrification of the line, the room was taken out of use in the late 1990s, although parts of the building remain occupied.
The space has many striking Art Deco features including four copper and iron uplighters, track diagrams with working lights and switches, and the original control desk.
Please note: This building is Grade II listed, and access to the site is restricted.
Here is a link to the Historic England listing.
Enough with the long introduction, here are my photos.
Site entrance;
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| Note the concrete lamppost |
Outside theres not much to see
The entrance
Nearly at the main room
This is what I wanted to see
Lots more photos with some captioned.
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| uplighter |
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| National Grid supply |
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| Behind the scenes |
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| circuit breaker, still used today |
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| IIRC coreectly substations are every 3 miles with a track paralling hut in between. |
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| diagram of replacement control |
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| green was the first areas to be modernised |
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A wonderful piece of railway history preserved. Well worth a visit if you can.
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