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Report - - WW2 southern railway traffic control centre | Military Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - WW2 southern railway traffic control centre

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urban junky

South London…
28DL Full Member
Deepdene southern railway traffic control centre, Dorking, Surrey

This has been on the list for a bit so decided to check it out last month


During World War 2, the Southern Railway took over the Deepdene Hotel near Dorking in Surrey for its wartime emergency headquarters. In the grounds they excavated an underground control centre taking advantage of a network of existing natural caves that had been acknowledged 300 years before in the diaries of John Evelyn. Because of the natural protection afforded by the location of the caves they were eminently suitable for the development of a bunker to house both the headquarters' telephone exchange and Traffic Control who also had their underground control centre there with underground divisional controls at Woking (South West Division), Southampton (Western Division), Orpington (South Eastern Division) and Redhill (Central Division)

The lawn between the caves and the house was used as a site for the 99 foot mast supporting aerials for the emergency radio. The bunker was constructed within the caves which were enlarged to house the 30 staff and once complete their emergency headquarters with office staff was moved there from Waterloo. The network of tunnels included a Control Room, meeting room, switchboard, battery room, main distribution frame (MDF)/maintainers room, a bedroom for the night officer and an air plant and toilet facilities. The switchboard was a three-positioned installation with Post Office lines and extensions serving the headquarters staff with direct lines to the various divisional traffic and engineering officers; it was in use 24 hours a day.

The night staff of the Operating, Motive Power, Chief Mechanical Engineer, and Chief Electrical Engineer's Departments also worked in the tunnels, which accommodated a total of 30 clerks. Among the accommodation was a meeting room suitable for any conferences which might have to be held under emergency conditions.

The tunnels were well ventilated and the temperature was regulated by radiators in each room.
The Southern Railway General Manager Eustace Missenden. lived nearby and had a switchboard extension in his house. During the air raids he spent many nights there with his wife and it is reputed that the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill was a visitor.

The underground control centre consisted of a series of tunnels driven into the steep hillside to the rear of the house. There were three entrances plus a fourth emergency exit. A 60-foot vertical shaft at the rear of the complex provided an air inlet and the emergency exit. A 4 foot thick concrete slab covered the complex but no protection was provided against a 'near miss'

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Thanks U.J:thumb
 
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