IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Green Lane, SHEPPERTON, TW17 8DW

"Boys" of, ahem, a certain age will remember Ian Allan with affection for it was he who first produced and printed the ABC series of booklets containing lists of railway engine numbers. Later his company diversified into travel and motors amongst other interests. This is the group's Shepperton building in Station Approach, constructed in 1963 and reputedly containing and incorporating a 1922 Pullman coach as part of the fabric of the structure. The coach is said to be in use as the company's board room. Ian Allan himself began his working life as a 15 year old clerk in the office of the General Manager of the Southern Railway at Waterloo station, rapidly rising to a position in the publications department where he learned about the printing and publication of the railway's customer magazine. His suggestion to the management that in view of the number of enquiries he had received from members of the general public a booklet containing details of all the steam engines operated by the Southern Railway would be a popular money spinner was turned down, but he was given permission to publish it himself subject to him taking on board all the costs and risks. The rest is history...

Business premises along Station Approach in Shepperton.

Remove the modern single storey front extension and behind is one of the oldest buildings in this part of Shepperton, the former Railway Hotel, built shortly after the arrival of the railway in 1864 and certainly shown on the 1872 Edition of the Ordnance Survey mapping. At that time the railway station and the hotel were the only buildings in the area and it is evident that this part of Shepperton was subsequently developed solely because of the proximity of the railway route to London, the old village of Shepperton being some distance away to the south-west. At some stage the pub became the Crossroads and it does now occupy a prominent location at the junction of Laleham Road, Old Charlton Road, Green Lane and the High Street.

Image is visible in the distance.

Looking along the sole platform from near the buffer stops, with Terminal House on the right and a pair of South Western Railway class 455 electric units forming the 1511 departure to London Waterloo via Kingston. The unit at the rear (foreground) is 5868, which has been painted in an approximation of its original British Rail livery to mark the impending replacement of these trains after around forty years' service. My finding it on this occasion was pure chance; I had originally planned to travel here on the previous train, but it was cancelled.

At the far end of the opposite track, the preserved Pullman carriage "Malaga" can just be seen.