The company began a period of expansion but also conflict with rival railway companies. One of these conflicts, with the London & South Western Railway, ended up with the so-called battle of Havant where rival gangs of LB&SCR and LSWR railwaymen blocked the line and may even have fought! Eventually the two companies resolved their differences and shared a direct route to Portsmouth.
The company also expanded into South London and new lines in Sussex and Surrey. However various large capital projects bought the LB&SCR to it's knees in the late 1860s. Luckily for the company a huge growth in London commuter traffic helped restore the company's financial stability.
The company's main locomotive works was at Brighton. The LB&SCR was one of the early adopters of electrification, the South London Line between London Bridge and London Victoria being electrified in 1909. Other routes were also electrified, with DC overhead wiring, though the LB&SCR's successor company the Southern Railway standardised on DC third rail and converted these lines in the late 1920s.
The LB&SCR became part of the Southern Railway in 1923.
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| B1 Class at NRM York, the only LB&SCR tender locomotive to be preserved |
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| LB&SCR built shed at Tunbridge Wells West |
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| A1X class preserved on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway |
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| Another view of the preserved B1 class |
