There were several early proposals to provide St. Albans with a rail service and on 4th August 1853 the LNWR received parliamentary approval to construct a line from Watford; the single track branch opening on 4th May 1858. In 1861 the GNR lent its support to a proposal to build a branch line from Hatfield in order to attract some of the lucrative commuter revenue. Authority was obtained on 30 June 1862 and the line was built by the Hatfield & St. Albans Railway with the support of the GNR. The branch was opened on 16th October 1865 and eventually absorbed into the GNR on 1st November 1883.

There was initially only one station at St. Albans (later named St. Albans London Road) with further intermediate stations opening at Smallford in 1866, Sanders Siding (later Salvation Army Halt) in 1897, Hill End in 1899, Nast Hyde in 1910 and Lemsford Road in 1942.

The Hatfield - St. Albans branch was an early casualty under British Railways, closing throughout to passengers on 1st October 1951; freight traffic lingered into the 1960's.

The former line now forms 6½ miles long Alban Way, which opened in 1985 as part of National Cycle Route no. 61 between Hatfield and St. Albans. The route is owned by the City & District Council of St. Albans, managed by the Parks & Leisure Department, and Welwyn Hatfield Council. The route acts as a 'wildlife corridor' within two busy urban areas of Hertfordshire. The section along the old 'Smallford Trail' is also a County Wildlife Site.

SALVATION ARMY HALT
On the southern outskirts of St. Albans a private business of orchid growing was established Frederick Sander in 1884. Henry Frederick Conrad Sander, born Bremen, Germany, on 4 March 1847. Sander was to come to England in 1865. Initially working as a nurseryman in St Mary Cray he was eventually to arrive at St Albans where he took over Josling's seed merchant business on George Street. Never an astute businessman he was nevertheless able to erect greenhouses behind the George Street premises and this was the beginning of the orchid growing business which went on due, and only due, to Sander's enthusiasm for the plants, to become one of the most respected such establishment in Europe. Among his customers were royalty including By Appointment to HM Queen Victoria. In 1881 Sander purchased land from the then Earl Spencer (the same Spencer family as of the late Diana, Princess of Wales) at Camp Road, opposite the south-west corner of Hatfield Road Cemetery.

Their 12 greenhouses were linked to a siding for the dispatch of orchids to market and the receipt of coal for the nurseries' boilers. The siding was also later used for the carriage of straw hats from Luton to London. A sleeper built platform was built for visitors to the nurseries and possibly for the use of Sander's staff. It was sited on the north side of the line immediately east of the Camp Road bridge at the southern tip of the main greenhouse complex. A pedestrian bridge was later built over Camp Road to enable passengers to reach ground level and for hand pushed coal trucks to be moved from the siding to the nursery.

In 1895 George Orford Smith opened a quality print works known as Campfied Press on the south side of the line and east of Camp Road. A second siding with a loading dock and hoist was built on the south side of the line. This enabled paper to be brought into the works and finished products to be dispatched. By the turn of the century, Campfield Press was in financial difficulty and was sold to the Salvation Army as a going concern in 1901. They were keen to move from their existing cramped site in London's East End. The works was kept busy producing bibles, sheet music and of course the Salvation Army's 'War Cry' newspaper.

At this point it was deemed unworkable for the Sander's platform to remain operational, and a new platform made from sleepers was built on the north side of the bridge in front of Sander's siding. The platform was short with a ramp at the east end. Access was from a public footpath that crossed the line immediately west of the halt. A single lamp standard was placed alongside the track to aid passengers reaching the platform. Essentially this was a passenger halt but no signage, shelter or further lighting was ever provided. The private and untimetabled halt was in use by 1 November 1897. It first appeared in the public timetable on 8 July 1929 and last appeared in September 1942 although it remained in use until the closure of the line in 1951. A footnote in the July 1938 Bradshaw reads 'A platform is provided at the Salvation Army Siding, St Albans at which trains stop when required for passengers holding tickets between Hatfield and St Albans and other LNE stations. Application must be made to the Officer in charge of the station before leaving Hatfield or St. Albans'. (see above).

The orchid industry declined following the First World War and Henry Sander died, in Bruges, Belgium, where he owned another nursery, on 23 December 1920. He was laid to rest in a family grave in Hatfield Road Cemetery. Meanwhile the Camp Road business soldiered in, gradually diminishing, under the control of David Sander - the founder's grandson - until 1956.

The British-transport Commission Hand-Book of Stations including junctions, sidings, collieries, works etc published in 1956 still shows the Salvation Army and Campfield Press siding and Sanders' (St Albans) Ltd siding as still being operational. Sander's greenhouses were subsequently demolished and a school now (2021) occupies the site. There is a reminder in Cecil Road in the form of flats named 'Orchid House' while Sander and his orchids are by no means forgotten, with plenty of information available online. The Salvation Army print works closed in December 1964.

For further reading see Hertfordshire's lost railways by Keith Scholey ISBN ISBN 1 84033231 X

See other stations on the St. Albans Abbey - Hatfield Line: St. Albans London Road, Hill End, Smallford, Nast Hyde Halt & Lemsford Road Halt