After being one of the pioneers of slip services the SER started using slips in more numbers from 1863, particularly in these early days at to serve where it had up to eleven slips daily. The total number of slips across the SER gradually dwindled to four in 1875 and one in 1898, and they served different places at different times, had one or two in the early 1860s, then had one or two during the 1870s, had some for the Medway Valley branch to , the 1887 Bradshaw shows slips at Ashford off the Continental Mail Express and at off the Royal mail Express day Service, interestingly the slips are annotated "Carriages detached: the Train does not stop".
