The line was a branch from the present-day Nunhead station to an impressive terminus at Crystal Palace High Level, which is now the housing below Crystal Palace Parade. There were intermediate stations at Honor Oak, Lordship Lane, and Upper Sydenham (in Well's Park Road). The line was too late to take full advantage of the Crystal Palace tourist trade, and commuter travel never really took off, given the large areas of the route that remained undeveloped (thanks to Dulwich College, the landowners). The line finally closed in 1954, being replaced by an extension of the 63 bus route from Honor Oak to Crystal Palace. The steam trains were special excursions run to mark the line's closure.

Vestiges of the route still remain - Brenchley Gardens, the footpath at the bottom of the Horniman Gardens, the footbridge in Sydenham Hill Woods (from which Pissaro painted his picture of Lordship Lane station), the tunnel under Sydenham Hill, and the old station house on Well's Park Road. The station at Honor Oak was in Forest Hill Road, where the flats now are opposite Brenchley Gardens.