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Lost stations in Kent

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Invicta Alec:
Thanks @Archi93 for your post. A very enjoyable read.


Alec.

Archi93:
I have just found article in an old leaflet, written when Medway still had 5 digit phone nos. It makes interesting, fun reading and talks of some stations now gone from Victoria to Rainham railway line. I love comments about pigeon van and shoppers who could not get off at Bromley! Thanks to anonymous authors for this:"Rides from Rainham BY KEMSLEY AND IGillingham, Chatham and Victoria only!The  journey home has a quite different character to that of the journey into work, if only because the homeward bound trains contain their usual complement of non-commuters. There is invariably a handful of old aged pensioners returning to the Thanet towns, who are never quite sure whether they are on the right train or the right half of the train. And there are the West End shoppers, including one or two from Bromley South who have a habit of getting on non stop trains to Chatham.For some, the journey home, especially on Friday nights, was spent drinking with friends in the buffet car. But no longer; British Rail claimed that buffet cars made no profit on the Kent Coast line.For those who journeyed home late at night, Victoria station had an almost Continental atmosphere. Or more exactly platform 2 did; for this was the platform from which the Night Ferry departed until it was withdrawn in late 1980. With its dark blue 1st class sleeping cars of Cornpagnie Internattionale des Wagons Lits et des Grands Express Europeens and baggage cars of the French Railway (SNCF) the Night Ferry was perhaps the most colourful train amongst the drab uniformity of British Rail blue and grey (or is it supposed to be “white").But not all of the colour has disappeared from Victoria. For the Venice Simplon Orient Express has recently been resurrected and can be seen in platform 8 on Thursday evenings. This train originally ran to Bucharest, Constantinople and Athens via the Simplon Tunnel and Venice and was withdrawn in 1977. The new service goes only as far as Venice. The London to Folkestone portion of the train consists of seven brown and cream coloured (Zena, Audrey, Ibis, Perseus, Minerva, Phoenix and Cygnus) built for the Pullman Car Co. Ltd in Birmingham between 1925 and 1951. The train also includes baggage car No. 7 which (of less romantic origin) is an ex LNER pigeon van built in 1944!The journey home is usually, and thankfully, a little quicker than the journey in since homeward bound trains are escaping out of the funnel of lines that converge on London rather than squeezing into the funnel. But it is perhaps only through St Mary Cray that the train is first able to reach its maximum speed of 90mph. The passing of Swanley Junction requires a slackening of speed but the next 3 miles stretch through Farningham Road Station and over the Darent Viaduct also affords some fast running. Indeed it was over this latter stretch that steam trains were best able to show their paces; speeds of between 80 and 90 mph were often obtained by drivers like the renowned Sammy Gingell from Stewarts Lane depot. Just before Longfield there is a single line branch to the left. This was once the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company's line to its station by the Thames at Gravesend and from where a steam ferry could be boarded to the Continent. In recent years the line was used for carrying coal from the Nottinghamshire coal field to the cement works at Northfleet. On many evenings throughout the year one could see the returning empty train waiting at the junction for clearance onto the main line. If it was nice weather the diesel crew could be seen sitting on the fence next to the signal with one eye on the light and the other on the cows from Pinden End Farm.About half way down the Sole Street Bank, just before the river Medway comes into sight, we come to what is perhaps the prettiest part of the journey.Through the beech trees alongside the line one can see an old farmhouse and cottages down on the Cuxton to Cobham road and the hamlet of Upper Bush on the other side of the valley. Woods and corn fields stretch upwards to Luddesdown and towards the escarpment of the downs above Upper Halling.As the train brakes towards the bottom of the Bank we can see the familiar outlines of the Norman castle and cathedral on our right, whilst to our left, perched on the top of an old chalk quarry, is the flint built church of All Saints Frindsbury. The rattling of the train over the Medway bridge is the cue for sleeping Chatham commuters to rouse themselves. Just before the bridge is the Amalgamation Inn whose sign sports the coats of arms of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway and the South Eastern Railway, which later amalgamated. Prior to their amalgamation they were intense rivals, as a result of which Strood. Rochester and Chatham once had six stations between them. The line of the LCDR took that of the present route down the Sole Street Bank and through Rochester Station, except that it crossed over the river by a bridge which stood where the present road bridge into Rochester now stands. In addition to Rochester Station, then simply a two platform station, the LCDR had a station called Rochester Bridge Station which was situated on the Strood side of the River. The SER came up the loop from Strood and over what is now the only railway bridge over the Medway. Once over the bridge it branched to the left across  the viaduct part of which still stands and is in use by the KCC Estates Department. The SER line passed through Rochester Common Station which stood on the site of the present goods yard at a point opposite the cathedral. It terminated at a station described as Chatham Central but which was neither in Chatham nor very central; part of a wall of the station master's house can be seen in Rochester High Street at the point where the present line of the railway crosses over the High Street and into the tunnel between Rochester and Chatham.On leaving Gillingham it is time to be putting away the newspapers and getting on one's feet. On the horizon, 10 miles to the north, one can see the skyscrapers of Southend, the inhabitants of which are reputed to have the worst of all the London commuter services.
The service is not too bad, I suppose, for we Victoria bound commuters. British Rail do however have an uncommercial Iike habit of allowing half empty trains to speed through Rainham without stopping. It is infuriating for those trying to get to work or to go shopping and it is even more infuriating for those anxious to get home again. I sometimes think that British Rail treats Rainham like the country village it used to be."
 
 

stuartwaters:
A resurrected line on the Peninsular won't be a bad thing. With all the planned developments, the A228, especially the junction with the A289 at the bottom of Four Elms Hill will be a total nightmare without significant changes. A direct rail route to London, especially via Gravesend and Ebbsfleet will certainly relieve some of the pressure on the roads.

Invicta Alec:
Can you believe it, Sharnal Street is to rise from the ashes! (See my post just a little above).


This hardly used station was closed even before Dr.Beeching wielded his axe. It appears that part of the regeneration scheme on the Hoo peninsular (12,000 new houses over the next twenty years) a new station is to be built with direct links to London! Some people are already questioning its viability.  :)


Full story here .......


https://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/first-look-at-new-63m-station-225386/


Alec.

Smiffy:
It was probably quite busy at times as that's where the Chattenden Naval Tramway's transfer point was. That also closed the same year which may have had something to do with the station going.

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