Lydd on Sea and Dungeness Station Disused and Abandoned

Although the trackbed from Romney Junction towards New Romney is easily traceable, nothing remains of Lydd-on-Sea Halt today except for a gated concrete approach road from Kerton Road .

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Promoted  by holiday camp development in the area, the Southern Railway decided in 1937 to realign its branch line to New Romney (which had been opened in 1884) closer to the sea and to open two intermediate stations - Lydd-on-Sea and Greatstone-on-Sea.

 The opening of Lydd-on-Sea on 4 July 1937 coincided with the closure of Dungeness station to passengers 

it was intended that Lydd-on-Sea, ½-mile from Dungeness, would serve both locations and its running in board read "Lydd-on-Sea (for Dungeness)"

To handle the expected flow of holiday traffic, the station was equipped with a long curved island platform with a passing loop on which was perched a small wooden shed.
The traffic never materialised and the station was downgraded to an unstaffed halt on 20 September 1954 when its passing loop was also lifted.
 As passenger traffic dwindled and freight became insignificant, the New Romney branch fell into decline and was listed for closure in the Beeching Report. In 1966 the Minister of Transport Barbara Castle announced her intention of closing the Appledore to New Romney Branch and passenger services ceased on 6 March 1967.
Today (2017)

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Booking.com

Lydd Town Station (formely Lydd Station) April 2017 VISIT

Urban Exploration: Abandoned Train Station in Lydd Kent .
APRIL2017

One of my favourite abandoned stations
Lydd Town Station (formerly Lydd Station) (Closed) and Lydd Town Crossing
Opened on 7 December 1881 as Lydd Station, on 4 July 1937 the station was renamed Lydd Town to prevent confusion with a newly opened station at Lydd-on-Sea.

THIS VIDEO WAS SHOT IN APRIL 2017

APRIL 2017

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Lydd Town Station was a substantial facility, with a large goods yard and much passenger and freight traffic generated by nearby army camps. A branch ran south from the goods yard into the army camps, which were served by Lydd Military Railway. A passing loop was provided at the station, but this has subsequently been lifted. The station was closed to passenger traffic on 6 March 1967 and to freight on 4 October 1971. Part of the site is now used as a recycling facility. There is a possibility that gravel extraction will restart south of the station, and, if so, the passing loop may be reinstated to allow locomotives to change ends and shunt the train.

If open today Lydd Town Station would serve a growing town, which is just south west of the site, and a short extension to the line could also provide much improved transport facilities to Lydd Airport (also known as London Ashford), linking directly to Ashford International Station.

The branch actually runs south east from Appledore. The convention adopted in these collections is that Appledore is north, Dungeness is south, the New Romney side of the branch is east, and the Lydd side of the branch
Urban exploring is a great way to explore your local community

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Kent and East Sussex Railway and Rother Valley Railway Extension to Udiam Farm from Bodiam

Kent and East Sussex Railway and Rother Valley Railway Extension to Udiam Farm from Bodiam

The Rother Valley Railway, a preservation group set up in 1991, had by March 2009 laid track from Bodiam to within 200 yards (180 m) of the site of Junction Road Halt at a cost of £200,000.

Track was relaid through the site of the halt in June 2010.

On 18 March 2011, a VIP dining special was the first passenger train to traverse the rebuilt line.

The following weekend of 19/20 March saw Kent and East Sussex Railway services run as far as Junction Road

25244 (D7594)Location: Kent & East Sussex Railway Abandoned or disused ? or waiting restoration for 10 years

25244 (D7594)Location: Kent & East Sussex Railway

Current Running Number: -Owned By: Privately ownedStatus: Awaiting restoration

Built: BR Darlington 1964

Train Heat: Boiler (isolated)

Current Livery: - Train Brake: Dual (air & vac)Current Name:Works number DEL174/1961. 

Allocations
D7594 was new to Nottingham (16A) on June 3rd 1964. Further transfers were:
July 1964 to Derby (16C).
January 1965 to Nottingham Division (D16).
March 1967 to London Midland (Midland) Lines.
June 1968 to Longsight (9A).
June 1968 to Manchester Division (D09).
May 1973 to Longsight.

 August 1975 to Eastfield.
January 1982 stored serviceable, then reinstated to Eastfield during the same month.
October 1982 to Longsight.
May 1984 to Cricklewood.
November 1984 to Crewe.
Withdrawn July 28th 1986.
Renumbered October 30th 1973.

TAKE A LOOK AT ME NOW !!!!!

The engine that brought down a German Bomber , Lydd Station

The engine that brought down a German Bomber , Lydd Station
On 27 November, a train came under attack by two Focke-Wulf 190s. The train, hauled by Southern Railway D3 number 2365 which was just departing from Lydd Town railway station, had its boiler hit. The resulting jet of high pressure steam from the engine hit the plane, causing it to crash-land nearby; the pilot was found dead, but no railway staff or passengers were injured. The two planes had been heading over the coast after a raid on Ashford.

A local newspaper reported that it was the New Romney line’s most famous day when a train brought down an enemy fighter! On 27th November 1942 a train hauled by an ex-LBSCR D3 class locomotive was attacked by a low-flying German fighter aircraft. A cannon shell from the ‘plane burst the D3’s boiler just as the plane flew 20 feet above. The plane crashed, the pilot was killed whilst the train and driver survived! The loco was rebuilt and back in service by 11th March

LYDD TODAY

Abandoned Railway tunnel - St Michaels Tunnel on the Kent and East Sussex Railway

The line was engineered and operated by Colonel H F Stephens. One of his 'bigger' feats was St Michaels Tunnel, located just north of the halt. Opened in 1905 as part of an extension from Tenterden to Headcorn, it is just 31 yards in length and curves to the east on a radius of approximately 30 chains.

Comprising a single platform and small corrugated hut, the modest halt at St Michaels was added to the Kent & East Sussex Light Railway in 1912.

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

To serve a small community on the outskirts of Tenterden. Its ticket office - if you could call it that - closed in 1938 and the local infrastructure's decline continued until services were withdrawn on 4th January 1954.

The portals are neat, brick-built affairs with a masonry string course and copings. Wing walls extend outwards parallel to the track - the east-side wall at the south end is cracked top to bottom. Horseshoe shaped in profile, the lining comprises four rings of brick and features a single refuge. Timber brackets supported telegraph wires.

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

Despite 60 years of redundancy, the structure remains in fair condition except for the cracked wing wall and some spalling of the north portal's headwall. The interior has found function as a wood store, used by the householder whose property it stands on.

 Abandoned Railway tunnel - St Michaels Tunnel on the Kent and East Sussex Railway 

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

 Abandoned Railway tunnel - St Michaels Tunnel on the Kent and East Sussex Railway 

Dungeness (SER) railway station Disused and abandoned

                          Dungeness (SER) railway station Disused and abandoned

Dungeness was the terminus of the Lydd Railway Company's branch from Appledore which opened on 7 December 1881. Passenger services initially terminated at Lydd, although a goods service operated as far as Dungeness. 

Opened to passengers on the 1st April 1883, the single platform terminus at Dungeness lay at the end of a branch line from the South Eastern Railway's station at Appledore. 

Dungeness railway station, 1905 

Built by the Lydd Railway Company, the service was provided by the South Eastern Railway who eventually absorbed the smaller company in 1895. 

The eight mile branch had no less than 12 level crossings, with stations at Appledore, Brookland Halt, Lydd Town, (Lydd-on-Sea Halt and Greatstone-on-Sea Halt from 4 July 1937) and New Romney & Littlestone-on-Sea and Dungeness. 

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A large army camp and military ranges at Lydd kept the line busy until the end of WW1, but by the 1920's Dungeness was served by just three trains a day, while New Romney station enjoyed 9 trains a day. 

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A realignment of the line along the coast to New Romney in 1937, saw passenger services being withdrawn from Dungeness on the 4th July, 1937

The growing popularity of driving a car saw passenger numbers rapidly decline along the rest of the line in the 1950s, with the Dungeness freight service being withdrawn in 1952. 

Work on the Dungeness Nuclear Power Station in the early Sixties brought a new, albeit brief, lease of life to the line, with two-car diesel-electric trains providing 11 trains a day in 1962, most running through to Ashford. 

Proposed for closure in the infamous Beeching Report of 1963, passenger services managed to cling on to life until the 6th March 1967, with goods services to New Romney already being withdrawn three years earlier. 

Goods services to Lydd continued until 1971, with the line remaining in use for the removal of ballast aggregates and waste from Dungeness B nuclear power station. 

All track beyond Romney Junction has now been lifted with the remaining track only seeing very occasional troop trains and railtours. 

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