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A realignment of the line along the coast to New Romney in 1937, saw passenger services being withdrawn from Dungeness on the 4th July, 1937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saw passenger numbers rapidly decline along the rest of the line in the 1950s, with the Dungeness freight service being withdrawn in 1952.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services managed to cling on to life until the 6th March 1967, with goods services to New Romney already being withdrawn three years earlier.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. 

https://framemeplease19.wixsite.com/trackbedwalker

Lydd Town Station (formely Lydd Station)

Urban Exploration: Abandoned Train Station in Lydd Kent .

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.


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

 
Lydd today