Station Name: LYDD TOWN
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Date opened: | 7.12.1881 |
Location: | On the east side of Station Road (B2075) |
Company on opening: | Lydd Railway Company |
Date closed to passengers: | 6.3.1967 |
Date closed completely: | 4.10.1971. |
Company on closing: | British Railways (Southern Region) |
Present state: | The down platform and signal box been demolished but the up platform and the main station building remain largely intact and derelict. Some internal walls were removed during the 1970's when the station was used as a motor workshop. The station building is boarded up and empty but has suffered from vandalism over the last 20 years within some light recent fire damage to the south end of the building when an adjacent modern shed was destroyed. The extensive goods yard is also undeveloped with the brick goods shed and loading dock extant. |
County: | Kent |
OS Grid Ref: | TR050215 |
Date of visit: | June 1968, May 1969, May 1975, November 1982, April 1995 and 3.1.2006 |
Notes: The station was originally named Lydd and was renamed Lydd Town on 4.7.1937 with the opening of Lydd-on-Sea Halt on the new alignment to New Romney.
Immediately before entering the station the line passed under the only overbridge on the line and beside it a level crossing which was added in the early 1960's to cater for heavy construction traffic bound for Dungeness Power Station. The station closed to passenger traffic on 6.3.1967 but general
freight traffic continued to be handled until 4.10.1971. The
station was used as a vehicle repair workshop at least until
the mid 1980's but the whole site is now derelict. The down
platform was demolished in the early 1970's and the passing
loop was removed some time after 1983.
The New Romney line opened on 19 June 1884 and some unusual workings were introduced with two branches being worked by one locomotive requiring some trains serving Dungeness to reverse back to Lydd Town before proceeding on to New Romney. This procedure was greatly simplified when push-pull trains were introduced. In 1895 the local company was absorbed into the South Eastern Railway. With the Dungeness port scheme abandoned, the SER obtained powers in 1900 to extend their line to Hythe but this was never built.
With the increase in pleasure traffic in the 1930's and new residential and proposed holiday camp development along the coast, the Southern Railway received powers under the 1935 Southern Railway Act to realign the New Romney branch with a new junction one mile to the southeast with two new halts at Lydd-on-Sea and Greatstone-on-Sea; the new line opened on 4 July 1937. At the same time the station at Lydd was renamed Lydd Town and passenger services to Dungeness was withdrawn, although the freight service was retained. The line remained open with a reduced service during WW2 although an obvious target for enemy aircraft. A heavily armoured train was allocated to Ashford - Hastings - New Romney group of lines with regular patrols being undertaken. Nationalisation in 1948 initially brought few changes but with competition from busses and the popularity of the motor car in the 1950's traffic continued to decline and economies were inevitable including the withdrawal of the Dungeness freight service in 1952 and the removal of the passing loop at Lydd-on-Sea.
The goods services to New Romney was withdrawn in 1964 but the threat of closure was suspended until 1966 when the Minister of Transport announced that the passenger service on the New Romney branch would cease on 6th March 1967. The Ashford - Hastings line was however reprieved although some sections were eventually singled. Goods services to Lydd continued until 1971 and the line was still in use for the removal of ballast aggregates and waste from Dungeness B nuclear power station. All track beyond Romney Junction has been lifted. The only passenger movements since closure have been occasional troop trains and railtours, the most recent being the Lydd Ranger Railtour on 13th March 2005.
Further reading: The
New Romney Branch Line by Peter Harding. Published by the
author in 1983 ISBN : 0952345889 Web sites: Railways in Kent, Southern E Group and KARE for pictures of nuclear waste trains To see the other stations on the New Romney and Dungeness branches click on the station name: Appledore, Brookland Halt, Lydd-on-Sea Halt, Greatstone-on-Sea Halt, New Romney & Littlestone-on-Sea and Dungeness |
Click here for more pictures of Lydd Town station
Last updated: Sunday, 21-May-2017 14:37:34 CEST |
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