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Notes: In 1856 The Sittingbourne & Sheerness Railway Company was incorporated to build a seven mile branch from Sittingbourne to Queenborough and the dockyard town of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey. It was opened on 19th July 1860 and operated by the London Chatham & Dover Railway and vested in it six years later. The station at Sheerness |
was located some half a mile from the town centre but was short-lived as a half mile extension was made to a more convenient site for passengers with the opening of Sheerness-on-Sea Station on 1st June 1883.
The naming of the new station with the 'on-Sea' suffix was to promote the location as a holiday resort, thus encouraging more traffic onto the line. The original station was renamed 'Sheerness Dockyard' and connections were made with the Royal Navy establishment. Trains continued to stop at both Sheerness Dockyard and Sheerness-on-Sea stations |
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stations until December 1914 as trains were required to run into Sheerness Dockyard and then reverse into Sheerness-on-Sea.
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With the outbreak of World War 1 Sheerness Dockyard Station was closed. During this time a connecting spur had been built to give direct access to Sheerness-on-Sea thus eliminating the need for any trains to reverse into the |
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Dockyard station. As a result, the Dockyard station never re-opened to passengers although its official closing date is listed as 2nd January 1922. The station is still listed in Bradshaw for July 1922 (shown above) b ut without any trains stopping there. The station was subsequently converted to a goods depot, railway connections with the Naval establishment and steel works having been made; it remained in use until 6th May 1963. The station became a private siding on 8th March '65
Source: Regional History of British Railways of Great Britain, Volume 2 - Southern England by
H.P. White - David & Charles 1969 ISBN 7153 4733 0 - Tickets from Michael Stewart
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