Dunton Green 1986

DUNTON GREEN

6406

5151

(All © Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 28.5.1986)

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RAILFILE - DUNTON GREEN STATION

On 28 May 1986 I visited Dunton Green in Kent for an hour or two. This was a nice wayside station with plenty of trains. Until 1961 it was also the junction for the superb Westerham branch, which almost became a majopr tourist attraction after closure. What an asset it would be now, offering both tourist trips through excellent scenery and, more importantly, allowing Westerham and Brasted to continue as flourishing commuter areas into the future.

Even without the attraction of a community line connecting with London trains the station was a fascinating spot, with a good variety of trains (which will appear in the next part of this article!)

More info (from Wikipedia)

Dunton Green railway station serves the village of Dunton Green, on the outskirts of Sevenoaks in Kent. Train services are provided by Southeastern.

There is no ticket office or ticket machine. There is a Permit to Travel machine. The ticket office, in an 'up side' building, manned only during part of the day, became unstaffed during the early 1990s after which time there was a substantial increase in vandalism here; a PERTIS 'permit to travel' machine is located at the entrance to the 'up' platform. There is an electronic display of departures but no audio messaging.

There is a small car park (access via Station Road) which holds c. 20 cars. As of November 2008 the car park is no longer free, tickets must be purchased from the ticket machine in the car park.

Until 1961 this station served as the junction for the Westerham Valley Branch Line to Brasted and Westerham. When this line was constructed, a subway was built which passed under the branch platform and allowed access from the main station forecourt to a footpath leading west to Dunton Green. This subway remains in place today.

Services

The typical off-peak service from the station is two trains per hour southbound to Sevenoaks and two trains per hour northbound to London Charing Cross, calling at all stations to Hither Green and then running fast to London Bridge.

The typical peak service from the station is one train per twenty minutes southbound to Sevenoaks also some services go through to Hastings (viaTunbridge Wells) and one train per twenty minutes northbound to London Cannon Street, calling at all stations to Grove Park and then running fast toLondon Bridge.

During the morning peak there is a connecting fast services at Chelsfield for Dunton Green passengers travelling to London Bridge, Waterloo East and Charing Cross. There are similar services in the evening peak going towards Tunbridge Wells. Passengers can alight from this service at Chelsfield and catch a connecting service to Dunton Green.

Dunton Green
Location
Place	Dunton Green
Local authority	District of Sevenoaks
Grid reference	TQ514575
Operations
Station code	DNG
Managed by	Southeastern
Number of platforms	2
DfT category	F2
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	61,127
2005/06	66,640
2006/07	90,223
2007/08	0.108 million
2008/09	0.116 million
2009/10	0.117 million
2010/11	0.127 million
2011/12	0.133 million
2012/13	0.132 million
2013/14	0.155 million
History
Key dates	Opened 2 March 1868

Lancing 4.9.1986

LANCING

(All 4.9.1986 copyright Steve Sainsbury/The Rail Thing)

My childhood and teenage haunts were mainly along the Coastway West line, in West Sussex. This route was - incredibly - under threat of closure in the late 60s and early 70s, but I don't think the threat was ever real. It would have ruined my life had the line closed, as I used it to get everywhere!

I went to school in Durrington and used the train nearly every weekday between 1967-1972, Littlehampton to Durrington-on-Sea. I knew every inch of this route. Further east Lancing was a bit more exotic, though I did occasionally travel there after school to visit the J D Morris model shop, which had N gauge!

Years later I got these shots of Lancing which turned out to be a pretty good spot for photos. I must visit it again one day!

More info (from Wikipedia)

Lancing railway station is in Lancing in the county of West Sussex, England. The station is operated by Southern.

Platform 1 is for trains to Brighton and London Victoria, and Platform 2 is for trains to Worthing, Portsmouth Harbour and Southampton.

The station has 1 ticket office located on Platform 2, and 2 self-service ticket machines, one on Platform 1 and one outside the front of the main station building adjoining Platform 2.

There are no ticket barriers at the station, however regular ticket checks are carried out at the exits from the platforms, by Southern Railway staff and Rail Neighbourhood Officers

Services

Typical off-peak service consists of 5 trains per hour (tph) in each direction:

Eastbound

• 4tph to Brighton
• 1tph to London Victoria

Westbound

• 1tph to Southampton Central
• 1tph to Portsmouth Harbour
• 1tph to Littlehampton
• 2tph to West Worthing

Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05	0.729 million
2005/06	0.744 million
2006/07	0.758 million
2007/08	0.801 million
2008/09	0.817 million
2009/10	0.833 million
2010/11	0.911 million
2011/12	0.952 million
2012/13	0.972 million

Holmwood 1986

HOLMWOOD

(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing Holmwood 30.4.1986)

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An odd little line in Surrey is the line from Horsham to Dorking. Back in 1986 it was something of a backwater, except during the rush hours. The line was busier from Dorking northwards, the line south via Warnham, Ockley and Holmwood served a very rural area, with the non-peak trains running empty or almost empty. I haven't visited the line since 1986 so no idea what the situation is like today!

Further info (from Wikipedia)

The station opened in 1867 in what was the far north of the parish of Capel along the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway line to Portsmouth. Why it was called Holmwood is mysterious, however Beare Green was a smaller settlement than the Holmwood area which was expanding with building at the time.

Holmwood for many years had until a revised timetable of 10 July 1967 two hourly services during the day in each direction:

• to and from Waterloo and Horsham
• to and from London Bridge (via Sutton and Tulse Hill) and Horsham.

In respect of the first route where on time the journey was completed in less than 55 minutes: no slack, allowing for lengthy boarding assuming identical track speed, was built into the timetables. Of relevance to Bognor Regis, a once an hour non-stop express Victoria service went through the station from the coastal resort.
Further, Holmwood was a terminus for various additional trains to and from Waterloo.

The Grade II listed signal box

Prior to 1963 the use of Holmwood as a terminus was implemented for much of the day. For example, a serious accident at Motspur Park on 6 Nov 1947 involved the 16:45 Southern Railway train from Holmwood to Waterloo. This service was withdrawn in 1963, the later 17:45 being the last of a series of hourly trains from Holmwood to Waterloo to be retained in the 1963 timetable. The accident in 1947 resulted from incorrect manual fog signalling when the driver of the Holmwood train was given permission to enter the junction at Motspur Park before the down Chessington train had cleared the junction, and before the signals and points were changed by the signal box. This is one of the few references one can find to the important role that Holmwood station played in the Sutton and Mole Valley Lines to Waterloo service initiated in the early 20th century by the Southern Railway. Before nationalisation in the 1940s, the Southern Railway built, owned its trains, running from today's two London termini as well as Waterloo following the formation of the Big Four.

Thus the earlier timetables for services on the line from London Victoria to Horsham in 1905 and 1917 show that services to London Waterloo and London Bridge adhering to the Victorian service pattern from Holmwood, Ockley and Warnham being to London Victoria only.

Some features of the unusual service pattern endure include its last evening weekday rush hour service from London Victoria at 7:20pm (apart from the 11:26pm weekday service added to the timetable in December 2004 following several years of pressure from a local campaigner) traceable to the Victorian/Edwardian origins.

From at least Victorian times (or quite probably from the opening of the line in 1867) until the middle of the 20th century the line also had four services to and from London Victoria in each direction on a Sunday compared to no Sunday service at all in current times. There were two services in each direction in the early morning and two more in the late afternoon/early evening (a total of eight trains in all on the Dorking to Horsham section of line during the day) making Sunday outings to the Capital and elsewhere possible in this still largely pre-motor car era. However it is not clear from easily available records precisely when Holmwood and the neighbouring two stations of Ockley and Warnham lost their Sunday railway services.

Hamworthy 2013

HAMWORTHY

(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 5.6.2013)

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A couple of years ago I visited Hamworthy, which is the junction for the original line down to Poole and also once for the Ringwood loop line.

I remember this station from many years ago when I used to regularly use the Southern Region Rail Rover, but I think this was the first time I got to photograph the station.

This was at the end of a busy day checking out the S&D trackbed from here up to Broadstone and it was a relief to see a real working railway again after all the ghosts and shadows of former greatness!

More info (via Wikipedia)

History

The station opened with the Southampton & Dorchester Railway, which later became part of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), in 1847 as Poole Junction. At that time the line to London then went via Broadstone Junction, Wimborne and Ringwood before joining what is now the South Western Main Line at Brockenhurst. The station was known as Hamworthy Junction until the 1970s. A causeway across Holes Bay opened later when the line through Poole to Bournemouth and Christchurch was built.

Motive Power Depot

A motive power depot with a coal stage was built at the station by the LSWR in 1847. It was closed by British Railways in 1954 and after several years in use as a storage facility, was eventually demolished.

Services

The station is served by South West Trains who currently operate an average of two trains per hour in each direction with trains going to London, Brockenhurst, Wareham and Weymouth. With a journey time of around 4 minutes the train is the fastest method of travel between Poole town centre and the area surrounding the station compared to the Wilts & Dorset bus service which takes around 14 minutes (not including delays caused by Poole Lifting Bridge).

Facilities

The platforms are able to accommodate trains of up to five coaches. Longer passenger trains are rarely seen past Poole. The station does not have a footbridge but has an underpass that also serves as a public footpath from Turlin Moor to Hamworthy. There was a foot crossing at the Poole end of the station for passenger in wheelchairs or with heavy luggage but this has been removed and access to the platform end fenced off. A light indicating if it is safe to cross remains at the end of platform 1 but is permanently switched off.

Hamworthy was one of two South West Trains stations not to receive a Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress self-service ticket machine to replace the former "Quickfare" (Ascom B8050) machine installed during the Network SouthEast era due to fears of vandalism, although tickets could be bought from the ticket office at certain times of the day and a permit to travel could be purchased at all times. The Quickfare machine was removed in October 2006. South West Trains installed a Scheidt & Bachmann Ticket XPress self-service ticket machine in August 2008 and removed the permit to travel machine. The ticket machine is fitted with a security shutter and casing to protect it from vandalism.

This is the junction where the Hamworthy Freight Branch to Poole docks joins the main line. There is a disused third platform at the station facing the Poole docks line. The signal box which controlled the branch was at the Poole end of platform 2 but has since been demolished.

Hamworthy had the only remaining semaphore signal on the South Western Main Line but was removed in May 2014 as part of the signalling upgrade scheme.

Littlehampton 27.5.1986

LITTLEHAMPTON

7360 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

7334 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

7754 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

2107 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

7800 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

(All pics © Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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When I lived in Littlehampton a favourite afternoon excursion was to the footbridge at Littlehampton station throat, and over the years I must have taken a few hundred photos from this point. This is an unrepeatable location, the footbridge was demolished many years ago and a newer (and I suspect far less useful) bridge has since sprung up closer to the station. Amazingly the signalbox and semaphores are still there, though the trains have completely changed.

So on an afternoon in May 1986 there was a regular procession of electric slam door units, boring at the time but I understand they are a lot more popular now - just as the current 'boring' units will be to the next generation.

If you're wondering about the open connecting door in picture three this unit is being driven into the large carriage sheds just behind me.

Littlehampton had (and of course still has) regular trains to Portsmouth, Bognor, London via Arundel, Brighton and London via Hove. All in all a fantastic service if you lived there, with two separate routes to London! We were very spoiled.