Hythe | |
---|---|
Station on heritage railway | |
General information | |
Location | Hythe, Folkestone & Hythe England |
Coordinates | 51°4′16.8″N1°4′21″E / 51.071333°N 1.07250°E |
Grid reference | TR153347 |
Managed by | RHDR |
Platforms | 3 open (originally 4) |
Key dates | |
16 July 1927 [1] | Opened |
1940 | closed |
1946 | reopened |
Hythe station is the northern terminus of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. The station has curved platforms with an overall roof, loco release road, former engine shed (now an independent engineering works), signalbox with 16 lever frame, and a turntable. In terms of passenger bookings Hythe is the busiest station on the railway. [2]
Adjacent to the station the former station master's house is now a private residence. Situated between the station and the Royal Military Canal is The Light Railway Restaurant which was originally built by the railway company but sold before it was even completed. [3] It was finally repurchased by the railway in February 2015. [4]
The station is situated to the south of the town on the A259 road to Folkestone, and follows the same alignment as the Royal Military Canal.
The ancient Cinque Port offers shopping facilities with restaurants, cafes, pubs, banks, supermarkets, antique shops, general shops, swimming baths, gardens, parks and a seafront. [5]
Of the three platforms, only numbers 2 and 3 are normally used for arrivals and departures, number 1 being used mainly for stock storage as it has no loco release facility. Prior to the 1970s resignalling it was used for occasional departures, although today this happens very rarely and it is used largely for non-passenger trains.
As originally built the station had a fourth platform to the south with its own loco release road, and platform three had no release facility. It seems the original design (as with the Dymchurch bay platform) assumed trains would arrive and then shunt into a different departure platform to release the loco and turn. In the 1920s the layout was altered to make operation more efficient. Platform 4 disappeared in the resignalling, as platforms were extended and has now been incorporated into the car park.
Preceding station | Heritage railways | Following station | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Terminus | RHDR | Burmarsh Road | ||
Historical railways | ||||
Terminus | RHDR | Prince of Wales Halt Line open, station closed |
The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) is a 15 in gauge light railway in Kent, England, operating steam and internal combustion locomotives. The 13+1⁄2-mile (21.7 km) line runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney Sands to Dungeness, close to the Dungeness nuclear power stations and Dungeness Lighthouse.
Romney Marsh is a sparsely populated wetland area in the counties of Kent and East Sussex in the south-east of England. It covers about 100 square miles (260 km2). The Marsh has been in use for centuries, though its inhabitants commonly suffered from malaria until the 18th century. Due to its location, geography and isolation, it was a smuggler's paradise between the 1600s and 1800s. The area has long been used for sheep pasture: Romney Marsh sheep are considered one of the most successful and important sheep breeds. Criss-crossed with numerous waterways, and with some areas lying below sea level, the Marsh has over time sustained a gradual level of reclamation, both through natural causes and by human intervention.
Dymchurch is a village and civil parish in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, England. The village is located on the coast five miles (8 km) south-west of Hythe, and on the Romney Marsh.
Pilton Yard, in Barnstaple was, between 1898 and 1935, the main depot and operating centre of the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway ('L&B'), a narrow gauge line that ran through Exmoor from Barnstaple to Lynton and Lynmouth in north Devon, England. Pilton station was served by regular passenger services advertised between 1898 and 1904 after which only goods facilities were provided. Passengers were catered for at the nearby LSWR station, Barnstaple Town, which provided connections with trains on the standard gauge branch line to Ilfracombe. The L&B's main offices were also based at Pilton, in a building formerly belonging to the Tannery which had earlier occupied the site, and which took over the site after the railway closed.
Bridlington railway station serves the town of Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located on the Yorkshire Coast Line and is operated by Northern who provide all passenger train services.
Dymchurch railway station is on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England. It is five miles south of Hythe, and surrounded by flat countryside.
St. Mary's Bay railway station is a small station in St Mary's Bay, Kent, England, between the larger stations of New Romney and Dymchurch, on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.
Douglas railway station is the main terminus of the Isle of Man Railway and is located at the landward end of the quay in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. It was once the hub for now closed lines to Peel, Ramsey and Foxdale.
Burmarsh Road railway station is a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England. It is four miles south of Hythe.
Romney Sands Railway Station is a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England. It is located on the bleakest part of the Romney Marsh, a shingle peninsula.
St Mary's Bay, also known as The Bay, is a coastal village in Kent, England. Situated on Romney Marsh, St Mary's Bay has a long sandy beach which stretches north to Dymchurch and south to Littlestone-on-Sea. It has a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.
New Romney railway station is a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in New Romney, Kent, England. It has always been the headquarters location of the railway.
Dungeness railway station is a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway on Romney Marsh in Kent.
The Pilot Inn railway station was a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England.
Prince of Wales Halt railway station was a short-lived station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England.
Botolphs Bridge Halt railway station was a little-used station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England.
Dungeness was a railway station which served the Dungeness headland in Kent, England. Opened in 1883 by The Lydd Railway Company, it closed to passengers in 1937. Part of the line which served the station is converted to the main access road as a means of transporting atomic waste from nearby Dungeness nuclear power station.
Greatstone is a beach-side town, the third town up from the "point" of the Romney Marsh area of Kent. It is situated near the largest town there, New Romney in Kent, England. Although permission was given for a company to construct large numbers of homes and facilities in the 1920s, only a small number were actually built. There was widespread development in the 1960s and 1970s, however, leading to a sizable community. The church of St Peter's, built in the 1960s, is a daughter church of All Saints, Lydd, in which parish half of Greatstone is situated. It is in the civil parish of Lydd. There is a small group of shops at one end of the town, and the other end simply melds into Lydd-on-Sea. The local school is the Greatstone Primary School, from which most students either go on to The Marsh Academy, the Folkestone School for Girls or the Harvey Grammar School.
New Romney and Littlestone-on-Sea was a railway station which lay in between the villages of New Romney and Littlestone-on-Sea in Kent, England. The station opened in 1884 and closed in 1967.
Broadmeadow Locomotive Depot was a large locomotive depot consisting of two roundhouse buildings and associated facilities constructed by the New South Wales Government Railways adjacent to the marshalling yard on the Main Northern line at Broadmeadow. Construction of the locomotive depot at Broadmeadow commenced in 1923 to replace the existing crowded loco sheds at Woodville Junction at Hamilton, with the depot opening in March 1924. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.