East Kent Light Railway - Stations On Main Line

Stations On Main Line

All stations were basic, featuring a platform, seat, nameboard and hut (usually wooden). None had a toilet. Lighting was by one or two oil lamps on posts at staffed stations; unstaffed ones also initially, but it is unclear how long this was kept up.

Mileages in miles and chains, from Shepherdswell for the main line and Eastry for the branch.

Stations or sidings served:

• Shepherdswell 0:00. (Railway headquarters. Terminus next to the SECR main line station. Had a dead-end spur to the platform but no loop, company offices in wooden scout-hut, public telephone in the station hut, round metal archive store initially intended as waiting-room, two-track goods yard and a brick ex-garage near the offices described as a "tool pattern store".)
• North Bank Siding.
• Eythorne. 1:52. (Had a siding, bypass loop leading on to Tilmanstone Colliery branch and a brick hut.)
• Elvington Halt. 2:32. Was "Tilmanstone Colliery Halt", 1916 to 1927, when the platform was rebuilt in brick. (Access from Elvington was via a footpath called "Burgess Hill". The site survives as a small wood.)
• Knowlton Halt. 3:42. (west of Thorntonhill Cottages, south of level crossing.)
• Hersden Siding. (near the following, on the other side of the crossing.)
• Eastry South. 5:17. (Opened in 1925. North of Heronden Road level crossing.)
• Eastry 5:52. (South of Selsdon Road bridge. Had a loop. A road block from the Second World War invasion scare is listed as leaving remains under the bridge.)
• Woodnesborough 6:45. (actually in the hamlet of Drainless Drove. West of Hammill Road level crossing. Had a siding, loading dock and water tank. Opened as "Woodnesborough Colliery". Now occupied by a mushroom farm.)
• Moat Farm Siding (no passengers).
• Ash Town. 8:00 (by Meadow Cottage, west of footpath from Pudding Lane. The station entrance is marked by a cherry tree. Ash was never a town, but would have become one if the steelworks at Richborough Port had been built.)
• Poulton Farm Siding (no passengers).
• Staple 8:66. (west of Durlock Road crossing, just south of farm entrance. The most important station for goods. Had a brick hut, loop and four sidings and water tank with windpump. Also known as "Staple & Ash".)
• Wingham Colliery. 10:29. (north side of Staple Road, east of Dambridge Farm entrance, where new wood boundary meets road.)
• Wingham Engineering Siding.
• Wingham Town. 10:65. (E. of Adisham road level crossing, SE corner of cemetery, where there is a private car parking place. Before the extension to Canterbury Road it had a loop and siding. The place was a town in the Middle Ages.)
• Wingham (Canterbury Road). 11:27. (west of crossing, now a ploughed field. The low embankment east of the crossing is visible. The goods spur was on this side of the road, with the circular corrugated iron goods shed identical to the archive shed at Shepherdswell. There was no loop; the nearest was at Staple.)

There is anecdotal evidence that passenger trains stopped unofficially on request at the private farm sidings at Ash, also that goods vans were left loose on the running line between stations overnight for farmers to load.

Shepherdswell, Eythorne, Eastry, Woodnesborough, Staple and Wingham Canterbury Road were staffed. Otherwise tickets were sold by the train guard.