Tonbridge Railway Station

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tonbridge
Tonbridge railway station entrance 2007.jpg
Data
Platform tracks 4th
abbreviation VOLUME
Price range B.
opening May 26, 1842
location
City / municipality Tonbridge
county Kent
Part of the country England
Country United Kingdom
Coordinates 51 ° 11 '28 "  N , 0 ° 16' 16"  E Coordinates: 51 ° 11 '28 "  N , 0 ° 16' 16"  E
Railway lines
List of train stations in the United Kingdom
i16 i16 i18

Class H on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway in 1958
Train from Redhill 1958

Tonbridge station (formerly Tunbridge ) is on the South Eastern Main Line from London to Dover , while the Redhill – Tonbridge railway and the Hastings Line branch off in Tonbridge . The station, which has four platform tracks, is operated by Southeastern and the connections by Southeastern and Southern .

history

The South Eastern Railway (SER) reached Tonbridge (then Tunbridge ) in May 1842. The location of the original station was on the east side of the road bridge over the railway line, opposite today's western location. The last remains of the Tonbridge Priory disappeared when the station was built . Until December 1842 Tonbridge served as the temporary end point of the route from London Bridge over Croydon and Redhill, over the Brighton Main Line and the Redhill – Tonbridge railway line , on December 1, 1842 the continuation to Ashford was put into operation. On February 7th, the South Eastern Main Line reached Dover. A small engine shed was built in Tonbridge ; probably already at the opening of the route. On September 20, 1845, a branch line to Tunbridge Wells opened and the station was renamed Tunbridge Junction . In the next few years the branch line was extended to Hastings . The access to the route to Hastings was only possible indirectly by turning around. In 1857 a steep, direct route was opened.

Due to the track sharing with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the competitor London, Chatham and Dover Railway , the SER decided to build a new line from London Bridge via Chislehurst and Orpington . In Tonbridge, the new route should meet the old one again. Therefore, in 1864, the station was relocated to its current position with four platforms. The original station was demolished in 1865 after it closed, but the entrance gates are still in place. One is on Vale Road, the other on Priory Road as the entrance to a parking lot.

The abbreviation was opened in 1868. Soon a large engine shed was built. From May 1893 the station was called Tonbridge Junction after the place had been renamed to avoid confusion with Tunbridge Wells . At that time there were two continuous platform tracks, two through tracks and two butt tracks at the western end of the station. These stub tracks were used for traffic to Redhill and Sevenoaks . The indirect link to Tunbridge Wells remained in operation until about 1913, after which it was closed and the tracks dismantled. Since November 1919, the station roofing had the name TONBRIDGE in white letters. This served as a navigation aid for aircraft.

The Southern Railway renamed the station Tonbridge in July 1929 . It was rebuilt in 1935, and the southern stump track became a through track. This also entailed a reconstruction of the road bridge in front of the station.

By May 1958, the brick station building on Hauptstrasse was rebuilt, with a tiled facade. The line from Sevenoaks to Dover was electrified in 1961 with 750-volt power rails , as is common in southern England. The line to Tunbridge Wells and Hastings was electrified in 1986 and the line to Redhill was finally electrified in 1993 as part of improvements to the opening of the Channel Tunnel .

Eurostar connections ran through Tonbridge until the opening of the first part of High Speed ​​One on September 28, 2003.

The station was renovated between 2011 and 2012.

Platforms

There are four tracks on two partially covered central platforms , with two through tracks in between.

Platform 1/2:

Platform 3/4:

Connections (as of December 2016)

Train connections outside of rush hour:

Storage and freight yard

There are freight and sidings on both sides of the station.

The four sidings

To the east are four sidings and a two-track shed, used by Network Rail for the storage of maintenance equipment and material deliveries. This takes up part of the space of the former engine shed.

The unused post station is a bit in the direction of Paddock Wood. This was opened in 1995 to send mail and parcels to the nearby Royal Mail sorting point , and soon afterwards it was no longer in use, as mail was mainly carried by road.

To the west, between the route to Redhill and the “West Yard” freight yard, there are four electrified “Jubilee” sidings for trains that are not in service. The adjacent freight yard owned by GB Railfreight has sixteen non-electrified tracks; it is mainly used to park construction trains. The freight yard was built in 1941 as part of improvements for freight trains during the Second World War. The freight yard is spanned by a pedestrian bridge.

The Tonbridge signal box is located at the eastern entrance to the “Jubilee” siding and freight yard. Built in 1962, its use is still limited.

On the main line towards London there are two short electrified tracks for parking trains.

Accidents

  • In 1846 a bridge over the River Medway collapsed in a flood. The engine driver died trying to jump off the train.
  • On March 5, 1909, a train in the direction of Redhill ran over a stop signal and collided with a train from London Charing Cross to Dover harbor . Two railway employees were killed and eleven passengers injured. A third train was stopped in front of the scene of the accident because of the prompt action of two conductors. As a result of this accident, the Royal Train with King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra was diverted at Chislehurst and drove to Dover by another route.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith: Tonbridge to Hastings . Middleton Press, Eastbourne 1987, ISBN 0-906520-44-4 .
  2. ^ Arthur Neve: The Tonbridge of Yesterday (1933), The Tonbridge Free Press
  3. ↑ The Priory . Tonbridge Historical Society. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
  4. ^ Brian Jewell: Down the line to Hastings . Middleton Press, Easebourne 1984, ISBN 0-85936-223-X , pp. 13 .
  5. ↑ http://www.tonbridgehistory.org.uk/history/timeline.htm
  6. ↑ http://kentrail.org.uk/tonbridge%203.htm
  7. ↑ Aerial Signposts . In: Flight . No. 20 November 1919, September, p. 1494.
  8. ^ Text about electrification in Kent on southernelectric.org.uk (English) ( Memento from December 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Special ticket for the opening of electrical operations 1066 ticket front.jpg(click to view).
  10. ↑ a b c National Rail timetable board 206
  11. ↑ a b c National Rail timetable board 207
  12. ↑ National Rail timetable board 208
  13. ↑ http://www.networkrail.co.uk/signal-box-register.xls (link not available)
  14. ↑ Impact of scour and flood risk on railway structures . Rail Safety and Standards Board. Archived from the original on May 22, 2005. Retrieved May 18, 2010.
  15. ^ Frank Chapman: Rail crash publicity huge as quick thinking saves King and Queen. In: Kent and Sussex Courier, Courier Group Newspapers, March 6, 2009.

literature

  • RVJ Butt: The Directory of Railway Stations . Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford 1995, ISBN 1-85260-508-1 .
  • Frank Chapman: Rail crash publicity huge as quick thinking saves King and Queen . In: Kent and Sussex Courier , Courier Group Newspapers, March 6, 2009. Retrieved March 7, 2009. 
  • Brian Jewell: Down the line to Hastings . The Baton Press, Southborough 1984, ISBN 0-85936-223-X .
  • Vic Mitchell, Keith Smith: Tonbridge to Hastings . Middleton Press, Easebourne 1987, ISBN 0-906520-44-4 .
  • Arthur Neve: The Tonbridge of Yesterday . The Tonbridge Free Press, 1933, p.  Facing page 126 .

Web links

Commons : Tonbridge Railway Station  - Collection of Images

←
 Lines
→
Hildenborough railroad South Eastern Main Line
Southeastern 		Paddock Wood
Sevenoaks railroad Hastings Line
Southeastern 		High brooms
Beginning railroad Medway Valley Line
Southeastern 		Paddock Wood