A "might have been" terminus in North East Kent

[whart57]

So what happens next?

 

Grouping comes in 1923, and for a branch - or two branches like Reculver - little changes. The paint scheme changes, different locomotives appear and there is some rationalisation. The SER signal box is closed and its functions moved to the ex-LCDR box and the trains from Grove Ferry now run to a platform created alongside the former LCDR station. As these trains are nearly all operated by push-pull sets a run round is not required. The former SER station platform is no longer used for passengers but remains in place as a parcels siding.

 

Things are a little hairy during WW2 and passenger services between Reculver and Grove Ferry might well be suspended given the danger from German tip and run raiders. Then in 1953, floods cut the Kent Coast line and Reculver becomes busy as the terminus of the stub from Faversham.

 

The basic services on these two lines are little changed from 1923 to 1959. On the former SER line there is a push-pull shuttle to Canterbury West and the basic service on the former LCDR line is a local to Faversham made up of a three coach set headed by a former SECR 4-4-0.

 

Rail services to the harbour are dwindling, reflecting a decline in coastal shipping. Coal no longer comes in by sea and the only regular traffic is grain for the brewers and millers of Canterbury and Ashford.

 

Then in 1959 the juice appears, and the LCDR line receives the third rail as part of the first phase of Kent Coast Electrification. The former SER line is passed over when two years later the Ashford-Ramsgate line is electrified. After electrification the loco facilities are removed and things tidied up. The plan below is my take on how things look in 1965

 

 

 

The red indicates where the third rail is provided.

 

The goods shed is still open but on borrowed time, closure will follow in a year or two. The former loco coaling stage is now handling domestic coal, that having been moved out of the goods yard as the live rail on the carriage siding beside the platform makes it too hazardous to keep it in the former location. The loco shed is now a workshop for a private industry.

 

There is still one link to the harbour but it is rarely used and will soon be lifted.

 

Electrification has brought big changes. Most trains on the LCDR line are direct London services, running EMUs means a two or four coach portion can be attached/detached at Herne Bay to a Ramsgate train. The pattern is set for one fast Victoria service every hour interspersed with a slow Charing Cross service. Reculver starts to become more attractive as a dormitory town.

 

I think we should assume that staple stories in the Kentish Gazette during the 60s and 70s are threats to close the Grove Ferry connection alternated with calls from local councillors to electrify it. For now though a two car DEMU shuttles between Reculver and Canterbury West during the day.

 

Let's say then that in one of the periodic "invest in railways" periods in politics that the Grove Ferry line gets its third rail. then the situation in 1985 might look like this:

 

 

 

Quite a bit of rationalisation has gone on. The goods yard is closed and tracks lifted bar a couple of sidings used by the engineering department to park stuff. The former SER platform still handles parcels and side loading vans for business on the neighbouring industrial park. The passenger services now are the ones we determined on the original thread helping Ray Von make a timetable for his Dent-de-Lion layout, namely:

• A fast service to London Victoria made up of a four coach unit which attaches to an ex-Ramsgate train at Herne Bay
• A slow service to London Charing Cross made up of a 2-HAP which attaches to an ex-Ramsgate train at Herne Bay
• Rush hour services to London Cannon Street
• A local service to Dover via Minster (by-passing Grove Ferry) and Deal
• An off-peak service to London Victoria via Canterbury, Ashford and Maidstone

And at this point I bow out.

Edited May 19, 2023 by whart57
Restored track plans

[Ray Von]

I'd love LOVE to find a 2HAP (or two) in N Gauge...

Thanks for this thread, I really enjoy reading and re-reading it, you have a great imagination coupled with a solid grounding on the reality of the subject.  Thank you very much.

[The Lurker]

One service that could be considered is an equivalent of the service that ran a couple of times a day in the 1920s/30s between Sheerness and Brighton (reverse at Strood, reverse at Tonbridge). It could either run along the LCDR line, pretty much as the actual service did. Or it could run on the SER line via Ashford and so reverse at Tonbridge only.

 

This could give extra rolling stock / motive power variety.

 

[whart57]

I've just been through restoring track plans and some of the pictures lost in the Great Crash

[whart57]

This pic from the Kent Photo Archive turned up on another of my feeds. It shows where this imaginary line would have ended up. So imagine a functioning church rather than a ruin and a harbour where the sluice pool is - the stretch of water visible through the former church east window. The path past the cottages would be a street leading down to the station and harbour.

 

 

(https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=757358763098287&set=a.463117125855787)