Ramsgate Town railway station

Ramsgate Town railway station is a former railway station in Ramsgate, in the Thanet district of Kent, England. It was the seaside resort's first station, but was closed in 1926 when a new, more direct railway line bypassed it and the town's other station, Ramsgate Harbour.

Ramsgate Town
Location	Ramsgate, District of Thanet England
Platforms	4
Other information
Status	Disused
History
Original company	South Eastern Railway (UK)
Pre-grouping	South Eastern Railway (UK)
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Key dates
1846	Opened as Ramsgate
1899	Renamed Ramsgate Town
1926	Closed

History

Ramsgate developed as one of South East England's main seaside resorts in the 19th century. It became a natural target during the "Railway Mania" period of the 1840s, and the South Eastern Railway company was the first to reach it when it built a route which branched off from the South Eastern Main Line at Ashford.[1] This reached Canterbury on 6 February 1846[2] and Ramsgate on 13 April of that year.[1][2] Ramsgate station, as it was then called,[3] was built as a terminus station: when a further extension was built to Margate Sands station on 1 December 1846, trains had to reverse at Ramsgate to continue their journey.[1]

Ramsgate Harbour station opened on 5 October 1863;[4] it was much closer to the seafront and the town centre than the Town station.[1] Both stations bore the name Ramsgate until 1871; the Harbour station was then renamed Ramsgate & St Lawrence-on-Sea. On 1 July 1899, it became Ramsgate Harbour, and Ramsgate was renamed Ramsgate Town.[3][5]

The Southern Railway company took over the South Eastern Railway's operations on 1 January 1923 as a result of the Grouping Act.[1] On 2 July 1926, it opened a new line, 1.6 miles (2.6 km) long, to connect the previously separate routes to the Town and Harbour stations. The route bypassed both stations, and two new stations—Dumpton Park and Ramsgate—were built on it to serve the town.[1] From that date, the section of line between the new junction and Ramsgate Town station, and the station itself, were closed.[2] The station was demolished immediately after closure and the site of the station is now covered by housing development, erasing all trace of the railway. A stub end of the line remains as two carriage sidings adjacent to the south of the present station terminating at Wilfred Road. The route of the line to Ramsgate Town station lies about where Station Approach Road has now been built. The station stood on the west side of Margate Road, at what is now the junction with Station Approach Road.

Accidents and incidents

• On 11 August 1858, a passenger train collided with the buffers. Twenty people were injured.[6]
• On 11 March 1913, a passenger train failed to stop at the station. It pushed a van through the buffer stops. Ten people were injured. The accident was caused by the failure to connect the brake pipe between the locomotive and its train.[7]

References

Notes

1. Body 1984, p. 154.
2. Knight 1986, p. 16.
3. Knight 1986, p. 17.
4. Knight 1986, p. 18.
5. Knight 1986, p. 19.
6. Kidner 1977, p. 48.
7. Earnshaw 1991, p. 15.

Bibliography

• Body, Geoffrey (1984). Railways of the Southern Region. PSL Field Guides. Cambridge: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 0-85059-664-5.
• Earnshaw, Alan (1991). Trains in Trouble: Vol. 7. Penryn: Atlantic Books. ISBN 0-906899-50-8.
• Kidner, R. W. (1977) [1963]. The South Eastern and Chatham Railway. Tarrant Hinton: The Oakwood Press.
• Knight, Andrew (1986). The Railways of South East England. Shepperton: Ian Allan Ltd. ISBN 0-7110-1556-2.

External links

• 1872 map of the neighbourhood of the station

Preceding station		Disused railways		Following station
St Lawrence (Pegwell Bay) Line partly open, station closed		South Eastern Railway Ashford to Ramsgate line		Terminus
Tivoli Line and station closed		South Eastern Railway Margate Sands branch