Sandling railway station


Sandling railway station is on the South Eastern Main Line in England, serving the village of Sandling and the town of Hythe, Kent. It is down the line from London Charing Cross. The station and all trains that call are operated by Southeastern.

History

The station was opened as Sandling Junction on 1 January 1888 by the South Eastern Railway. The station was situated at the junction of the SER mainline and the Sandgate branch line that had opened in 1874 between and.
There was four platforms with a footbridge over the mainline, two signal boxes and goods sidings either side of the branch line. The goods yard was able to accommodate most types of goods including live stock.
The up branch platform was closed when the line to Sandgate was cut back to Hythe and the branch line singled in 1931.
The station was host to a Southern Railway camping coach in 1939.
The branch line to Hythe was closed on 3 December 1951 and the down branch platform was closed. At the same time the station was renamed Sandling for Hythe.
A camping coach was also positioned here by the Southern Region from 1954 to 1959, the coach was replaced in 1960 by two Pullman camping coaches until 1964 then from 1965 to 1967 there were three of them. The coaches were fitted with a full kitchen, two sleeping compartments and a room with two single beds.
On 12 May 1980 the station was renamed as Sandling.
It is the closest station to Saltwood Castle and it is frequently mentioned in the Alan Clark Diaries.
In 2020 the disused branch platform is still in situ.

Facilities

The ticket office is manned only during part of the day; at other times a ticket machine, located outside the station building on the 'up' side, suffices.

Services

As of September 2016 the typical off peak services from this station are: