Queenborough railway station

Queenborough National Rail
Location
Place Queenborough
Local authority Swale
Grid reference TQ913721
Operations
Station code QBR
Managed by Southeastern
Number of platforms 2
DfT category E
Live arrivals/departures, station information and onward connections
from National Rail Enquiries
Annual rail passenger usage*
2004/05   0.162 million
2005/06 Increase 0.179 million
2006/07 Decrease 0.167 million
2007/08 Increase 0.167 million
2008/09 Decrease 0.164 million
2009/10 Decrease 0.151 million
2010/11 Increase 0.153 million
2011/12 Decrease 0.142 million
2012/13 Decrease 0.120 million
2013/14 Decrease 0.119 million
2014/15 Decrease 0.118 million
History
Original company Sittingbourne and Sheerness Railway
London, Chatham and Dover Railway
Pre-grouping South Eastern and Chatham Railway
Post-grouping Southern Railway
19 July 1860 Opened
National Rail – UK railway stations
* Annual estimated passenger usage based on sales of tickets in stated financial year(s) which end or originate at Queenborough from Office of Rail and Road statistics. Methodology may vary year on year.
UK Railways portal

Queenborough railway station is on the Sheerness Line, on the Isle of Sheppey in North Kent, and serves the town of Queenborough. Train services are provided by Southeastern.

Services

The typical off-peak service from the station is two trains per hour to Sheerness-on-Sea, and two trains per hour to Sittingbourne, for connections to London.

On Platform 2 (Sheerness bound), there is a substantial and historic 2-storey building which contains a ticket office on the ground floor; this is staffed on a part-time basis. There is a self-service ticket machine by the side gate beside the station building to Platform 2. A new train information display with announcements have been installed on each platform replacing the old display on platform 1 which used to show trains in both directions. There are also signals at either end of each platform so if there was a problem with one of the platforms, trains could use the other for services in each direction.

Since January 2015, Southeastern operate two direct services from Sheerness-on-Sea to London Victoria in the morning peak, not stopping at Swale. These services do not stop at Sittingbourne but use the third side of a triangle junction that links the Sheerness Line to the Chatham Mainline. There will also be two return services from London Victoria to Sheerness-on-Sea in the evening peak. This services are formed of Class 465 and Class 466 Networkers working in multiple.

Preceding station   National Rail   Following station
Southeastern
Historical railways
Line and station open
South Eastern and Chatham Railway
Sheerness Dockyard
Line and station closed
Queenborough Pier
Line and station closed
Line open, station closed
South Eastern and Chatham Railway
Queenborough Pier
Line and station closed
Line and station open
Disused railways
TerminusSouthern Railway
Line and station closed

History

Queenborough was opened on 19 July 1860[1][2] by the Sittingbourne and Sheerness Railway (S&SR), a nominally independent company which had powers to construct a 7.125-mile (11.467-kilometre) branch line from Sittingbourne across the River Swale to a terminus near the entrance of Sheerness Dockyard.[3] The line was worked from the outset by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway which absorbed the S&SR in 1876.[3][4][5]

On 15 May 1876, Queenborough became a junction station with the opening of a short spur to Queenborough Pier to serve steam ship services.[1][2] A second line was added on 1 August 1901 with the opening of the Sheppey Light Railway, a 8.75-mile (14.08-kilometre) light railway across the Isle of Sheppey to Leysdown.[6][7] There was no direct connection with the Sheerness Line and trains for Leysdown departed from the outer face of a newly constructed island platform at Queenborough.[8][9] An iron footbridge was erected at the southern end of the platforms to facilitate passengers changing between main line and branch services.[10] Services on the Sheppey Light Railway ceased as from 4 December 1950.[11]

Until the opening of Swale Halt in 1922, Queenborough was the only intermediate station on the Sheerness Line.[12][13] The imposing two-storey station building has a strong Victorian character with their high-pitched gables and round-headed sash windows.[12] The building is in a similar style to Lymington Town railway station which dates from the same period, a resemblance which may be explained by the fact that the construction of both the Lymington Branch Line and the S&SR was overseen by John Cass Birkinshaw who was replaced as engineer on the S&SR after the company's directors blamed him for the line's slow construction.[14]

A wooden waiting shelter was provided on the Up side but not on the Down side.[15] The station also had a sizeable goods shed and goods yard on the Up side adjacent to the main station building.[16] Sidings on the Down side served the Sheerness Steel plant and provided connections for MCD car traffic and shipbreaking activities.[17] There was a signal box on the Up side which was located at the point where the Sheppey branch curved away to the east;[18] this closed on 24 May 1959.[19] By this time, the goods shed had already been demolished although the goods yard remained open until 16 August 1971.[19][20] The line through Queenborough was electrified and the platforms were lengthened in 1959 as part of phase I of the Kent Coast Electrification.[21]

By 1993, much of the station building was no longer in use and only the booking office was staffed on weekdays until mid-morning.[22]

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 Butt 1995, p. 193.
  2. 1 2 Quick 2009, p. 324.
  3. 1 2 Gray 1984, p. 113.
  4. ↑ White 1992, p. 45.
  5. ↑ Awdry 1990, p. 198.
  6. ↑ White 1987, p. 93.
  7. ↑ Dendy Marshall & Kidner 1963, p. 364.
  8. ↑ White 1987, p. 94.
  9. ↑ Course 1974, p. 151.
  10. ↑ Hart 1992, p. 39.
  11. ↑ Hart 1992, p. 94.
  12. 1 2 Course 1974, p. 150.
  13. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 1993, fig. 46.
  14. ↑ Glasspool, David. "Queenborough". Kent Rail. Retrieved 2012-06-27.
  15. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 1993, figs. 47 and 52.
  16. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 1993, fig. 48.
  17. ↑ Body 1989, p. 175.
  18. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 1993, fig. X.
  19. 1 2 Mitchell & Smith 1993, fig. 55.
  20. ↑ Clinker 1978, p. 113.
  21. ↑ Moody 1979, p. 135.
  22. ↑ Mitchell & Smith 1993, fig. 57.

Sources

  • Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0049-7. OCLC 19514063. 
  • Body, Geoffrey (1989) [1984]. Railways of the Southern Region. Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-85260-297-X. 
  • Butt, R. V. J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199. 
  • Clinker, C.R. (October 1978). Clinker's Register of Closed Passenger Stations and Goods Depots in England, Scotland and Wales 1830-1977. Bristol, Avon: Avon-AngliA Publications & Services. ISBN 0-905466-19-5. 
  • Course, Edwin (1974). The Railways of Southern England: Secondary and Branch Lines. London: B.T. Batsford. ISBN 0-7134-2835-X. 
  • Dendy Marshall, C.F.; Kidner, R.W. (1963) [1937]. History of the Southern Railway. 2. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0059-X. 
  • Gray, Adrian (1984). The London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Rainham: Meresborough Books. ISBN 978-0-905270-88-3. 
  • Hart, Brian (1992). The Sheppey Light Railway. Didcot: Wild Swan Publications. ISBN 1-874103-09-7. 
  • Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (July 1993). Branch Lines Around Sheerness. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 1-8737-9316-2. 
  • Moody, G.T. (1979) [1957]. Southern Electric 1909-1979. Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0924-4. 
  • Quick, Michael (2009) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (4th ed.). Oxford: Railway and Canal Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-901461-57-5. OCLC 612226077. 
  • White, H.P. (1987) [1976]. Forgotten Railways: South-East England. 6. Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles. ISBN 978-0-946537-37-2. 
  • White, H.P. (1992) [1961]. A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Southern England. 2). Nairn, Scotland: David St John Thomas. ISBN 0-946537-77-1. 

Coordinates: 51°24′56.31″N 0°44′59.08″E / 51.4156417°N 0.7497444°E / 51.4156417; 0.7497444

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