Paddock Wood Station

Paddock Wood station approach today. The entrance is on the up side (London bound side). Originally the main buildings were on the down side and although grand in style they were deemed superflous and eventually demolished.

Probably less than 20 metres above sea level the station was built in 1842 by the South Eastern Railway (SER) as a stop on the way from Redhill or London to Folkestone, Dover and the Kent ports. Originally known as 'Maidstone Road' as then it was the nearest station to Maidstone, it later became known as 'Paddock Wood' after the wood that once occupied the space. The platforms were built four tracks apart which meant that powerful locomotives could thunder beween London and the coast without needing to slow down. The other two tracks adjacent to the platforms were for stopping services. In 1844 the Medway Valley Line was built though which connected up Maidstone and a few surrounding villages with Paddock Wood, the station would have grown in importance as a result. Books show diagams of the station with numerous sidings for goods traffic all of which have now dissapeared on the up side at least.

It seems strange that nobody lived here in 1842 but with the trains came work and people and Paddock Wood is a real railway town. Not surprisingly there are no very old buildings in the town. One other thing, the station gets a mention in one of Charles Dickens books 'Dombey and Son' when a character is killed off trying to cross the line . Accidents were probably quite common in the nineteenth century, indeed Dickens himself was involved in a horrible accident in 1865 near Staplehurst, two stops down the line (on a train operated by the SER).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staplehurst_rail_crash

Some preliminary work on the Hawkhurst branch began in 1879 but money soon ran out, however, part of it was up and running by 1892 which further enhanced Paddock Wood Station's importance.

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I want to buy a platform ticket to take some pictures from the platform but there are no staff and the one ticket office is closed, I am forced to go to the one machine ('robot' to me) but that doesn't work. While I am struggling with the robot three people ask me if there is anyone around who can help? A grandmother is taking her daughter and grandchildren up to London for a trip and finds it rather daunting. At this point a digitised voice (robot to me) 'apologises' and announces that the driver of the next train to Victoria has been taken ill, so it has been cancelled (they obviously don't pay relief drivers any more). Some older people start muttering to themselves about this but I notice that the teenagers immeditely return to their iphones. In the corner a guy from some franchise tries to sell people coffee.

I wander onto the platform (without a ticket), I used to come here every working day in the 1980's on my way up to London and wait on the upside platform, at the time I never knew that the bay on the south side of the platform once served the Hawkhurst Branch. Then there used to still be the original rusty rails and another siding beyond (used by a fruit importer) for goods traffic. Question, when did you last see a goods train in the South East? In my case I have hardly seen one in thirty years.

Looking west towards London, the platform has been lengthened to the east at some point. Up until 1961 the Hawkhurst branch signal box would have stood here (before the platform was lengthened). It was a gantry like structure raised up on steel rails and trains would have to pass beneath it. Signalmen would need to climb up three flights of steps to enter the structure.

This is the remains of the bay platform. (It looks like the platform has been widened to allow more passenger space at some point prior to 1989).

Next to the end of the new platform extension is a museum exhibit, a section of the track preserved where it once ran parallel to the main lines. (I believe that this section of track survived  until it was lifted early in 1989).

Outside the station again. Here is a view of Paddock Wood Station No 2 Carpark  which has been built over the southern bay track and adjacent sidings.

This was not the original platform edge. As I stated earlier it looks like the platform has been widened. 

More views of the bay platform from the overflow car park, the last one shows the end of the bay platform, the peeling paint on the edge is perhaps 30 years old? The water for the steam locomotives serving the Hawkhurst Line was a column with a big wheel, adjacent to the end of the bay platform and once stood two tracks over from where this picture is taken from. 






31553 in the Bay Platform