Trains at: Tonbridge, SEML, 09/03/24
134A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon session spent at Tonbridge on the South Eastern Railway Mainline where we see plenty of services from South Eastern, Southern and freight from GBRF.
This isn't the original station, the first station was built and opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1842 and was located to the eastern side of the road bridge that passes over the station. When the original station was built it also meant the end of the Priory that was situated on the site.
During this time the line was running to and from London Bridge via Redhill and Croydon using the Brighton Mainline, it's worth noting that the station was opened in May 1842 and until December of that year was used as a terminus station until the line was opened heading towards Ashford.
Eventually the line to Dover was opened and as such a small engine shed was built to cater for the servicing of the growing fleet and length of the line.
3 years later the line to Tunbridge Wells was opened. Well it was a branch line in all honesty and the station was changed to Tunbridge Junction. The next few years following the line was extended and eventually opened up in Hastings.
Throughout the the next 50 years various changes were made to the station and the surrounding areas. But I'll jump forward to 1929 when the Southern Railway changed the name of the station from Tunbridge to Tonbridge. Totally worth it I know.
In 1935 one of the bay platforms was transformed into a through platform to ease access to the station for the trains.
In 1958 the brick station fronting was replaced with a mode modern tile facade. The line from Sevenoaks to Dover was electrified in 1961, this was done when the Southern Region was improving journey times across that area as part of the Kent Coast Electrification scheme put in place by British Rail. The line from Tonbridge to Hastings was electrified in 1986.
The line towards Redhill was eventually done in 1993 for the Eurostar/Channel Tunnel improvement works.
Eurostar ran trains through Tonbridge until 2003 when the first section of High Speed 1 was built.
My next station will be Hildenborough.
You can find me on Facebook through the group Tornado922, there you will find regular updates, videos and photos from all of my goings on throughout 2024.
You can also find me on Instagram through the name tornado922 where it isn't just rail related content that I produce.
You can now find me on TikTok under the name Tornado_922