Longfield Halt railway station

Infobox UK disused station
name = Longfield Halt
gridref = TQ599698


caption = Site of Longfield Halt, now part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link
manager = South Eastern and Chatham Railway
owner = Southern Railway
Southern Region of British Railways
locale = Grubb Street
borough = Dartford, Kent
platforms = 1
years = 1 July 1913
events = Opened
years1 = 3 August 1953
events1 = Closed [Butt, R.V.J. (1995). "The Directory of Railway Stations", Patrick Stephens Ltd, Sparkford, ISBN 1-85260-508-1, p. 149.]

Longfield Halt (also known as "Longfield Halt for Pinden and Westwood") was a railway station on the Gravesend West Line which served the settlement of Grubb Street in Kent, England.

History

The station was opened in 1913, seventeen years after the commencement of services on the line, as part of a drive by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) to cut costs and increase revenues on the Gravesend West branch. [cite book | last = Oppitz | first = Leslie | title = Lost Railways of Kent | publisher = Countryside Books | date = 2003 | location = Newbury, Berkshire | pages =p. 98 | isbn = 978-1853068034 ] Longfield Halt was now the first station on the line and was situated ¾ mile from Fawkham Junction in a chalk cutting just to the south-west of a road bridge carrying Whitehill Road over the line. [Cite book | author=Kidner, R.W. | title=Southern Railway Halts: Survey and Gazetteer | date=1985 | publisher=The Oakwood Press | location=Headington, Oxford | isbn=0-85361-321-4 | pages=p. 49]

The station was constructed entirely of wood, with access being had from a staircase leading down from the overbridge. Its opening coincided with the introduction by the SECR of push-pull trains, initially worked by H class 0-4-4Ts with ex-South Eastern Railway 4 wheel coaches, running between Swanley Junction and Gravesend West Street. [cite book | last = Pallant | first = N. | title = The Gravesend West Branch | publisher = The Oakwood Press | date = 1984 | location = Blandford, Dorset | pages =p. 13 | isbn = 0853613079 ] Although ultimately never successful, the line began to suffer in the face of competition from local bus services following the Second World War, and freight dropped off. The decision was therefore made to close all stations on the branch line to passenger traffic as from 3 August 1953. In 1959, the line was singled and the platform buildings at Longfield Halt were demolished along with those at neighbouring Southfleet. [Oppitz, L., op. cit. p. 100.] The line running through Longfield remained open for freight until 1976, and the track remained even as late as 1985. [Cite book | author=White, H.P. | title=Forgotten Railways: Vol. 6 South-East England | date=1987 | publisher=David St John Thomas | location=Newton Abbot, Devon| isbn=0-94653-737-2 | pages=p. 128-129]

Present day

The site of Longfield Halt has been incorporated into the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL) which runs from London through Kent to the British side of the Channel Tunnel. Works on the CTRL commenced in 1998 with the lifting of the remaining track on the Gravesend Branch and the excavation of a new trackbed. [ [http://www.kentrail.co.uk/medway%20viaduct.htm Kent Rail, "Medway Viaduct".] ] CTRL services followed the alignment of the Gravesend Branch as far as Fawkham Junction where they joined the Chatham Main Line to proceed to Waterloo. [ [http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/rail/pi/ctrl/thechanneltunnelraillinkintr341 Department of Transport, "The Channel Tunnel Rail Link: Introduction".] ]

References