Walmer railway station

Not to be confused with Walmer railway station, New South Wales.

Walmer railway station serves Walmer in Kent, England. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southeastern.

Walmer
General information
Location	Walmer, Dover England
Grid reference	TR364503
Managed by	Southeastern
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	WAM
Classification	DfT category E
History
Opened	17 June 1881
Original company	Dover and Deal Joint Railway
Pre-grouping	Dover and Deal Joint Railway
Post-grouping	Southern Railway
Passengers
2018/19	0.227 million
2019/20	0.229 million
2020/21	64,392
2021/22	0.147 million
2022/23	0.179 million
Notes Passenger statistics from the Office of Rail and Road

Facilities

The station has two platforms, connected by a subway. A ticket office is open part-time.^[1]

History

The first plans for a station here were by the Kent Railway in 1836.^[2] However, Walmer was slow to grow as a resort compared to many other towns on the Kent coastline, and progress stalled. Further schemes to connect Walmer to the railway network were proposed in November 1846 and March 1854, but neither secured sufficient funding.^[3] The London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LDCR) announced plans for a line between Walmer, Deal and Adisham in October 1872, but failed to secure the funding from Parliament.^[4]

Construction of the station was delayed owing to problems buying the relevant land, and it cost £14,000 to build.^[5] The station was opened on 15 June 1881 by the Dover and Deal Joint Railway when it opened the line from an end-on connection at Deal to Buckley Junction near Dover.^[6][7] The line was the only one jointly owned by the rival South Eastern Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway and remained independent until the Grouping.^[8] The line has been described as one of the more spectacular in southern England.^[9] Gas lighting was installed at the station by the end of the year.^[10] A station closer to the sea was proposed in 1898, but rejected.^[11]

A Pullman camping coach was positioned here by the Southern Region from 1963 to 1967.^[12] Goods services were withdrawn from the station in 1961.^[13]

Services

All services at Walmer are operated by Southeastern using Class 375 and 395 EMUs.

The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is:^[14]

• 1 tph to London St Pancras International
• 1 tph to Ramsgate

Additional services, including trains to and from London Charing Cross via Tonbridge call at the station during the peak hours.

Preceding station	National Rail			Following station
Martin Mill		Southeastern Kent Coast Line		Deal

Incidents

On 6 July 1898, a set of vehicles at the station broke free and ran down the incline towards Deal, where they collided with an empty train, causing £269 of damage.^[15]

References

Citations

1. "Walmer". National Rail. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
2. Gray 1990, p. 251.
3. Gray 1990, p. 254.
4. Gray 1990, p. 253.
5. Gray 1990, pp. 255–256.
6. Quick 2022, p. 464.
7. Grant 2017, p. 152.
8. Casserley 1968, p. 115.
9. White 1992, p. 60.
10. Gray 1990, p. 256.
11. Gray 1990, p. 257.
12. McRae 1998, p. 59.
13. McCarthy & McCarthy 2007, p. 128.
14. Table 207 National Rail timetable, December 2021
15. Gray 1990, p. 258.

Sources

• Casserley, H. C. (1968). Britain's Joint Lines. London: Ian Allan. ISBN 0-7110-0024-7.
• Grant, Donald J. (2017). Directory of the Railway Companies of Great Britain (1st ed.). Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78803-768-6.
• Gray, Adrian (1990). South Eastern Railway. Middleton Press. ISBN 978-0-906520-85-7.
• McCarthy, Colin; McCarthy, David (2007). Railways of Britain : Kent and Sussex. Ian Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-3222-4.
• McRae, Andrew (1998). British Railways Camping Coach Holidays: A Tour of Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. Vol. Scenes from the Past: 30 (Part Two). Foxline. p. 59. ISBN 1-870119-53-3.
• Quick, Michael (2022) [2001]. Railway passenger stations in Great Britain: a chronology (PDF). version 5.04. Railway & Canal Historical Society. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2022.
• White, H. P. (1992). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Vol. 2 Southern England (5th ed.). Nairn, Scotland: David St John Thomas. p. 60. ISBN 0-946537-77-1.

External links

• Train times and station information for Walmer railway station from National Rail

51.203°N 1.383°E / 51.203; 1.383