Westenhanger
Of importance to this
station was the establishment of Folkestone Racecourse in 1898, which partly
absorbed land once belonging to ‘’Westenhanger House’’. In response to the vast
amounts of traffic generated on race days, it was left to the 1899-formed SE&CR
to substantially upgrade the station’s capacity. The solution to this was
interesting: in about 1905, construction of two completely new island platforms,
situated to the west of the existing Westenhanger site, was undertaken. These
virtually formed their own self-contained station, for they commanded their own
signal box and lattice footbridge. The islands combined had four platform faces,
and a footpath directly connected the railway with the racecourse. The provision
of outer loops at these platforms ensured that race day trains did not block the
main running lines for non-stop services. Re-signalling of the general
Westenhanger station area brought a swift end to the aforementioned SER ‘’up’’
side signal cabin. As part of the expansion works, Saxby & Farmer was
commissioned to erect a larger replacement cabin on the site of the very first
signal box, at the western end of the ‘’down’’ platform. The station’s third
signal box was virtually identical in design to the upper half of the cabin
which still survives at Ryde St Johns Road, on the Isle of Wight, and its
increased size saw that it occupied the entire section of the ‘’down’’ platform
located west of the road bridge. This resulted in the removal of the ‘’down’’
side waiting shelter, and the erection of a new timber affair east of the road
bridge. During the same works, the flat-roofed ‘’up’’ side platform canopy was
replaced with an example with a downward-sloping roof.
Throughout Southern Railway and
British Railways existence, the Westenhanger remained little changed, even retaining
its diamond-shaped gas lamps of the Victorian era. A clapboard storage shed had
appeared at the eastern end of the ‘’up’’ platform, on the former site of the
second SER signal box, in about 1935, and platforms had naturally been
heightened over the years by all owning companies, as train sizes increased. The
SR had also completely rebuilt the racecourse platforms and footbridge, using
Exmouth Junction-manufactured prefabricated concrete. It
was the advent of the Kent Coast Electrification which brought the next wave of
changes: of significance is the re-signalling of the Smeeth to Archcliffe
Junction section of the ex-SER’s trunk line on 18th February 1962. Automatic
colour signals controlled from ‘’power boxes’’ replaced semaphore signals and
their associated mechanical cabins. The SER cabin at nearby Sandling was
decommissioned at this time, and at this time it still controlled access to a
long siding. The latter was the remains of the December 1951-closed Hythe and
Sandgate branch, and thereafter, access to the siding was done by means of a
ground frame, released released from Westenhanger’s Saxby & Farmer signal box.
Westehnhanger’s signal cabin had been given a stay of execution, because it
still had a goods yard arrangement to control, despite the advent of the new
colour light signalling. However, goods facilities at the station were soon
withdrawn, such occurring on 25th March 1963. Thereafter, Sandling’s ground
frame was released from Ashford ‘’power box’’. Finally, in 1968, bus shelters
appeared on both platform surfaces, and the station building went into decline.
In more recent times, the decidedly rural landscape has been transformed by the
advent of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. It was announced on 1st April 1999 that
''Balfour Beatty Major Projects'' had won the contract to build the ten mile
Ashford to Cheriton section of the CTRL’s ‘’Phase I’’. Priced at £75 million,
the line was to run its entire length parallel with the existing Kent Coast
route. The double-track CTRL was routed behind the ‘’down’’ side at Westenhanger,
and alterations included completely rebuilding the brown-brick road bridge
in-between the staggered platform surfaces. In its place, a completely new
165-foot-long bridge was installed, which spanned both Kent Coast and CTRL
lines. As a result, the ‘’down’’ side was the recipient of a completely new
staircase, and palisade fencing was installed along the rear of the platform.
Formal completion of this stretch of line, combined with the whole of CTRL Phase
1, came on 5th August 2003, on the commissioning of the new track work at 11:00
that morning.
22nd June 2007
A westward view reveals that the racecourse platform surfaces remain intact. Until redevelopment of the
adjacent land got underway in 1999, for the building of the CTRL, the prefabricated concrete footbridge
of the racecourse platforms remained in existence. David Glasspool
22nd June 2007
An eastward view from the road bridge shows passengers disembarking from the slow service to Dover Priory,
formed by Class 375 No. 375606. Palisade fencing backing the rear of the ''down'' platform dates from the
building of the CTRL after 1999. The bay platform line formerly resided to the left of the fencing, terminating
just short of the bus shelter. David Glasspool
22nd June 2007
An eastward view along the ''up'' platform shows that the western elevation of the station building has partially
been taken over by creeper. The vehicles on the right mark the position of the former westward-facing dock line.
David Glasspool
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