Lyminge was a station on the

Elham Valley Railway The Elham Valley Railway was a line connecting Folkestone and Canterbury in Kent, England. It opened between 1887 and 1889 and closed in 1947. The line was originally proposed by the independent Elham Valley Light Railway Company in the mid-1 ...

serving the village of the same name. It opened in 1887 and finally closed to passengers and freight in 1947.

History

The station opened on 4 July 1887 with the opening of the Elham Valley Railway from Cheriton Junction, on the

South Eastern Main Line The South Eastern Main Line is a major long-distance railway route in South East England, UK, one of the three main routes crossing the county of Kent, going via Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Ashford and Folkestone to Dover. The other routes are the C ...

as far as . A 21-lever

signal box In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

was provided. Initially, there were six passenger trains per day. By 1906 there were nine trains a day, with five on Sunday. Between 1912 and 1916, a summer only

railmotor Railmotor is a term used in the United Kingdom and elsewhere for a railway lightweight railcar, usually consisting of a railway carriage with a steam traction unit, or a diesel or petrol engine, integrated into it. Steam railcars Overview In th ...

service provided an additional four trains a day between and . The service had been reduced to eight trains a day by 1922. The line north of Lyminge was reduced to five trains a day by 1937. The double track north of Lyminge was reduced to single track from 25 October 1931. The signal box was closed on 1 May 1937 as a cost-cutting measure. It was replaced by a ground frame located in the station building. Passenger services between and Lyminge were withdrawn on 1 December 1940 and the line between Harbledown Junction and Lyminge was placed under military control. Passenger services to Folkestone continued until withdrawn on 3 May 1943.The Elham Valley Line by Brian Hart page 76 The station remained open to freight during the war. Military control was relinquished on 19 February 1945. On 7 October 1946, passenger services were reinstated on the southern section of the railway as far as Lyminge. Six trains a day were operated. This service ceased on 14 June 1947. The Elham Valley Railway closed on 1 October 1947. After closure, the goods yard used by the local

coal merchant Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dead ...

. In 1987, the station building was converted to serve as Lyminge's library.

References

;citations ;Sources * {{Closed stations Kent Disused railway stations in Kent Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1887 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1943 Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1946 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1947 1887 establishments in England 1947 disestablishments in England