Betchworth railway station serves the village of

Betchworth Betchworth is a village and civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. The village centre is on the north bank of the River Mole and south of the A25 road, almost east of Dorking and west of Reigate. London is north of the ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

, England. It is on the

North Downs Line The North Downs Line is a passenger-train line connecting Reading, on the Great Western Main Line, to Redhill and , along the Brighton Main Line, linking many centres of population in that part of the North Downs which it traverses en route. ...

, measured from via . All services are operated by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

History

The station was opened in 1849 by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway, which became part of the South Eastern Railway in 1852. It is from , and has two platforms. The eastbound platform 1 is long enough for a four-coach train, but the westbound platform 2 can accommodate seven coaches. In 1967,

Quentin Crisp Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; – ) was an English raconteur, whose work in the public eye included a memoir of his life and various media appearances. Before becoming well-known, he was an artist's model, hence the title of ...

starred in the sixteen-minute film ''The Even Tenour of her Ways'', which was shot at this railway station. In 2017/18 and 2018/19, it was the least used station in Surrey, after patronage at

Longcross Longcross is a village in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. Its name is thought to come from a marker, placed where the parish boundaries of Chertsey, Chobham and Egham met. From the start ...

increased.

Services

The typical off-peak service on the

is one train every two hours in each direction between and (extended to on Sundays, expect a one train each way Monday to Friday).

Betchworth Quarry Railways

The station was particularly significant for its connection with the Betchworth Quarry railways, which were built to serve the Dorking Greystone Lime Company's three pits north of the station. The quarry railways had four different track gauges. The

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in E ...

part had a junction with the main line to the west of Betchworth station It ran via a reversing siding to the Eastern and Southern Kiln Batteries. A gauge railway system began there and primarily served the quarry with lines diverging to the Main, Upper Western Whitestone and Eastern Greystone Pits. The other gauges serving the works were the gauge line that ran from a standard gauge siding to the Hearthstone Mine, and a short gauge section of track that ran exclusively between the Eastern and Southern Kiln Batteries. The first engine to shunt on the standard gauge portion, Engine No. 1 of 1871, was unofficially named ''The Coffeepot''. It is now preserved at

Beamish Museum Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it w ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

. Another, ''Captain Baxter'' was renamed simply '' Baxter'' in 1947, the last engine ever to work the line, and the Rev.

W.V. Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997) was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He was best known for creating Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas and several other characters he created appeared in ...

featured it in his book '' Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine''. ''Baxter'' is preserved on the

Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is an heritage line almost entirely in West Sussex in England, except for Sheffield Park which is in East Sussex. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between an ...

and was returned to traffic for that railway's 50th anniversary. Two gauge locomotives were also preserved. '' Townsend Hook'', is at Amberley Chalk Pits Museum, having undergone a cosmtic restoration as a static exhibit. ''William Finlay'', the sister engine of ''Townsend Hook'', is preserved at the

Narrow Gauge Railway Museum The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum (Welsh: ''Amgueddfa Rheilffyrdd Bach Cul'') is a purpose-built museum dedicated to narrow-gauge railways situated at the station of the Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn, Gwynedd, Wales. The museum has a collection of mo ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betchworth Railway Station Railway stations in Surrey Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway 1849 establishments in England