Dumpton Park railway station
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Dumpton Park railway station is on the
Chatham Main Line The Chatham Main Line is a railway line in England that links London VictoriaQuail Map 5 – England South ages 2–13Sept 2002 (Retrieved 14 December 2011) and Dover Priory / Ramsgate, travelling via Medway (of which the town of Chatham is ...
in England, serving the district of Dumpton between the towns of
Broadstairs Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 of ...
and
Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...
, Kent. It is down the line from and is situated between and stations. The station and all trains that serve the station are operated by
Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
. The station has no buildings and just a few parking spaces, a bridge from the south side of the line to an
island platform An island platform (also center platform, centre platform) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway interchange. Island platforms are popular on ...
, with a small shelter at the bottom of the steps. Until 1965 the station served as the interchange between the main line and the nearby
Tunnel Railway The Tunnel Railway (also known as the Ramsgate Cliff Railway, the Ramsgate Tunnel Railway, the Ramsgate Underground Railway and the World Scenic Railway) was a Narrow gauge railway, narrow-gauge underground railway in Ramsgate, Kent, England. ...
.


History

Following the railway grouping of 1923, both the South Eastern Railway and the
London, Chatham & Dover Railway The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR or LC&DR) was a railway company in south-eastern England created on 1 August 1859, when the East Kent Railway was given parliamentary approval to change its name. Its lines ran through London and nor ...
became a part of the newly-formed Southern Railway, which looked at the duplication of lines and stations at Ramsgate and Margate. The company decided to link the two lines at Ramsgate to allow through running between them. That scheme had been proposed by the
South Eastern & Chatham Railway The South Eastern and Chatham Railway Companies Joint Management Committee (SE&CRCJMC),Awdry (1990), page 199 known as the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SE&CR), was a working union of two neighbouring rival railways, the South Easte ...
before
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, but work did not commence until 1925.Mitchell and Smith, § 104 That resulted in the closure of the two terminus stations at Ramsgate Town and
Ramsgate Harbour The Port of Ramsgate (also known as Port Ramsgate, Ramsgate Harbour, and Royal Harbour, Ramsgate) is a harbour situated in Ramsgate, south-east England, serving cross-Channel freight traffic and smaller working and pleasure craft. It is owned ...
, and the construction of a line skirting the northern edge of the town to link the two existing lines. New stations on the north-eastern and north-western fringes of the town, at Dumpton Park and
Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...
respectively, replaced the stations in the town centre and at the harbour.Harding, p. 6 Construction work on the new line involved over 700 men moving of chalk, at a cost of approximately £500,000 (£ in ).Mitchell and Smith, § 105 The new link opened on 2 July 1926, although Dumpton Park station was not fully open to the public until 19 July 1926. On 2 July 1926, both former Ramsgate stations were closed along with the line through the tunnel to Ramsgate Harbour. The tunnel was sealed and abandoned, and the former Ramsgate Harbour station was sold to Thanet Amusements, which converted the site into a
zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological g ...
and
funfair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...
called Merrie England.Harding, p. 7 Although adequate for the town's residents, the new stations were a long way from the seafront attractions, which were at the foot of a steep hill. The
day-tripper A day trip is a visit to a tourist destination or visitor attraction from a person's home, hotel, or hostel in the morning, returning to the same lodging in the evening. The day trip is a form of recreational travel and leisure to a location that ...
s, on whom Ramsgate's tourist industry depended, were therefore increasingly attracted to
Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...
, where the station was next to the beach. By 1933, Merrie England, then owned by Ramsgate Olympia, had become extremely popular, and began to lobby the Southern Railway to reopen the line through the tunnel, with a new junction station between Dumpton Park and Broadstairs.Harding, p. 8 The Southern Railway rejected the proposal as too costly and impractical. Ramsgate Olympia and the Southern Railway were keen to make the attractions near the harbour accessible from the railway main line, and to provide a service from the seafront to the
greyhound stadium Greyhound Stadium, built in 2016, is an artificial surface stadium located in Portales, New Mexico. It is home of the NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athlet ...
at Dumpton Park. The two companies eventually agreed on a scheme under which a new
narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structur ...
line, dubbed the
Tunnel Railway The Tunnel Railway (also known as the Ramsgate Cliff Railway, the Ramsgate Tunnel Railway, the Ramsgate Underground Railway and the World Scenic Railway) was a Narrow gauge railway, narrow-gauge underground railway in Ramsgate, Kent, England. ...
, would use the of the tunnel nearest the beach, before branching off into a new tunnel, which would emerge at a new station at Hereson Road, a walk from Dumpton Park station. To increase passenger numbers and encourage people to use the new rail line, Ramsgate Olympia planned the construction of a large-scale housing estate,
charabanc A charabanc or "char-à-banc" (often pronounced "sharra-bang" in colloquial British English) is a type of horse-drawn vehicle or early motor coach, usually open-topped, common in Britain during the early part of the 20th century. It has "ben ...
parking facilities, and a 10,000-seat stadium at Dumpton Park. The railway closed in 1965. When Dumpton Park Station was first built there was a booking hall at street level, a smaller version of the one currently at Broadstairs station, and the bridge and steps were covered by overhead glass plus a lift to platform level. Glass covering continuing down the steps to The ticket office window and station building , which included waiting room, small office and the toilet block was a separate building just down but adjoined by a overhead glass covering with benches underneath.the platform The building has since been demolished and the covering removed, in the early to mid 1980s. Years ago there was a signal box at the end of the platform (northbound end).


Services

All services at Dumpton Park are operated by
Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...
using
EMUs Emus may refer to: * Emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the g ...
. The typical off-peak service in trains per hour is: * 1 tph to via * 1 tph to Additional services including trains to and from and
London Cannon Street Cannon Street station, also known as London Cannon Street, is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Travelcard zone 1 located on Cannon Street in the City of London and managed by Network Rail. It is ...
call at the station in the peak hours.


Notes and references


Bibliography

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External links

{{coord , 51, 20, 45, N, 1, 25, 33, E, type:railwaystation_region:GB-KEN, display=title Thanet Railway stations in Kent DfT Category F2 stations Former Southern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1926 Railway stations served by Southeastern James Robb Scott buildings