
General
  
A 1953 track and signalling plan was used for this simulation of Ashford (Kent)
(Additional signals have been added to accommodate the requirements of the PC Rail operating program.)  

South Eastern Railway

The station was built by the South Eastern Railway (SER) and planned during the initial Railway Mania as a stop between Croydon and Dover. A special train from London Bridge ran on 28 November 1842, and the station formally opened on 1 December, along with the rest of the line from Redhill. The journey from London to Ashford could now be made in three and a half hours. A more direct route was ruled out by Parliament, who felt that more than one railway south of London was undesirable. 

The original station consisted of two platforms with two through lines, along with wooden buildings. The line ended at Ashford until the extension to Folkestone opened on 28 June 1843. A connection to Canterbury West was authorised on 23 May 1844, and opened on 6 February 1846. The Marshlink line connection to Hastings opened on 13 February 1851, after several false starts owing to problems with constructing the line and rivalry with other lines. The station became known sometimes as Ashford Junction. 

The Ashford railway works was established in 1847, on a site to the east of the station and the River Stour. The first locomotive, known as the "Coffee Pot" for its unusual vertical boiler, was designed there the following year and constructed in 1850. It remained in service until 1861. The works led to the creation of Alfred Town, later known at New Town which is now an Ashford suburb. 

Another station, Ashford West, was opened by the rival London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LCDR) on 1 July 1884 for services via Maidstone East to London. On 1 January 1899, as part of the formation of the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), passenger services were diverted to the former South Eastern Railway station and Ashford West closed. At the same time, the track was modified to give six separate approaches into the station, so that trains could pull up simultaneously. The complete Ashford West station, including buildings and platforms, survived for handling freight and engineering trains until it was closed and demolished around 1999 for construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. 

In November 1904, the SECR agreed to a 47,000 rebuilding of the scheme in order to accommodate Maidstone traffic, which included removing a cattle dock so trains would not have to run on part of the South Eastern main line. The work was completed in 1907.

Southern Railway

The station became part of the Southern Railway (SR) during the grouping of 1923. It was renamed to Ashford (Kent) on 9 July to avoid confusion with Ashford (Middlesex) railway station. Ashford became the main works depot in the south east after the SR reduced the works at Brighton to repairs-only in 1928. Steam locomotive construction was discontinued in 1936, though repair work continued to take place.

British Rail

The station passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948. It was rebuilt in the early 1960s as part of the "Kent Coast Electrification - Stage 2 of the British Railways Modernisation Plan to accommodate electrification of most lines entering the station. Electric services began to be used on the South Eastern main line on 12 June 1961, and on the Maidstone line on 9 October. The two bay platforms were demolished and replaced by two island platforms. This required the demolition and rebuilding of the Station Road / Beaver Road bridge immediately to the west. The main station buildings on either side of the line were replaced between 1963 and 1966 by a footbridge including a booking hall, newsagent and catering facilities. The new scheme was the design of the Southern Region Architect, Nigel Wikeley. Although most of the original station was demolished during this rebuild, two substantial platform canopies dating from the SECR era were retained, although the original wooden valences were covered by asbestos. At the same time, the mechanical signalling system, consisting of five lever-operated boxes, was replaced with an all-electric system, coming in to service on 29 April 1962. 

When sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s by British Rail, the station was served by Network SouthEast until privatisation. In 1984, the track layout at the station was simplified, restricting the Maidstone and Canterbury West connections to the north of the track layout, and the Marshlink line to the south. This allowed the speed limit through the station to be increased to 85 miles per hour (137 km/h). 

This simulation is based upon the layout around the 1950's from information from the Signalling Record Societies documents. The yards information has been gleaned from large scale O.S. maps, where available, and shown to my best endeavours.

The start-up picture is, as far as is possible to see, Class E1 loco number 31067 on a semi-fast approaching Ashford.


Platform Lengths in Chains

	P1	10
	P2	14
	P3	12
	P4	10

				
Acknowledgements

This simulation was developed by Richard Wade and is a partner to the Ashford (Kent) simulation in our Modern series, developed jointly by David Palmer and Richard Wade.
Software supplied by John Dennis.
Thanks go to the PC Rail testing team for all their hard work and help.