Here a shot of the overgrown trackbed not far from the site of Chevening Halt, taken in September 2017.
Reference: WH0158
A distant view of the trackbed between Dunton Green and Chevening is marked by the tree line of fifty-six years overgrowth on the unadopted land.
Reference: WH0163
With the formation of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway Management Committee in 1899, travelling conditions for passengers began to improve on the Westerham branch line. There were new locomotives in lined Brunswick green and new six-wheeled carriages as well. The elderly Cudworth engines previously used on the branch were replaced with James Stirling’s class ...
Reference: WH0167
Retained as a convenient place for the bus to stop off the road, this is the site of the station forecourt, as shown on the adjacent 1896 map. L.B. denotes a letterbox which is still there albeit of modern design.
Reference: WH0168
This and the following five photographs depict the closed brach-line at Westerham between 1962 and 1964. A rather dismal scene.
Reference: WH0172
All looking rather gloomy and unloved, the goods shed, crane and station building opposite the Crown Hotel. The railway lasted eighty years, while the Crown just about made its centenary before it too, was closed and pulled down. June Ingram “…there was a long bus strike in the late 1950s and I was at the Tech ...
Reference: WH0178
Seen here in the late 1950s and standing close to the slip road up to Brasted station, this overbridge carried the single track of the Westerham Valley Railway over Station Road. Today, standing in its place is a six-lane overbridge carrying the M25 motorway.
Reference: WH0179
During the early 1960s there was an attempt to reopen the line by a body who formed themselves as the Westerham Valley Railway Association. Here we see two members of the ‘ganging team’ working on a plate-layer’s trolly in 1962.
Reference: WH0180
This locomotive worked out of Tonbridge shed between January 1950 to October 1951 and then again between June 1955 to June 1961. It was ‘Push-and-Pull’ fitted in December 1949. This meant the driver could operate the controls (Regulator, Reverser and Brake) from a compartment at the back end of the train, meaning time was saved ...
Reference: WH0117
There was no station built at Chevening when the railway was opened in 1881, but in 1906 an unstaffed ‘halt’ was erected for the sum of £50 including the steps from the roadbridge and the gate. It was operated like a request stop, so if nobody asked for it when boarding the train, and no-one ...
Reference: WH0132
A 1903 advertisement for Benjamin Horton, the local coal and timber merchant. Horton’s coal office still survives on the old station site at the edge of London Road, currently housing a barber’s shop (2019).
Reference: WH0111
On October 30th 2011 the Spa Valley Railway simulated the final days of the Westerham Valley Railway to commemorate 50 years since the closure of the branch line. Here a train of four coaches recreates the final day of services, Saturday October 28th 1961 appearing to chuff its way past Chevening Halt heading for Brasted. ...
Reference: WH0153
The ‘tablet’ was part of an electrical blocking system used to ensure there was only one moving locomotive on the branch-line at any moment in time. The large loop handle of the tablet made catching easier if this had to happen while the train was moving.
Reference: WH0119
In amongst the undergrowth right beside the M25 on the site of Brasted Station goods yard, the remains of the coal staithe posts, though the boards have rotted away. As well as fuel for the locomotives, coal was sold from this yard to residents from the village by George Alderson, the local coal merchant who ...
Reference: WH0127
The proximity to the M25 is clearly seen here. The station building at Brasted stood where the hard-shoulder is now and the trackbed would be under the inside-lane. The goods yard site is now in private ownership as a gated storage area.
Reference: WH0124