Cowes railway station
| Cowes railway station | |
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The station in 1963
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| Location | |
| Place | Cowes |
| Area | Isle of Wight |
| Grid reference | SZ496960 |
| Operations | |
| Pre-grouping | Cowes and Newport Railway (1862-1887) Isle of Wight Central Railway (1887 to 1923) |
| Post-grouping |
Southern Railway (1923 to 1948) Southern Region of British Railways (1948 to 1966) |
| Platforms | 3 |
| History | |
| 16 June 1862 | Opened |
| 21 February 1966 | Closed |
| Disused railway stations in the United Kingdom | |
| Closed railway stations in Britain A B C D–F G H–J K–L M–O P–R S T–V W–Z |
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Cowes Railway Station took pride in being the “prettiest station on the Garden Isle”. Opened in 1862, the very first on the island as part of the inaugural “Cowes and Newport” railway it expanded to three platforms as the railway branched out towards Ryde in the years before the motor bus began to diminish trade. In its time prosperous enough to have a WH Smiths bookstall, its latter years were considerably leaner as more and more people took their holidays abroad. The station has long since been demolished and today the area is a supermarket and municipal car park.
In its later years Cowes station was notable for an unusual operating procedure. The engine would propel its empty carriages backwards up the 1 in 95 gradient towards Mill Hill and then ran forward and round the train using a crossover. The carriages were then allowed to run back down into the station by gravity, controlled by handbrake by the guard, and the locomotive was reattached to haul its train back to Newport and Ryde.
Coordinates: 50°45′44″N 1°17′56″W / 50.76222°N 1.29889°W
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Wikipedia