Kingscote railway station

Kingscote
A carriage set waits at the station
Location
Place	Turners Hill
Area	Mid Sussex, West Sussex
Coordinates	51°06′11″N 0°02′55″W / 51.1031°N 0.0486°W / 51.1031; -0.0486Coordinates: 51°06′11″N 0°02′55″W / 51.1031°N 0.0486°W / 51.1031; -0.0486
Grid reference	TQ366356
Operations
Managed by	London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
Owned by	Southern Railway Southern Region of British Railways Bluebell Railway
Platforms	2
History
1882	Station opened
1955	Station closed
1994	Line reopened
2013	line to East Grinstead reopened
Stations on heritage railways in the United Kingdom
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Kingscote railway station is a preserved railway station on the heritage Bluebell Railway, located in West Sussex, England.

The station was opened in 1882, and as it was constructed under the influence of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR), a then substantial provision of £17,000 was made to construct each two-platform through station on the line. The line's stations were designed to visually appeal to Victorian London-commuters, who had travelled into the Sussex countryside looking for either a commuter property, or country cottage for the weekend.

Designed in the then fashionable "Domestic Revival" style (similar to the later Tudor Revival architecture style), located on the westwards facing No.1 upside platform, the lavish main station building was designed as a two-storey villa with a T-shaped footprint, with a single storey wing each side: booking office and toilets to the north; waiting room and storage to the south. All of this structure was fronted both sides by a timber-supported hipped canopy, which like all of the other buildings carried a hipped slate roof. The station had substantial sidings and a livestock loading dock located just to the north of No.1 platform. The downside No.2 platform was connected to the main buildings by a 50 feet (15 m) glazed footbridge, and had a similar timber-supported canopy which fronted a wooden waiting room. The signal box was located on the north end of No.2 platform, and also controlled a single siding to the north of platform No.2.

Located in an area remote from any significant residential or commercial development, the station became known as the quietest on the LB&SCR. Were it not for the wood and logging trade which was undertaken on leased land within the station site, it is likely that the Southern Railway would have closed the loss-making station to passengers in the 1920s. Resultantly, in 1910 the goods shed was moved to Horsted Keynes, and the northern sidings complex greatly simplified. In the 1930s, the Southern Railway removed many of the superfluous LB&SCR decorations, and shortened the downside facilities to what was basically an open-plan shelter located next to the footbridge.