New Romney railway station

New Romney
No 14 'Captain Howey' at New Romney
Location
Place	New Romney
Area	Shepway
Grid reference	TR074248
Operations
Managed by	RHDR
Platforms	4
History
16 July 1927	Opened
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

New Romney railway station is a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in New Romney, Kent, England. It has always been the headquarters location of the railway.

Until the opening of the Dungeness extension in 1928, New Romney was the terminus for trains from Hythe. The platforms were located in the area in front of the restaurant and model exhibition. The opening of the Dungeness extension required the construction of new platforms at a lower level, the original platforms being at road-level, and therefore inappropriate for accessing the road under-bridge by which the new Dungeness tracks passed under the adjacent main road. The current station was built in the 1930s, and retained the split-level organisation, with high-level terminating platforms, and low-level through platforms to Dungeness. When the railway re-opened after the second world war New Romney was again a temporary terminus, until the Dungeness extension had been repaired and reduced to a single-track operation. New Romney was the scene of the famous newsreel of Laurel and Hardy reopening the Dungeness line in 1947.

The evolution of New Romney station has been somewhat organic, with work taking place over a span of many years. However, the late 1970s saw a very significant reconstruction of the station, with the provision of an all-over station roof, and the expansion of the low-level through platforms. A total of 9 'effective' platform roads existed following this rebuild. Two platforms remained (but without designation) at the old high-level station; a further four were provided under the station roof, numbered platforms 1, 2, 3, and 4; an additional three lines ran parallel, also under the main roof, but without physical platform surfaces, being designed for storage of passenger coaches. The high-level platforms saw very little subsequent use, other than for storage of rolling stock, and were largely removed (apart from short stubs) in the early 1980s. Finally, in the 1990s, the relocation of the main locomotive turntable led to the removal of all trace of the old high-level platforms, whose physical location has now been entirely taken over by extensions to the station restaurant.

The registered office of the railway company is located on the station site, although it has a separate entrance from the main road. Commonly known as the 'front office' this is the centre of corporate administration. There are also offices within the station site for the railway's General Manager, and for the principal departmental managers (operations, commercial, engineering).