Calling at... British railway stations: Tunbridge Wells West (TWW)

Tunbridge Wells West is the terminus and headquarters of the Spa Valley Railway in Kent.

Ring Haw runs around it's train at Tunbridge Wells West

Information
Type:	Preserved Railway (Spa Valley Railway)
Station code:	TWW
Opened:	1866 (Closed 1985)
Re-Opened:	1996
Platforms:	1

The station was opened as Tunbridge Wells in 1866 by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. This was the town's second railway station, the South Eastern Railway opening a station in 1845 (later named Tunbridge Wells Central). The station was renamed Tunbridge Wells West by the Southern Railway in 1923 [1].

Tunbridge Wells West was the town's largest station with a two storey main station building and five platforms. To the South of the station was an engine shed and yard. The station declined in the 1950s and 1960s as the various branch lines it served were closed down. It was nearly closed itself in the 1960s but managed to survive until the mid-1980s when it was considered uneconomic by British Rail to carry out renewal work to track and signalling that was desperately needed. The station closed in 1985.

However in 1996 the station was re-opened (in a modified form) as the headquarters of the Spa Valley Railway, which restored parts of the former Wealden Line through to Eridge (which was reached in 2011 and gives the railway a main line connection). Not all of the former station has been preserved however. The main station building still exists but is now a restaurant, the goods yard and sidings are now occupied by a supermarket. However, a station with a single platform has been built next to the former locomotive shed which services the locomotive fleet of the railway.