Prince of Wales Halt railway station

Prince of Wales Halt
Location
Place	Palmarsh
Area	Shepway
Operations
Pre-grouping	RHDR
Platforms	2 (unsurfaced)
History
16 July 1927	Opened
1928	Station closed to passengers
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Prince of Wales Halt railway station was a short-lived station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England.

About three quarters of a mile from the Hythe terminus, in an area known as Palmarsh, the railway line and the Royal Military Canal (previously running side by side) finally diverge, and the railway line passes under a large, double-arched, bridge carrying the road from Hythe to Lympne.^[1] Originally it was intended to cross the road here on the level, but strenuous opposition from Hythe Borough Council led the Light Railway Commissioners to insist on a bridge, which it is said added £250 to the railway's construction cost.^[2]

This bridge, and the halt located here, took their names from the nearby Prince of Wales public house.^[3] The halt never had any station buildings, and was simply a request stop for service trains, accessed by means of a steep footpath down from the road to the trackside, beside the bridge.

The halt opened with the opening of the line in 1927, appearing in the timetables for the first year of operation only, before closing in 1928^[4] due to lack of traffic. Contemporary traffic figures, although sparse, could imply that no passenger ever used this tiny station.^[5] Its only historical distinctions are that it was, by a wide margin, the most short-lived, the most sparsely equipped, and the most under-used station on the line.

References

1. World's Smallest Public Railway by P. Ransome-Wallis, published by Ian Allan (Shepperton/London), 1970, SBN 7110 0156 1, page 7.
2. One Man's Railway, by J.B.Snell, third edition, published 1993 by David St John Thomas (Nairn, Scotland), ISBN 0-946537-80-1 and material in the railway's archives
3. Webpage detailing public house, with map showing the location immediately adjacent to the railway bridge.
4. A Historical Guide to the Romney, Hythe, & Dymchurch Railway, by C.S.Wolfe, published by the RH&DR Association (New Romney), 1976, page 50 (station chronologies).
5. Snell (1993), p47

Coordinates: 51°03′54″N 1°03′19″E / 51.06496°N 1.05528°E