Betchworth railway station serves the village of

Betchworth Betchworth is a village and civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. The village centre is on the north bank of the River Mole and south of the A25 road, almost east of Dorking and west of Reigate. London is north of the ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England. It is on the

North Downs Line The North Downs Line is a railway line in South East England. It runs for from in Berkshire to in Surrey. It is named after the North Downs, a range of Chalk Group, chalk hills that runs parallel to the eastern part of the route. The name wa ...

, measured from via . All services are operated by

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

History

The station was opened in 1849 by the Reading, Guildford and Reigate Railway, which became part of the South Eastern Railway in 1852. It is from , and has two platforms. The eastbound platform 1 is long enough for a four-coach train, but the westbound platform 2 can accommodate seven coaches. The station was destaffed in 1967. In 1967,

Quentin Crisp Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; – ) was an English raconteur, whose work in the public eye included a memoir of his life and various media appearances. Before becoming well known, he was an artist's model, hence the title of h ...

starred in the sixteen-minute film ''The Even Tenour of her Ways'', which was shot at this railway station. In 2017/18 and 2018/19, it was the least used station in Surrey, after patronage at

Longcross Longcross is a village in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. Its name is thought to come from a marker, placed where the parish boundaries of Chertsey, Chobham and Egham met. Description South ...

increased.

Services

All services at Betchworth are operated by

using and

DMUs A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

. The typical off-peak service is one train every two hours in each direction between via and . During the peak hours, the service is increased to one train per hour in each direction. On Sundays, eastbound services at the station run only as far as .

Betchworth Quarry Railways

The station was particularly significant for its connection with the Betchworth Quarry railways, which were built to serve the Dorking Greystone Lime Company's three pits north of the station. The quarry railways had four different track gauges. The

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

part had a junction with the main line to the west of Betchworth station It ran via a reversing siding to the Eastern and Southern Kiln Batteries. A gauge railway system began there and primarily served the quarry with lines diverging to the Main, Upper Western Whitestone and Eastern Greystone Pits. The other gauges serving the works were the gauge line that ran from a standard gauge siding to the Hearthstone Mine, and a short gauge section of track that ran exclusively between the Eastern and Southern Kiln Batteries. The first engine to shunt on the standard gauge portion, Engine No. 1 of 1871, was unofficially named ''The Coffeepot''. It is now preserved at

Beamish Museum Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, County Durham, Beamish, near the town of Stanley, County Durham, Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By di ...

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

. Another, ''Captain Baxter'' was renamed simply '' Baxter'' in 1947, the last engine ever to work the line, and the Rev.

W.V. Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry (15 June 1911 – 21 March 1997), often credited as Rev. W. Awdry, was an English Anglican minister, railway enthusiast, and children's author. He is best remembered as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine and several othe ...

featured it in his book '' Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine''. ''Baxter'' is preserved on the

Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is an heritage line in West Sussex in England. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between and , with intermediate stations at and . It is the first preserv ...

and was returned to traffic for that railway's 50th anniversary. Two gauge locomotives were also preserved. ''

Townsend Hook ''Townsend Hook'' is a gauge Fletcher, Jennings & Co. steam locomotive built in 1880 for the Dorking Greystone Lime Co. as works no. 172L. ''Townsend Hook'' is cosmetically restored and based at Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre, West Suss ...

'', is at Amberley Chalk Pits Museum, having undergone a cosmtic restoration as a static exhibit. ''William Finlay'', the sister engine of ''Townsend Hook'', is preserved at the

Narrow Gauge Railway Museum The Narrow Gauge Railway Museum (Welsh (language), Welsh: ''Amgueddfa Rheilffyrdd Bach Cul'') is a purpose-built museum dedicated to narrow-gauge railways situated at the station of the Talyllyn Railway in Tywyn, Gwynedd, Wales. The museum has ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betchworth Railway Station Railway stations in Surrey Former South Eastern Railway (UK) stations Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1849 Railway stations served by Great Western Railway 1849 establishments in England