Rochester Goods Depot

Kent Rail

Rochester Goods Depot

When trundling into Rochester from the London direction, one cannot help but notice the large-scale redevelopment of the land sandwiched in-between the station approach and the Medway. Sand, tractors, diggers, and cranes dominate the scene as building work gets underway. Until 2005, the land had laid overgrown, but one feature did remain in situ, as a monument to the site’s interesting railway past: a footbridge of lattice construction, virtually identical to that still in public use across Tonbridge West Yard.

In March 1858, the LC&DR extended its route from Chatham to connect with the SER’s Strood station, which brought Rochester its first rails, but at this time, not a station. Unusually, the LC&DR established goods facilities at Rochester before putting any platforms in place, probably because the company thought its December 1860-opened ‘’Rochester’’ station, which was actually in Strood, was adequate enough. In the early 1880s, the company initiated construction of a spacious northward-facing low-level goods yard on the southern bank of the River Medway, beside its elevated main line. This interesting complex, which initially consisted of eight sidings, had the distinction of requiring a reversal manoeuvre down a gradient to access it, in addition to having one of the largest goods sheds to appear on the LC&DR network. With reference to the latter, this was constituted of the company’s familiar crème brickwork, complete with orange lining, and measured nearly 35 yards across by 53 yards long. Despite this large area, the building accommodated just two northward-facing tracks, each passing through the building at its western and eastern extremities respectively. A further two northward-facing sidings flanked the goods shed’s western elevation, and a third siding was in evidence on the Medway side of the building. These features are readily illustrated in the following pictures. The goods yard had been completed by the mid-1880s, but this was not the end of railway development on the site: it was now the SER’s turn. Unable to acquire running rights over LC&DR metals to Chatham, the SER attempted to forge its own route to the Naval town. This included the construction of a lattice-girder double-track bridge over the Medway, parallel with the existing span of its rival, and the erection of a lengthy and snaking brick viaduct. The latter was sandwiched in-between the ‘’Chatham’’ main line and the bank of the Medway, and the SER’s branch initially terminated north of the goods depot, at ‘’Rochester Common’’ station, which opened to traffic on 20th July 1891. A subsequent southward extension of the viaduct took the line over the goods depot’s approaches to terminate at yet another station within Rochester, this laughably being referred to as ‘’Chatham Central’’. The opening of this extension coincided with the commissioning of the LC&DR’s own station, which became ‘’Rochester’’ proper on 1st March 1892.

The amalgamation of SER and LC&DR Management committees on 1st January 1899 sought to make some sensible economizing measures on what became the SE&CR network. Simplifying the multitude of duplicate lines in areas such as Thanet was left to the Southern Railway, but the SE&CR endeavoured to close the erstwhile SER’s Chatham Central branch. The decommissioning of this line on 1st October 1911 allowed for a number of improvements to the surrounding infrastructure, not least the expansion of the ex-LC&DR station from a two-platform arrangement to a four-platform affair. The demolition of the SER viaduct and redevelopment of the Rochester Common station site permitted the goods depot to be expanded from eight to fifteen sidings. Furthermore, a 215-foot long lattice public footbridge was erected over the approach tracks to the goods shed. However, not all signs of the SER’s efforts on constructing the Chatham Central branch have disappeared, and the lattice bridge, which today carries the ‘’Chatham’’ main line over the Medway between Strood and Rochester, is the original SER structure of 1891. Re-signalling of the Rochester station approaches in 1927 made the LC&DR’s bridge obsolete; indeed, this structure had been subject to fire damage in June 1919.

1983

A southward view, from 1983, reveals the extent of the lattice footbridge and the amount of overgrowth which

had taken hold of the yard by this time. The goods shed can be seen in the background, to the left, whilst the

sign in the foreground, to the right, states: ''No shunting movements to be made beyond this board when red

flag or red light is showing.'' Chris

1984

This bygone southward view from the lattice footbridge during 1984 reveals Electro-Diesel No. 73124 posing

in front of the huge ex-LC&DR goods shed with a pair of SR Parcel Vans. As can be seen, the goods shed is

lacking its roof, but the familiar LC&DR crème brickwork and orange lining is still evident. The blocked off

entrances on the far left and right sides of the building indicate where lines formerly entered. No. 73124 remains

in existence, but since 1984 has carried the revised number 73205. This number was applied when the locomotive

became dedicated to the InterCity Business Sector's ''Gatwick Express'' fleet. No. 73205 is now under the

ownership of GB Railfreight. Chris

1984

The yard boasted a multitude of crossing gates, some of which are seen here in this view from 1984. The majority

of these gates did not meet in the middle, thus it was still possible to walk around them when they were closed. Class

33 No. 33049 is in view: the locomotive was fronting a pair of ''Railfreight'' branded vans. Chris

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