To complete the record, the details of the Canterbury direction trains mentioned above, starting/terminating at Dover Harbour (DH), all via Swanley, were:
05:05 Victoria – 09:03 DH – 09:14 Dover Marine
10:40 Victoria – 13:20 DH
11:42 Herne Hill – 14:32 DH (Sat only)
11:40 Victoria – 15:13 DH
14:50 Canterbury East – 15:43 DH (Sat only)
19:05 DH – 19:51 Canterbury East (Sat only)
19:25 DH – 22:22 Victoria (Different timings on Sat)
A point of interest is the slow journey times, accounted for by most trains being ‘all-stations’ outside the London suburbs – there seemed little concept of ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ trains. Exceptions among the above were:
1. The 10:40 Victoria, stopping only at Bromley South and Faversham before becoming ‘all-stations’ – over an hour quicker than the 11:40, but still rather slow.
2. The 19:25 DH up skipped Teynham, Newington and Rainham and was non-stop from Chatham. On Saturdays it started at 19:45 and was non-stop Kearsney to Canterbury, to arrive Victoria at the same time.
Except for the Canterbury trains, all the above had Margate or Ramsgate sections, but it’s not clear whether the train split/joined at Faversham, or whether passengers had to change trains.
Once again it’s difficult to see any rhyme or reason behind the selection of those trains, when most others started/terminated at Dover Priory, with a few extended to/from Dover Marine but not stopping at DH (and not specifically boat-trains because their schedules were otherwise similar to all the others). And why, for example, was there an 11:42 from Herne Hill on Saturdays only, or why didn’t those stations between Kearsney and Canterbury get a stop by the up train on Saturday evenings? Were the timings arranged to suit people’s travel habits, or were their travel habits determined by the train times?
For both this and the previous post, Sunday trains were different
