Romney Sands railway station
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Romney Sands railway station is a station on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in Kent, England. It is located on the bleakest part of the Romney Marsh, a shingle peninsular.
The station opened in May 1928 and was originally named "Maddieson's Camp" after the adjacent holiday camp which it served. The pre-war station consisted of nothing more than station name boards. After the Second World War the double track mainline was reduced to single track, and a single concrete platform was provided. There were no other changes until 1973.
In 1973, the decision was made to install a passing loop to enable the operation of an hourly train service between New Romney and Dungeness; however, the site had insufficient space. The station was therefore re-located to the other side of the holiday camp entrance road. The passing loop was installed during the winter of 1973-1974, together with an island platform and a booking office (the first ever station building at this site).
Although the holiday camp still operates, following a change of ownership it is no longer known as Maddieson's Camp. Consequently the railway station was renamed Romney Sands around 1980.
Between 1929 and 1951, Romney Sands was a junction, with a branch line curving away inland from south of the station. This line was constructed at the request of the War Office and provided a train service to a secret military installation working on acoustic aircraft detection. Their work was highly successful, but almost immediately replaced by the superior invention known as radar.