My A to Z of Stations: East Farleigh

Station info
Having seen a photo on X (formerly Twitter)of the station and it having been spruced up I wanted to take a look. Itwas a cold day when I arrived so I made sure I took a good few photos. I arrived on the Strood bound platform. It is a basic affair and can handle a four car train. The line is now worked by three car Class 375s The station is devided by Farleigh Lane level crossing. The Strood plaform is to the south of the crossing. It is devoid of any substantial buildings but there is a "bus" type sheleter and the footbridge.
The Paddock Wood bound platform is the one that is special. It has a wooden building that has been repaited and looks really nice. It is a shame that more of the stations on the line have not had the improvements made. Sadly a lot are very basic.
Also there is a signal box (that opened in 1892) that no long controls any signalling but is used to control the level crossing barriers. In 2025 the barried are automatcic barriers but they used to be manually gates that were pushed across the road.
The Station is a lovely one and I may visit again one day - Just in the warmer weather!

History
East Farligh was opened in 1844 on September 25th as part of the southern section of the line and as a single track. The track was doubled two years later. The station building is clad in 'Kentish clapboard', it is characteristic of stations of the South Eastern Railway, of which it is a particularly good example and rare survival. It's now a listed building.

Services
The line has a really good service. every 30 minutes Monday to Friday on a Sunday it is hourly. The line is 21m 19ch long and has 11 stations on the route.

Information for all articles come from various souces including but not limited to: Kent Rail, Historic England, Wikipedia, various books.