A train leaves Eridge station

Image: © Marathon Taken: 22 Sep 2012

Eridge station was opened by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway on 3rd August 1868 at the same time as the railway connecting the existing lines at Uckfield and Groombridge Junction. At the time the station was opened, there was no village of Eridge, the station being named after nearby Eridge Park. The station used to be a junction for services running towards Tonbridge via Tunbridge Wells West (closed 1985), to Eastbourne via Heathfield and Hailsham (The Cuckoo Line closed 1965) and to East Grinstead (closed 1967). When the Oxted to Uckfield line was partially singled in January 1990, all trains used the former up line and the former up island platform. The former down island platform was then abandoned but was restored by the Spa Valley Railway who reopened the railway between Eridge and Tunbridge Wells West on 25th March 2011 - see http://www.spavalleyrailway.co.uk/ Here engine number 47493 is running behind a train which has just left the former down platform on its way to Groombridge and Tunbridge Wells. The Uckfield to Oxted line (on the left here) is one of the few non-electrified railways in South East England. The line on the right is to a bay platform, now also used by Spa Valley trains.

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