Ashford railway works

Ashford locomotive works was built by the South Eastern Railway on a new 185-acre site in 1847, replacing an earlier locomotive repair facility at New Cross in London. By 1850 over 130 houses had been built for staff . The works employed about 600 people in 1851 increasing to about 950 by 1861, and around 1,300 by 1882. A carriage and wagon works was opened on an adjacent 32-acre site in 1850. The works led Ashford to be the largest industrial town in east Kent.
On 1 January 1899, the railway entered into a working union with the London Chatham and Dover Railway, forming the South Eastern and Chatham Railway . Each antecedent company had its own locomotive works, but Ashford was larger than Longhedge works and so became the principal locomotive works for the new organisation. The latter facility was gradually run down and converted into a subsidiary works. The N class 2-6-0 locomotive was first constructed at Ashford in 1917, using a design by Richard Maunsell.

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