Identifying SER (?) Station

[CatfordCat]

Possibly a long shot, but can anyone identify a station that appears (very much in the background) on a few October 1967 photos recently placed on the web?

The main focus of the pictures is the buses doing a rail replacement service (it is a bus related website) and there's not much to go on.

http://www.sct61.org.uk/ltrf38

http://www.sct61.org.uk/gallery/jbylett2/ltrf560

http://www.sct61.org.uk/gallery/jbylett2/ltrf218

All that's really visible is that there was a single storey building with a more substantial building behind it.

The buses are from LT's Swanley garage, which suggests somewhere on the south east fringes of London.

The building (quite possibly clapboard construction) suggests ex an SER rather than LCDR station.

One other picture taken by the same photographer on the same day shows another bus (albeit an RT not an RF) on rail replacement, which is clearly at Orpington. That may or may not prove anything - it could have been two separate operations.

From the road layout, I'm thinking that Knockholt Station may be the strongest candidate, but I can't find any pictures on the web of the original station building.

 

[yorksrob]

Hmm tricky.

The canopy definately looks more Chatham than South Eastern to me.

There were also a few stations on the Chatham main line with a clap board building ajoining a brick station house (both companies being paragons of frugality )

 

[theageofthetra]

Just a thought are they 100% sure its Oct '67? The Hither Green disaster ocurred in Nov 67 and may explain the Emergency Railway Service in place? The station looks like Knockholt to me too

 

[CatfordCat]

Thanks for the thoughts so far.

The photographer died a couple of years back, so is not in a position to be asked. The chap who has inherited the photo collection is working from the photographer's note books which have generally been accurate as regards date, although sometimes lacking in other information.

I'm not sure we should read too much in to the blind display "railway emergency service" - that's what London Transport buses had on their blinds until the early 70s when "special railway service" started to be used instead, so would show the same thing whether it was pre-planned or emergency engineering work.

 

[jnjkerbin]

I'd put in a another vote for Knockholt

 

[30907]

The distinguishing feature is that you can't see the station platforms - which fits Knockholt perfectly but nowhere else I can think of anywhere near Swanley.

What's a bit surprising is that Knockholt is being used as a RRB terminus (from the number of buses - OK an RF only seated 39 but...). My guess is engineering work of some sort in Polhill tunnel, or a landslip in one of the cuttings either side.

Given the typically low loadings of weekend local services between Orpington and Sevenoaks, I wonder if this was a weekday blockage?
(BTW the main line services would divert via Bat and Ball).