Ventnor railway station

Ventnor railway station was the terminus of the Isle of Wight Railway line from Ryde.
History.
The station occupied a ledge above sea level which had been quarried into the hill side. The station was at the end of a long tunnel through St Boniface Down. A turntable was used to allow steam engines to runaround their trains. In later years it was replaced by a three way switch. The tracks merged just before the tunnel and the locomotives had to enter the tunnel during runround manoeuvres.
The station had a platform connected to the station buildings and a narrow island platform. There was only one track between the side platform and the island platform. When this track was occupied, an incoming train arrived at the outer face of the island platform and passengers had to pass through the train on the inner track. When this train then departed, a temporary bridge that was a ship's gangway, as used on the Portsmouth to Ryde ferries was manually pushed across the intervening track to allow passenger access to the train on the outside of the island platform. Further away from the station buildings were goods sidings which mainly served coal merchants who operated from caves in the chalk sides of the station cutting.
The station closed to all traffic in April 1966, when the line south of fell victim to the Beeching Axe. The track was lifted by 1970 and the station subsequently demolished. The site is now an industrial park and Southern Water runs water pipes through the tunnel.
This station should not be confused with Ventnor West railway station.