Paddock Wood Station's Birthday Celebrations, 28th August 2025

Clare and Choe stood behind a table loaded with sweets, cakes and giveaways. In front of the table are large silver balloon numbers, "183".

Railway 200 continues to see us mark our station’s birthdays, bringing Community Rail to the attention of more people in the communities where we work.  

It was an early start, Southeastern’s Paddock Wood station team wanted to ensure the celebrations could be enjoyed by both their regular commuters and day trippers. The tables were set up by 5:30am.

Kent Community Rail Partnership promotional stall in front of the station cafe. Colouring in sheets, pencils, tote bags and brochures are on the table. A roller banner is displayed to one side. Neng Mbah stood behing the "On The Rails" table of rail related merchandise in the station booking hall. Beside the stall is an information panel "Paddock Wood through the years" displaying details of the station's history Jeff and Charley, Spa Valley Railway volunteers stood behing their table of promotional brochures in the station booking hall

Also invited were local business, On the Rails offering a range of railway related merchandise and volunteers from the Spa Valley Railway, promoting days out by rail along their heritage railway line.

 

Throughout the morning Clare, Chloe and Cathy promoted a prize draw for the grown-ups and a colouring competition for the children, helping customers with the ticket machines, travel assistance and everything else in between. Cakes were offered to everyone, sweets and bubble sticks for the kids.

Kent CRP talked about the story of the railway, using Southeastern’s history board and a book about the Medway Valley Line to illustrate what has changed over the past 183 years and what still remains familiar today.

A homemade information panel "Paddock Wood Though The Years" attached to a poster board Rules of a Kids Colouring Competition, a set of coloured pens and a stach of colouring in pictures on a table. A colourful cake with number candles, 183. The cake is on a silver base

Kent CRP supplied pens, pencils and crayons to children for the colouring competition; pencils, pens and tote bags as birthday souvenirs, with a few passes along the platform to make sure nobody missed out. Together with Southeastern we offered complimentary drinks from the Cafe Me kiosk.

After a busy morning of sharing stories and introducing Kent CRP to the community, we packed away at noon.

We’re looking forward to seeing the winning entry to Southeastern’s colouring in competition.

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