Early years Deal was originally the terminus of a
South Eastern Railway branch line from
Minster Junction through
Sandwich and opened on 1 July 1847. This meant the original services to London ran via
Canterbury,
Ashford,
Tonbridge,
Redhill and
Croydon to
London Bridge.
Charles Dickens attended the celebrations that accompanied the opening of the line. The link south to
Dover was delayed by commercial rivalry between the two Kent railway companies, the South Eastern Railway and the
London, Chatham and Dover Railway. However, the companies finally agreed to build the line jointly and it opened on 15 June 1881. The original single platform with its 2-storey 1847 building became the new 'up' platform. This line now continued south under a new flyover carrying London Road and necessitated demolition of the middle houses in Sunnyside Terrace. The siding next to this was extended to become a through siding. Finally, a new 'down' platform was built to the west with buildings similar to those at
Walmer. The existence of this middle siding explains the gap between the current tracks. The footbridge, which originally had a roof, also dates to 1881. Mileage on the line is measured from via and ; on this basis, Deal is from Charing Cross. Hence the milepost on the 'up' platform at Deal says 90¾ (via Canterbury) but Deal is actually only 86¾ miles from Charing Cross (via Dover). Deal used to have extensive coal yards (bordered by St Patrick's Road), goods yards (now Sainsbury's) and a locomotive shed and turntable (now Bridgeside). The locomotive shed was shut in 1930. Albert Terrace was built in the 1860s for railway employees in a line with Lower Queen Street before the railway was extended to Dover. Hence the London Road flyover was built with a 'kink' around them. The station-master's house received a direct hit during World War 2 (although a garden wall still exists), as did the goods shed.
Electrification Services through Deal were electrified using the
3rd rail system at 750 volts DC as Phase 2 of
British Rail's Kent Coast Electrification Scheme. Some electric trains began running in 1961, with the full service beginning with the Summer timetable on 18 June 1962. There were 2 trains per hour (tph) off-peak, mostly from Charing Cross to Ramsgate, until May 1982, when the service was reduced to 1 tph off-peak (2 tph in the peaks). ==Services==