Ashford railway works was in the town of Ashford in the county of Kent in England. History South Eastern Railway Ashford locomotive works was built by the South Eastern Railway on a new site in 1847, replacing an earlier locomotive repair facility at New Cross in London. By 1850 over 130 houses had been built for staff (called Alfred Town by the railway but New Town by everybody else). 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 site in 1850. The works led Ashford to be the largest industrial town in east Kent. South Eastern and Chatham Railway 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 (SECR). 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. Southern Railway and British Railways Following the grouping of the SECR with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and the London and South Western Railway to form the Southern Railway on 1 January 1923, most new locomotive and carriage design and construction was transferred to both Ashford and Eastleigh Works. Ashford continued to operate both building and servicing locomotives and wagons until well after the nationalisation of the railways to form British Railways in 1948. The locomotive workshops eventually closed on 16 June 1962, the last locomotive to be repaired at Ashford being the N class-2-6-0 no. 31400 on 9 June. The wagon works continued for a further two decades producing continental ferry vans, Freightliner vehicles, merry-go-round coal hopper wagons and the Cartic4 articulated car transporter. It became one of British Rail Engineering Limited's main wagon works, but as trade declined, primarily the construction of wagons for export markets, it operated on an ever-decreasing scale until it closed down in 1982. Motive power depot The SER opened a locomotive depot at Ashford in December 1842, sited to the East of the station adjacent to the works. This was demolished in 1931, when the SR built a much