Pensioners Treat Kent & East Sussex Railway Tenterden

Selected dates in May, July and September 2017 

Pensioners Treat, an opportunity for those aged 60 & over to travel at specially discounted fares. Travel by steam train through the picturesque countryside with the Kent & East Sussex Railway and if you are aged 60 or over take advantage of the special price of £13. Travel Card which allows all day travel. Adult Travel Cards are normally £18.

Everyone travelling on the railway can enjoy a relaxing steam train ride in beautifully restored carriages as the train takes passengers on a 21 mile return journey through Tenterden, Northiam and Bodiam stations. The return journey from Tenterden to Bodiam takes around 1 hour 45 minutes.

Visitors can choose to pre-order a delicious cream tea or ploughman’s lunch to enjoy during the trip and if grandchildren come along there is a children’s munch box option available. There will also be a warm welcome for visitors choosing to dine in the railway’s licensed restaurant at Tenterden station where you will find a choice of daily specials and a children’s menu.
 

Tenterden station is a short walk from the idyllic high street in Tenterden with its beautiful Georgian and Victorian buildings which is home to attractive boutiques, quaint antique shops and attractive cafes and restaurants.

At Bodiam station passengers can choose to take the short walk to Bodiam Castle and explore the romantic ruins, moat and impressive ramparts with their breathtaking views across the surrounding countryside.

For those who love to picnic, the railway offers an alfresco lunch option and pre-ordered picnic hamper can be ready to collect when you arrive at Tenterden station complete with napkins, cutlery and condiments.

The railway’s facilities have been carefully designed with disabled, elderly and less mobile visitors in mind. There are parking spaces for Blue Badge holders next to the platform at Tenterden Town and Northiam stations, and accessible toilets at Tenterden, Northiam and Bodiam stations. The railway has a specially designed coach for wheelchair users called ‘Petros’ which is fitted with ramped access, wide aisles, an accessible toilet and moveable seating. There is full wheelchair access to the shop and restaurant at Tenterden Town, and the Colonel Stephens Railway Museum has level access with 42” space aisles.

When at Tenterden Station why not visit the Colonel Stephens Railway Museum? Colonel Holman Fred Stephens was an English eccentric, a brilliant railway engineer, and the man who built the Kent & East Sussex Railway (and amazingly 16 other light railways). His legacy is commemorated in the award-winning museum next to Tenterden Town Station. Open every afternoon when trains are running and entry is FREE with your ticket

Well-behaved dogs on leads can travel on the railway for £3 on normal operating days (excluding Day Out With Thomas and Santa Special event days).
to book follow the link below to the Kent And East Sussex website
https://goo.gl/uHHP7h 

Dates for May

Thursday, 4 May 201710:30 AM  -Tuesday, 9 May 201710:30 AM  -Wednesday, 10 May 201710:30 AM  -Thursday, 11 May 201710:30 AM  -Tuesday, 16 May 201710:30 AM  -Wednesday, 17 May 201710:30 AM  -Thursday, 18 May 201710:30 AM  -Wednesday, 24 May 201710:30 AM  -Thursday, 25 May 201710:30 AM  -

Rye and Camber Tramway revisited 2017

https://framemeplease19.wixsite.com/trackbedwalker 

A little known lost railway in Sussex is the former Rye and Camber Tramway, which operated for 44 years as a passenger service from 1895 until the outbreak of World War II.  At that point the railway passed into military hands for use with the PLUTO project designed to supply the front line troops for the D Day landings. 

this video tells you all

 Sadly the state it was returned to the owners in meant that it was no longer in a fit state to carry passengers and it was therefore closed for good as the cost of renewing the track was prohibitive.  Yet, at its height this remarkable railway carried as many as 18000 passengers during a six month period.  Designed and built by the famous light railway builder Colonel Holman Stephens, the railway ran for about three miles from the eastern edge of Rye to a rather inconvenient location at the western edge of Camber.  It was intended to carry passengers to the seaside, but also to a nearby golf club for which an intermediate station was built.

https://framemeplease19.wixsite.com/trackbedwalker 

As with many Colonel Stephens’ railways, the line was built on a shoestring and this rather contributed to its untimely end.  It also meant that once gone, few reminders of its existence still remain.  Yet, remarkably despite all this most of the trackbed is still available for walking.

so if you need a little Sunday walk i recommend it 

https://framemeplease19.wixsite.com/trackbedwalker 

if you really would like to know more visit the Colonel Stephens Museam at Tenterden

U.SA Tank of the Kent and East Sussex Railway No. 65 ,DS 237 No. 22. climbing Tenterden bank

Built for the United States Army Corps of Engineers as No 1968, and sent to the UK under Lend-Lease. Stored at Newbury Racecourse. One of fourteen purchased by the Southern Railway and sent to the Melbourne Military Railway for running in. Entered service with the Southern Railway in November 1947 as USA Class number 65. Renumbered 30065 by British Railways. Worked at Southampton Docks. Withdrawn, and entered Departmental service as DS237 at Ashford Wagon Works. Withdrawn in April 1967 and sold to Woodham Brothers, Barry, Wales in March 1968. Developed a hot box en route and dumped at Tonbridge. Sold to K&ESR in August 1968 and delivered the next month. arriving at Rolvenden a month later became  DS 237 No. 22.

No. 22 was the first large locomotive in service in 1974, proving itself very capable of hauling five coach trains up Tenterden bank. She was fitted with an extended bunker and a improved lubrication to overcome its bearing problems. In 1978 it exchanged boilers with No. 21 and after overhaul re-entered service in April 1981 in black livery lined out in red. Various mechanical problems occurred and were overcome before the boiler certificate again expired and the locomotive was taken out of traffic at the end of the 1990 season. Another extensive overhaul followed, the locomotive re-entering service as Southern Railway No. 65 in the summer of 1997. Its original post-war livery of black with sunshine lettering was now carried. However by 2002 a new firebox was required. This was fitted and a further overhaul undertaken the engine returning to service in 2008. has been  withdraw service on 1st January 2017 when its boiler certificate expired 

The Colonel Terriers . Kent & East Sussex Railway (Rother Valley Railway)

The K&ESR owned two Terriers, the first bought in May 1901 and the second in February 1905, becoming No.3 “Bodiam” and No.5 “Rolvenden” respectively. Both were from the initial batch of six engines, four of which eventually came to Stephens’ railways. “Rolvenden”, the former LB&SCR No.71, had the honour of being the first Terrier built. “Bodiam”, although having the first number of the batch as LB&SCR No.70, was actually the last, having bequeathed her cylinders to 71, when a faulty casting had delayed her introduction into service (strange how these sisters were twinned from birth).

from the framemeplease collection

Both engines were painted in Stephens’ favourite blue livery with red lining, but without a polished dome. With regular overhauls, including that of “Bodiam” at Eastleigh in 1919 and “Rolvenden” at Brighton in 1917, they gave excellent service until the depression years.

from the framemeplease collection

 They were alike as two peas for much of their lives together even to the near simultaneous acquisition of three rail coal bunker extensions (the LB&SCR extensions had four); the only difference being a long-strapped A1X type door carried by “Rolvenden”, probably acquired at Brighton. Although the two Ilfracombe Goods engines acquired in 1910 and 1914 became the favoured engines, the Terriers were the mainstay of the line in the Edwardian era, and much used thereafter.

Both engines seem to have received their last partial re-tube in late 1928, with “Bodiam” falling into disuse around the time of the railway’s receivership in 1931. (There is photographic evidence of her apparently in steam questionably dated as 12th September in that year.) “Rolvenden” seems to have lasted a little longer. They were then dumped in the works yard but “Bodiam” was resurrected in 1933 and repaired over the next two years, mainly by a Southern Railway fitter at weekends. Although much reported, there is little evidence, apart from anecdotal, to suggest that she incorporated many major parts from her sister, except possibly her tanks.

However some Terrier parts most certainly came from the Shropshire & Montgomery Terriers mentioned below. In the process “Bodiam” acquired her enlarged and distinctive bunker. Re-entering service on 27th December 1934, she was repainted in a bright apple green with yellow lining and, according to Austen’s usual practice, lost her nameplate becoming simply No.3, with the company’s initials appearing on the tank side above the number. Officially withdrawn in 1937, the hulk of “Rolvenden” was finally disposed of by T W Ward in October 1938.

from the framemeplease collection

“Bodiam” was replaced by a hired Terrier when its boiler gave out in September 1940. She was out of use until repaired in February 1943 with an A1X pattern boiler and smokebox. She may also have been fitted at this time with the S&MR’s Dido’s tanks acquired in 1941 (see below). Re-boilering was a difficult job for Rolvenden Works, so two K&ESR fitters undertook the work at St Leonards Shed under wartime’s cooperative arrangements. Finished in April 1943 the engine became to all intents and purposes an A1X, whilst retaining the sandboxes on the front splasher like some earlier Isle of Wight rebuilds. Some reports suggest that she did not return home until 7th March 18944 but this cannot now be verified. Further repairs were carried out at Brighton Works in September 1947 where she was repainted a darker green. After Nationalisation, the
engine was taken into British Railways’ stock and further repaired at Ashford in the second half of 1949; remarkably she was repainted again in apple green with yellow ling but as British Railways No.32670.

From then on she worked on the K&ESR until dieselisation; then working at Newhaven and elsewhere [including Hayling Island] with occasional returns including the last day special. She returned in 1964, to preservation – a true living embodiment of the continuity of the K&ESR – on whose metals she has been present for all but 9 of its 105 years of operation.
Thanks to Colonel Stephens Archives at the Kent and East Sussex Railway

The Hawkhurst Branch 1892 - 1961 Disused and Abandoned

The Hawkhurst Branch Line was a short railway line in Kent that connected Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Horsmonden with the town of Paddock Wood and the South Eastern and Medway Valley lines, a distance of 11 miles 24 chains (18.19 km).

The line was promoted by the Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway (C&PWR), which was incorporated in 1877, but took until 1892 to open the first section of the line to Hope Mill. Services were worked by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). The line was extended to Hawkhurst in 1893. In 1900, the SECR absorbed the C&PWR. Sunday services ceased in 1917. In 1923, the SECR was absorbed into the Southern Railway at the Grouping. The line became part of British Railways at Nationalisation on 1 January 1948. The line was closed in June 1961, before the Beeching Report was published.
The construction between 1842 and 1853 of the Ashford to Hastings Line, the Tonbridge to Hastings line and South Eastern Main Line between Redhill and Folkestone left a triangle of land within the Kentish High Weald devoid of rail communication. It was a heavily wooded and agricultural area which comprised many small villages and hamlets. The three largest settlements in this area were Cranbrook; the former heart of the defunct Wealden cloth industry, Hawkhurst and Tenterden. There were no large landowners or wealthy industrialists to promote a branch line, while the local railway company - the South Eastern Railway (SER) - preferred to wait until local enterprise had funded the route's construction.

A variety of abortive schemes were proposed, including an 1864 proposal by the nominally independent Weald of Kent Railway to run a route from Paddock Wood to Hythe via Cranbrook for which the SER obtained parliamentary authorisation as a defensive measure against a similar scheme proposed by the rival London, Chatham and Dover Railway. The SER's enthusiasm for the scheme waned after the financial collapse of its rival in the wake of the 1866 Overend Gurney crisis. It was left to another independent company, the locally promoted Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway, to revive the scheme in 1877 and pursue it for a further 15 years before its opening in October 1892. The company was incorporated on 2 August 1877.

Construction

The Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway obtained authorisation for a single track line to link the two towns from which the company took its name. Agreement had been reached with the SER that it would provide £50,000 towards construction costs once the local company had raised £25,000 in the district. The necessary funds could not be raised and by April 1878 only £11,000 had been found and, on the suggestion of the SER, it was decided to save costs by locating Cranbrook station in Hartley, 2 miles (3.2 km) from Cranbrook's centre, where land prices were higher. Preliminary construction works were commenced in 1879 but soon ground to a halt due to a lack of funds. Undissuaded, the railway company obtained two further Acts of Parliament in 1882 and 1892 which authorised a "cut-price" route between Goudhurst and Hawkhurst.

The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum records the career of Holman Fred Stephens, light railway 🚃

The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum records the career of Holman Fred Stephens, light railway 🚃

The Colonel Stephens Railway Museum records the career of Holman Fred Stephens, light railway promoter, engineer and manager, his family, his railways and his successors.

The museum is based at Tenterden station on the Kent & East Sussex Railway, which was the quintessential Stephens' light railway and was always the heart of his empire.


The collection began in the 1960s largely through the foresight of Philip Shaw, the Kent and East Sussex Railways Historian, who began putting aside items donated by former employees of the Stephen's empire. W H Austen junior in particular, was a considerable source of material, much of which he had inherited from his father.

Hidden behind the public display is the heart of the research section, the historical papers and undisplayed artifacts dating from about the 1880s occupy 20 steel cabinet filing drawers and some 60 metres of racking.

The photographic archive is considerable, though seldom are we given original negatives. Although never counted, there are probably somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 photographs, the earliest of which were in the Colonels collection.

The new shelter under construction next to the Colonel Stephens Museum at Tenterden Town. At the Kent and East Sussex Railway, to house the late Colin Shutt's replica railmotor

The new shelter under construction next to the Colonel Stephens Museum at Tenterden Town.

At the Kent and East Sussex Railway, to house the late Colin Shutt's replica railmotor

In memory of Colin Shutt.

Long time member of the Colonel Stephens Society

Colin at Tenterden in 2007 with his beautifully built replica Ford Railbus.