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  -

Abandoned Railway tunnel - St Michaels Tunnel on the Kent and East Sussex Railway

The line was engineered and operated by Colonel H F Stephens. One of his 'bigger' feats was St Michaels Tunnel, located just north of the halt. Opened in 1905 as part of an extension from Tenterden to Headcorn, it is just 31 yards in length and curves to the east on a radius of approximately 30 chains.

Comprising a single platform and small corrugated hut, the modest halt at St Michaels was added to the Kent & East Sussex Light Railway in 1912.

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

To serve a small community on the outskirts of Tenterden. Its ticket office - if you could call it that - closed in 1938 and the local infrastructure's decline continued until services were withdrawn on 4th January 1954.

The portals are neat, brick-built affairs with a masonry string course and copings. Wing walls extend outwards parallel to the track - the east-side wall at the south end is cracked top to bottom. Horseshoe shaped in profile, the lining comprises four rings of brick and features a single refuge. Timber brackets supported telegraph wires.

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

Despite 60 years of redundancy, the structure remains in fair condition except for the cracked wing wall and some spalling of the north portal's headwall. The interior has found function as a wood store, used by the householder whose property it stands on.

 Abandoned Railway tunnel - St Michaels Tunnel on the Kent and East Sussex Railway 

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

Provided by colonel Stephens Museum

 Abandoned Railway tunnel - St Michaels Tunnel on the Kent and East Sussex Railway 

Camber golf links, Rye and Camber Tramway was a railway in East Sussex

Camber golf links, Rye and Camber Tramway was a railway in East Sussex

in 1895 the Rye and Camber Tramway was opened to connect Rye with a new golf course at Camber. 

Rye Tramway

Designed to cater for the transportation needs of golfers and their caddies, the steam railway also took fishermen from Rye to their fishing boats moored opposite Rye Harbour village, where a river ferry could be hailed.

Rye (Tramway top right )

The line's promoters cunningly decided to build the line entirely on private land, thereby avoiding the necessity of having to obtain an Act of Parliament. 

Built to a 3ft gauge with economy in mind, the 1.75 mile line ran parallel to the River Rother from its Rye terminus as far as Broadwater Beach, before heading across Northpoint beach and terminating opposite Rye Harbour Village

The track was spiked directly to wooden sleepers to save cost, and there was two loops at each end of the line to let the engines run around the coaches.

you tube clip of the tramway

The two termini were both built of corrugated iron and wood, offering a canopy, waiting room and booking office. 

With only one engine in steam at any given point, there was no need for signalling. 

When it opened on Saturday, 13th July, 1895, the line was equipped with one steam engine and a passenger coach, divided into first and second class compartments. 

The engine, named 'Camber' and accompanying carriage were built by W.G.Bagnall Limited of Stafford. 

Although capable of better things, the engine normally sauntered around the track at a stately 10mph, pulling a three ton passenger car.

The coach, divided into first and second class sections, was around twenty-six feet long with entrance platforms at each end. 

The first class portion could accommodate 12 passengers and came with cushioned seats and curtains, while the cheapskates in second class had to make do with longitudinal strip-wood seating . 

 

Traffic was encouraging, with 18,000 tickets being sold in the first six months, prompting the company to invest in a second, more powerful, steam engine in 1897, patriotically named 'Victoria'. 

The company continued to prosper, adding a half mile extension to a deserted location at Camber Sands on 13th July, 1908. 

The station was extremely low on facilities, offering nothing more than a raised platform made from old standard gauge sleepers, with a small hut being added later. 

Endeavouring to make the most of its remote location, the timetable described the station as being 'far from the madding crowd' and a perfect location for picnics. 

With the extension complete, the original Camber terminus was renamed as Golf Links, and the service ramped up in the summer months to 13 trains each way daily, of which only seven ran through to Camber Sands. 

A special Saturday late night train ran for golfers at 8:15pm. 

In the winter months, the service was cut back to seven trains each way daily, nine trips on Saturdays and four on Sunday, with all trains terminating at the Golf Links station. 

Road competition, rising coal prices and high maintenance costs forced economies on the line in the 1920s, with the steam locomotives being replaced by a four wheeled petrol tractor in 1924. 
 The winter service was abandoned completely in 1925-6 and a long period of decline set in. 

With the outbreak of war in 1939, the line was closed to the public and used by various military and naval purposes. 

 Unhappily, the track and rolling stock was in such dreadful condition at the end of the war that the company decided to wind up the railway forever. 

Although the Golf Links/Camber station has survived remarkably well for a corrugated iron structure, no trace remains of the Rye terminus or the station at Camber Sands. 

the last remains of the tramway

colonel stephens museam Tenterden

Kent and East Sussex Railways . Disuesd Station Headcorn

                             Kent and East Sussex Railways . Disuesd Station Headcorn

  

Date opened:	15.5.1905
Location:	On the south side of the existing Headcorn Station
Company on opening:	Kent & East Sussex Railway
Date closed to passengers:	4.1.1954
Date closed completely:	4.1.1954
Company on closing:	British Railways (Southern Region)
Present state:	Unknown
County:	Kent

 (Brief history of the Kent & East Sussex Railway) 

The Rother Valley Railway was proposed in 1896 and was the first line to be built under the 1896 Light Railway Act that permitted lightly constructed lines to be built in rural areas. The line was engineered by Holman Stephens (later Colonel Stephens) who went on to build a number of light railways around the country. The first section between Robertsbridge and Tenterden (later renamed Rolvenden) opened on 2.4.1900. The line was extended to Tenterden Town in 1903 and Headcorn in 1905.

The line was renamed the Kent & East Sussex Railway was initially moderately profitable although the northern section was subsidised by the South Eastern & Chatham Railway. After WW1 there were heavy losses eventually leading to bankruptcy in 1931. The line had remained independent after the 1923 amalgamation and despite loss of revenue with many of its passengers switching to busses it continued to provide a valuable service, especially to the farming community, through the 1930's.

Shortly after final closure a preservation society was formed but it was a further 13 years before trains returned to the line, the main stumbling block being the large number of road crossings. Eventually a compromise was agreed once the Society agreed to drop the section of line between Bodiam and Robertsbridge from the restoration proposal. The Kent & East Sussex Railway Company became a registered charity and work progressed quickly with the first section of restored line opening at Tenterden on 3.2.1974; this was extended to Wittisham Road in 1977, Northiam in 1990 and Bodiam in 2000.

Following a decline in passenger and freight traffic, the KESR between Headcorn and Tenterden was closed to all traffic in 1954. Goods facilities were withdrawn from Headcorn in 1962, and the goods yard became a car park. The SER's original buildings however survived until 1988 when they were swept away by British Rail as part of a modernisation scheme

JAN 2017

STATION PLATFORM

St Michaels Tunnel (A forgotten relic) shoreham lane Tenterden kent USA

St Michaels Tunnel the forgotten relic of the Kent and East Sussex Railway

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 One of his 'bigger' feats was St Michaels Tunnel, located just north of the halt. Opened in 1905 as part of an extension from Tenterden to Headcorn, it is just 31 yards in length and curves to the east on a radius of approximately 30 chains.The portals are neat, brick-built affairs with a masonry string course and copings. Wing walls extend outwards parallel to the track - the east-side wall at the south end is cracked top to bottom. Horseshoe shaped in profile, the lining comprises four rings of brick and features a single refuge. Timber brackets supported telegraph wires.

now a back garden

Despite almost 60 years of redundancy, the structure remains in fair condition except for the cracked wing wall and some spalling of the north portal's headwall. The interior has found function as a wood store, used by the householder whose property it stands on.
a train running through the tunnel