East Kent Railway (heritage) | |
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Locale | Kent, England |
Commercial operations | |
Built by | Colonel Stephens |
Original gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Preserved operations | |
Owned by | East Kent Railway Trust |
Operated by | East Kent Railway Trust |
Length | 2.4 miles (3.9 km) |
Preserved gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
Commercial history | |
Opened | 1911 |
Closed | 1988 |
Preservation history | |
Headquarters | Shepherdswell |
East Kent Light Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The East Kent Railway (EKR) is a heritage railway in Kent, England. It is located at Shepherdswell station on the London and Chatham to Dover mainline. The line was constructed between 1911 and 1917 to serve the Kent Coalfields. See East Kent Light Railway for details of the original lines. [1] The Kent Collieries were mostly a failure with only Tilmanstone on the line producing any viable commercial coal and commercial traffic over the line. The line is operated by heritage diesel locomotives. It is home to a collection of heritage diesel locomotives including a British Rail Class 08, DEMU and electric multiple units including an in service British Rail Class 404 built in the 1930s and a more modern British Rail Class 365, which is to be used as a restaurant and a major events venue.
At Shepherdswell, there is a large cafe, a large 15-acre (6.1 ha) woodland area with walking routes, a 5 in (127 mm) gauge miniature railway, a 7+1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge woodland miniature railway, a model railway and a small museum. Shepherdswell is where the railway undertakes it maintenance and overhaul works and is very much a working railway yard.
At Eythorne, there is a Class 365 EMU that has been converted to a restaurant and bar. There is a General Utility Van built by BR that used to carry elephants which is in the process of being converted to a small holiday let. The old Selling Signal Box is also here with a history of the East Kent Railway both past and present inside along with the original Faversham signalling panel. Eythorne Station plays host to a variety of features on special event days. Eythorne is the picture of a pretty countryside station.
The railway holds special events throughout the year, ranging from railway enthusiast events to beer festivals along with family fun weekends.
On the line there is Golgotha Tunnel (situated between Shepherdswell and Eythorne), 477 yards (436 m) long, making it the eighth longest tunnel on a UK Heritage Railway in Preservation. The tunnel was built in typical Colonel Stephens style by building double track portals but only excavating a single track internally to save money. [2]
There is also a wide variety of wagons at Shepherdswell.
A preservation group was formed in 1987 to preserve part of the abandoned line as far as the old coal mine at Tilmanstone. By 1989 a majority of the lineside vegetation had been cleared and by 1995 the first heritage train was run.
Following the reopening of the railway, a new platform was constructed on the site of the former equivalent at Eythorne and the former signalbox from Selling was moved to the northern end of the platform in the mid 1990s. The railway also owns the Barham Signal Box from the closed Elham Valley Line which houses a detailed mural painting of the old East Kent Railway route, this can be found at Shepherdswell.
The EKR operates on most Sundays and Bank Holidays between April and September.
The EKR also owns an extensive ancient woodland known as "The Knees". [20] The railway uses The Knees as an educational resource, woodland walks - the bluebells in spring are a popular attraction and for special events such as halloween.
The railway hosts other groups, including the Southern Electric Group, 400 Series Preservation and the 427 Locomotive Group. The Network SouthEast Railway Society also have a facility here in the form of a display container which is splendidly painted in the classic Toothpaste Livery.
The railway hosts two apprenticeship schemes for Permanent Way and Civil Engineering training. The railway also hosts other organisations and offers facilities for 3rd parties to undertake training.
The British RailClass 411 (4CEP) electric multiple units were built at Eastleigh works from 1956–63 for the newly electrified main lines in Kent. These units, which used the British Railways Mark 1 bodyshell, were based on the earlier Southern Railway 4 COR design, built in 1937. Variants of the class 411 design included the class 410 and class 412 4 BEP units, which contained a buffet car in place of a standard trailer. They were later used on services in Sussex and Hampshire; following the privatisation of British Rail in 1995, the units were used by the Connex South Central, Connex South Eastern and South West Trains franchises. They were replaced by Juniper, Desiro, and Electrostar units. The fleet's lifespan was 49 years. These units are the longest-lived BR Mark 1 EMUs.
The Southern Railway (SR) gave the designations 4-COR, 4-RES, 4-BUF and 4-GRI to the different types of electric multiple unit built to work the route between London Waterloo and Portsmouth Harbour. The 4-COR type units survived long enough in British Rail ownership to be allocated TOPS Class 404. The COR designation had previously been used for the 6-PUL units and was reused by them during World War II when the Pullman car was stored, but this stock was different from the 4-COR units.
The British Rail Class 421 (4CIG) electric multiple units were built at BR's Holgate Road carriage works between 1964 and 1972. Units were built in two batches, and were initially introduced on services on the Brighton Main Line. Later units were introduced on services to Portsmouth. These units replaced older Southern Railway-designed units, such as the 5Bel "Brighton Belle" units, and 4Cor units. The fleet's lifespan was 46 years.
The British Rail Class 423, electric multiple unit passenger trains were mostly built by British Rail (BR) at York Works from 1967 to 1974, although the MBSOs and TSOs of the first 20, 7701-7720, were built at Derby Works. They have manually opening doors next to every seating row and were the last coaching stock built in this pattern for BR. They were mostly found working outer-suburban services in South London and rural services in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire, up to 2005 when they were finally replaced by Electrostar and Desiro units. The fleet had a working life of 38 years.
The Southern Railway (SR) gave the designation 5-BEL to the five-car all-Pullman electric multiple units which worked the prestigious Brighton Belle trains between London Victoria and Brighton. These units survived long enough in British Rail ownership to be allocated TOPS Class 403. Between 1933 and 1935 the units were designated 5-PUL.
Shepherds Well railway station is on the Dover branch of the Chatham Main Line in England, and serves the village of Shepherdswell, Kent. It is 71 miles 60 chains (115.5 km) down the line from London Victoria and is situated between Snowdown and Kearsney.
Elvington is a small pit village on a ridge in between Canterbury and Dover in the county of Kent in Southeast England. Located near Eythorne, Elvington was mostly built in the early 20th century to serve the nearby coal mine at Tilmanstone, as were other Kent Coalfield villages including Snowdown, Aylesham and Betteshanger.
British Rail Class 416 (2-EPB) was a class of third-rail electric multiple units in service between 1953 and 1995. They were intended for inner suburban passenger services on London's Southern Electric network. There were two subclasses of Class 416: Class 416/1 to an SR design on salvaged 2-NOL underframes, built between 1953 and 1956, and Class 416/2 based on a British Railways Mark 1 coach design.
An electric multiple unit (EMU) is an electric self-powered train, capable of operating in multiple with other EMUs and without the need for a locomotive; these are typically passenger trains with accommodation in every vehicle and a driving position at each end. The term can also be used to describe a train that is a permanent formation with a non-driving power car, such as the Advanced Passenger Train. As of December 2010, two-thirds of the passenger carriages in Great Britain are formed in EMUs.
The British Rail Class 506 was a 3 carriage electric multiple unit (EMU) built for local services between Manchester, Glossop and Hadfield on the Woodhead Line, which was electrified in 1954 on the 1,500 V DC overhead system.
The British Rail Class 210 was a type of diesel-electric multiple unit (DEMU) passenger train designed and constructed by British Rail Engineering Limited's Derby Litchurch Lane Works.
The East Kent Light Railway was part of the Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager. The line ran from Shepherdswell to Wingham Station with a branch from Eastry through Poison Cross to Richborough Port. Built primarily for colliery traffic within the Kent Coalfields, the line was built with many spurs and branches to serve the mines, with cancelled plans to construct extensions to several others. The success of Tilmanstone colliery allowed the main line of the railway to continue operation until 1986. A remainder of the line became the East Kent Railway, a heritage railway, in 1987.
The Kent & East Sussex Railway has hosted a variety of heritage rolling stock since the line was closed by British Railways in 1961.
The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line West Sussex and East Sussex in England.
The Mid-Norfolk Railway has a large collection of heritage rolling stock, mostly relating to the post-war British Railways-era, from the 1950s to 1990s. The line holds several rolling-stock accomplishments:
Preserved EMUs of Southern Railway. This is a list of preserved Southern Railway (UK) designated electric multiple units (EMUs).
These British Pullman carriages are preserved, or have continued to operate on the main line beyond their original service life:
Ashford Steam Centre was a short-lived railway museum at Willesborough, Ashford, Kent, United Kingdom. It was located at the former engine shed that was situated east of Ashford railway station. The museum opened in 1968 and closed in 1976.
Class 201, Class 202 and Class 203 were the TOPS codes for a series of Diesel-electric multiple units built for the Southern Region of British Railways in 1957–86. They were classified by the Southern Region as 6S, 6L and 6B respectively, and known collectively as the Hastings Diesels or Hastings Units. They were built for service on the Hastings Line, which had a restricted loading gauge due to deficiencies in the construction of the tunnels when the line was built between 1845 and 1852. The Hastings Units served from 1957 to 1988, being withdrawn when the Hastings Line was electrified with single-track sections through some of the tunnels.
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