THE STRANGEST TRAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 December 1934, Page 11

THE STRANGEST TRAIN

PASSENGERS A RARITY. “I have just travelled on Britain’s strangest railway—the Kent and East Sussex line,” writes a Sunday Express correspondent at Tenterden, Weald of Kent. “We covered 15 miles in an hour and three-quarters.” The train, which was boarded *at Robertsbridge, on the borders of Sussex, was bound for the pretty town of Tenterden. It consisted of a small and ancient steam locomotive, one passenger carriage of four compartments, and several goods trucks. The correspondent was the only passenger. The time-table said the train left Robertsbridge at 11.15 a.m. and arrived at Tenterden at 12.25, but it reached there at 12.55.

The correspondent adds: “We stopper for long periods at every' station, while the engine went off to the sidings to perform shunting and other ‘fatigue’ work. At each station I went for a walk to explore the village. Great respect was shown me by the guard and the porters at the lonely little halts for 1 was a rarity—a passenger.” The railway was once owned by a landowner named Stephens, until in 1896 a company was formed. It did roaring business. Now the omnibuses have won the passenger trade, but good business is still done in goods traffic. ____