STRANGE TRAIN

Southland Times, Issue 22491, 28 January 1935, Page 8

STRANGE 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 fifteen miles m 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 stopped 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.