107 photographs from our the East Kent Light Railway catalogue have been added to the Transport Library website. To view the full selection on the Transport Library website click here.
This selection of views from our collection focusses on the East Kent Light Railway, often shortened simply to the East Kent Railway (EKR). The EKR was a Colonel Stephens line like the Kent and East Sussex and was built to service the transport needs of the then newly discovered Kent Coalfield. Initially opened for freight traffic from Shepherdswell to Tilmanstone Colliery in 1911 the line was extended northwards reaching Wingham by December 1912. Passenger traffic commenced in 1916 but the full development of the coalfield never took place as the Great War intervened and only Tilmanstone went into production. After the War an extension was built to Richborough Port which had been a major transportation centre during the War which it was hoped would become a major shipment centre. This was not to happen and passenger services only ran for a brief period to Sandwich Road between 1925 and 1928, whilst freight trains ran occasionally. Remarkably passenger services on the rest of the line continued into the British Railways era, being withdrawn from 30th October 1948. Freight services continued for a short time but by 1951 were cut back to serve Eythorne and Tilmanstone Colliery only. It was in this truncated state that the line survived until final closure in March 1984. Fortunately a heritage railway group manged to secure a lease on the surviving section of the line in 1990 and so the EKR lives on. As with other Colonel Stephens lines the locomotives and rolling stock were somewhat decrepit as his railways rarely bought new locomotives or rolling stock, instead almost exclusively buying stock second hand. Our selection features a wide range of these, including the ex LSWR Adams 4-4-2T which was bought back from the EKR by the SR in 1945 and refurbished to work on the Lyme Regis branch, eventually passing into preservation on the Bluebell Railway.
This selection of views is available as darkroom prints ordered in the usual way or as digital prints or images from the Transport Library Lens of Sutton Association Gallery pages.
