NORTH WALES COAST RAILWAY :NOTICE BOARD

News Pictures

Abandoned unit - part 2

From Dave Sallery's archive

Looking Back:  Kent and Quainton Road 1970 - by David Pool

On 5 June 1970 at Lydden the Golden Arrow was travelling to Victoria via Chatham, with headcode 74. I was rather disappointed that E5014 did not have the usual headboard with flags.

The following day I moved on to North Kent, visiting the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway. This had provided a service for the Bowater paper mills until 1969, and was now operating as a Preserved Railway with the original rolling stock and locomotives. Melior was built by Kerr Stuart, Works No.4219 (1924), being a development of the earlier “Brazil Class” locomotives.

Supplied for the opening of the line in 1905, Kerr Stuart No.926 Leader was No.2 in the Bowater Railway, but was withdrawn shortly before the other locomotives and stock went into Preservation. Fortunately it had then been purchased and returned to Sittingbourne, where it was awaiting restoration.

The newest steam locomotive at Sittingbourne was Superb, built by W G Bagnall, Works No.2624 (1940). This locomotive visited the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway in 2017 and 2018. The line at Sittingbourne is unusual for a Preserved Railway in that it ran through what was an industrial complex, including a concrete viaduct, but over the years the local developments and closures have led to the line having to be truncated and partly closed. The remaining part of the line appears now to have a secure future as a Preserved Railway. In 1970 there was perhaps less focus on passenger safety, but the children on the coach steps were well behaved as it left the station!

The branch line from Sittingbourne to Sheerness was electrified in 1959, after the connecting branch to the Sheppey Light Railway, which terminated at Leysdown, closed in 1950. The Kingsferry bridge at Swale is an impressive vertical lift bridge built in 1959, and on 6 June 1970 the 1716 from Sheerness to Sittingbourne was three 2-HAP (later Class 414) 2-car units 6038, 6006 and 6039. The Kingsferry bridge is still open, but the main road to Sheerness is now via the new Sheppey Crossing.

There were a large number of locomotives awaiting restoration at Quainton Road at the time of my visit on 7 June 1970. I was surprised at the size of the site, which of course is adjacent to the freight line running North from Aylesbury. The first item which caught my eye was a Saddle Tank Swanscombe. This had been built by Andrew Barclay in 1891 (Works No.699), and is apparently the oldest standard gauge Andrew Barclay locomotive in the UK. It spent most of its working life at West Thurrock in Essex, before being withdrawn and bought for Quainton Road in 1965.

There were other Industrial steam locomotives to be photographed, but my main interest was in the Beattie Well Tank from the Wenford Bridge line in Cornwall. This had been built by Beyer Peacock in 1874 for the London and South Western Railway, becoming 3314 in the Southern Railway and finally 30585 with British Railways.

A relatively modern exhibit was Yorkshire Engineering Co. No.2498 (1951), which had been built for a steel company near Sheffield, but suffered problems with firebox stays and was replaced by a diesel locomotive in 1959. It was then sold to the NCB for work at Chislet Colliery in Kent. The Colliery closed in 1969, when the locomotive moved to Quainton Road, where it acquired the name Chislet.