Romney Marsh MES Garden Railway & Romney, Hythe & Dymchurh railway

[KentKeith]

A mixed bag of pictures!! Running Day on Tuesday July 6th at the Romney Marsh Engineering Society track followed by a Fish & Chip run on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway. The RH&DR is not G-scale but then it's not full-scale...and it does run in the Kent, the Garden of England

First up a picture of the G-scale loading bay...a mixed load of stuff on view:

Running on the Gauge 1 track were a couple of beauties that I had not seen running at RMMES before:

The Britannia was a Gauge One Model Railway Company production whilst the A3 was an Aster hauling a rake of LMS livery coaches. Must admit that they looked very impressive making their way round the track.


Whilst the above two brutes were steaming round the track my Heljan Cl.20 was running on the O-gauge track (which I'm trying to fettle and bring back into use) whilst a battery Harz 2-6-2T was running on the G-scale analogue track:

A Roundhouse Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad steamie was hauling a nice look freight train:

..and the DoodleBug and Trailer were later seen out on the main track:

More pictures at the RMMES and on the RHDR will follow within the next couple of days....

 

[3Valve]

Nice set of piccies Keith - thanks for posting.

 

[stevelewis]

Nice pics Keith,

I have not ridden the RH & D for quite a few years its a rather nice experience, just a pity about the Power station at the Dungeness end

 

[simon@mgr]

Drool, envy, covet.

 

[KentKeith]

A couple more pictures of trains running on the garden railway before moving on to the bigger stuff on the RHDR

First of all a sound-equiped Santa Fe switcher and train having just left the staging area and moving to the main track:

At rest for most of the afternoon was this little steamie - never did find out who was its owner....

...and another new for me, the first time I've seen a coal-fired G-scale loco - seemed very fiddly but certainly very impressive. This loco belongs to the guy who has the Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes loco shown above:

Now got to sort out some of the pictures taken on the RHDR

 

[MRail]

A mixed bag of pictures!!

An excellent opportunity to compare scales and gauges.

A side by side line up would be useful.

 

[KentKeith]

....and now for the big stuff on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.....and the purpose of our trip:

Fish & Chip Supper at the Railway Cafe at Dungeness Station. Pleased to advise that the fish and chips was excellent - 60 punters served in double quick time - two staff bringing the meals and two staff slaving away in the kitchen. A fantastic effort by the railway.


Upon arrival at New Romney Station our train loco, Hercules, had just arrived on a previous service:

Whilst the coaching stock was being shunted around Hercules was waiting patiently:

The youngest passenger on the train knew all the RHDR locomotive stock details....

Finally the coaches were coupled up, headboard was on and the train was ready for departure:

Diesel loco #12 had been busy shunting the carraige stock around ....coaches for our train....and coaches for the first trains the following morning:

Soon Loco #14 arrived from Dungeness on the single line section thus clearing the line for our trip to Dungeness

Picture of the main station building with some of the waiting passengers. As with most such groups, the age profile of the RMMES is somewhat top heavy

...and at the other end of the platform the signal box and the busy (and attractive) signal person:

 

[KentKeith]

Nice pics Keith,

I have not ridden the RH & D for quite a few years its a rather nice experience, just a pity about the Power station at the Dungeness end

Steve,

The power station is not that great a problem....from afar:

or from Dungeness Station picnic area:

...you just have to turn around and look the other way....

....can't see the power station then

 

[stevelewis]

Very true Keith!

Just remebering our last rip on the RHDR we nearly derailed on the first road crossing after the loop at Dungeness!!

In the inward to DG trip I noticed that the coach lurched a bit on the crossing, we remained on the train and as it traveressed the crossing, the driver jammed the brakes on and stopped VERY quickly, all was well no wheels of, but driver examined the flangeways in the crossing and found it was full of ballast, which had caused the problem, the question about which he wondered when we discussed it was 'how had it built up so suddenly ' as there was now problem an hour or so earlier,,