A steamy, smokey day on the RHDR

A grand day out on the Kent coast at New Romney visiting the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway’s Autumn Gala. We didn’t travel the whole line but we did have a shuttle run on this loco as part of the platform ticket entrance free.

The day started with a coffee at Unit 1, a favourite place in West Hythe before driving down to the coast at Greatstone.

We spent a couple of hours at New Romney station watching trains come and go including Dr Syn at speed on a non stop service to Hythe through the station. A fine sight and sound.

It was such a fine day, as you can see in today’s blip of Anne from the Perrygrove Railway in the Forest of Dean. Anne is newish, built in 2004 by the Exmoor Railway Company. Also visiting from Perrygrove was Soony. I think the coal used today was pretty ropey, very sulphurous and smelly as you can see from the extra.

To get away from the smokey atmosphere we walked a 4 mile round trip towards Dymchurch expecting to get back in time to see the Gala Cavalcade when every steam loco used today was marshalled into one train travelling from Hythe to Nee Romney. In the event, the train was delayed an unspecified time so we came home instead!