Locomotive No. 75008, Swiftsure, passing through Rolvenden Station, on the Kent and East Sussex Railway.
The original Tenterden station was on this site when the Railway opened in 1900. Had the original plans for the Railway materialised, this would have been an important junction. As it was it became the K&ESR's engineering centre with Workshop, Locomotive and Carriage Sheds where minor miracles were performed with primitive equipment to keep the railway running. Virtually the whole site was cleared in British Railways days and the only remaining relic of the old railway is the concrete water tower at the end of the platform. The site of the original sheds lie under part of the large wood yard on the West of the line and the present locomotive facilities are on the site of the old goods siding on the opposite side of the line. The adjacent fields have been purchased to permit further expansion - a large carriage storage shed was recently erected on one & further development will occur when help and finance permit. The present railway provided the modest passenger shelter in the Stephens style in 1980. Unusually for British practice trains pass on the loop beyond the platform near the signalbox, which was newly built in 1989 in traditional style. This arrangement was forced on the railway by the narrowness of the site we inherited, but contributes to the functional eccentricity inseparable from a Colonel Stephens railway!
Size: 3744px × 5616px
Location: Rolvenden Station & Motive Power Depot
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., 75008, boiler, carriage, driver, east, heritage, kent, locomotive, passengers, platform, railway, railway., rolvenden, signal, station, steam, summer, sussex, swiftsure, track, train, trees, wheels
