In 1931, Howey converted his 1914 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost into a locomotive for the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway that survived until 1961. It is seen here at Littlestone-on-Sea Station, before 1955
The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) is a 15 in gauge light railway in Kent, England. The 13 3⁄4-mile line runs from Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney Sands to Dungeness, close to Dungeness nuclear power station and Dungeness Lighthouse. Construction began in late 1925 and the railway opened on 16 July 1927. It was the dream of millionaire racing drivers Captain Howey and Count Louis Zborowski. The latter had constructed a railway at Higham Park, his home at Bridge, Kent, and agreed to donate the rolling stock and infrastructure to the project. However, he was killed on 19 October 1924 in a motor racing accident at the Monza Grand Prix before the Romney Marsh site was chosen, and Howey continued the project alone. These images come from a collection of negatives I purchased in about 1985 and date from between 1947 (when the line re-opened after the war) and 1955 (when one of the locomotives seen acquired smoke deflectors)
Size: 2286px × 1424px
Location: Littlestone-on-Sea, Kent, UK
Photo credit: © Niall Ferguson / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: dymchurch, gauge, ghost, hythe, kent, littlestone, littlestone--sea, locomotive, narrow, railway, rh&dr, rhdr, rolls, rolls-royce, romney, royce, silver, station, steam, train
