STEAMING IN DUNGENESS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2020 :: RMTnews 22 RMT signalling members meeting in Folkstone took the opportunity to support the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) last month, a 15-inch gauge light railway in Kent that operates steam and internal combustion locomotives. The 13 3⁄4-mile line, which is a registered Train Operating Company, runs from the Cinque Port of Hythe via Dymchurch, St. Mary's Bay, New Romney and Romney Sands to Dungeness, close to Dungeness nuclear power station and Dungeness Lighthouse. The railway was the dream of millionaire racing drivers Captain John Edwards Presgrave Howey and Count Louis Zborowski and was opened in 1927. However, Howey was not satisfied with just 8 1⁄4 miles of track from Hythe to New Romney and plans were in hand for an extension even before the original section had opened and a year later it was completed. Since it was laid directly onto the shingle forming the Dungeness peninsula it has been suggested that the extension was the most cheaply constructed railway in the world. In 1940 the railway was taken over by the military during World War II, and a miniature armoured train was used on the line.[9] It was also used by the Department of Petroleum Warfare in the construction of PLUTO ("Pipe Line Under The Ocean") intended to supply fuel to the Allied forces after the D-Day Normandy landings. The line re-opened between Hythe and New Romney in 1946, the New Romney to Dungeness section following with a formal opening by Laurel and Hardy on 21 March 21 1947. In June 1947 the Duke of Westminster's railway from STEAMING IN DUNGENESS RMT signalling conference delegates descend on Kent’s most famous steam railway WARTIME: Troops from the Somerset Light Infantry on the armoured train in October 1940. Hurricane