Kentish Express Ashford & District
Track record that
A special year is coming up for the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) as it marks its 90th anniversary and another significant landmark.
This week it will be 70 years since the line fully reopened after the Second World War.
The honours were carried out by the famous comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on March 21, 1947 when they visited the railway to open the New Romney to Dungeness section of the line.
Newsreel footage of their visit shows the pair typically larking about with Hardy carrying a comedic massive key and trying to get in through a door put up in front of the tunnel which passes under Station Road.
When he is unsuccessful, Laurel simply steps up and opens it, much to Hardy’s annoyance, which is met by screams of laughter from the crowds packed onto the platforms at New Romney station.
The film stars clambered on board a train from Hythe and took the journey down the line to the ceremony at New Romney with Hardy finding it a bit more difficult to get in and out of the little carriage than his screen partner.
They were presented to the mayor and then showed the little trains and told how they worked, intrigued by their charm and character which still endears visitors today.
Their slapstick-style was apparent when the driver blows the whistle, much to the comics’ surprise, as the crowds are again