‘Let’s not lose our locomotive’

A last- ditch bid to keep an important historic artefact in the city has been launched by campaigners

The Canterbury Society wants to halt the planned move of the Invicta Locomotive to Whitstable and have it displayed outside the city’s West station instead.

That is where it started work in 1830, operating the first passenger service in the world to the seaside town.

The engine is famed for being the sister engine to Robert and George Stephenson’s pioneering Rocket.

But the council has already recommended the steam engine be moved from the former Canterbury Heritage Museum in Stour Street – now the home of the Marlowe Kit – to Whitstable harbour.

The proposed move has upset Canterbury Society chairman Jan Pahl. She said: “The Invicta Locomotive has been in Canterbury for years, displayed first in the Dane John Gardens, then in the moat by the city walls and finally in the museum. Canterbury has now lost its heritage museum – does it really have to lose this historic locomotive too? The ideal place for the engine would be outside Canterbury West Station, where it would be seen and enjoyed by many more people than it will be in Whitstable.”

Mrs Pahl is now urging residents to lobby city councillors to reconsider.

A consultation on the future of the locomotive last year led to four options – keep it where it is, or move it to either the Beaney Museum in Canterbury, Whitstable Museum or Whitstable harbour – the last of which is favoured by councillors.

The proposal will be considered by the council’s community committee on Wednesday.

It will either make a final decision on the move or put the options out to public consultation.

Invicta Locomotive was was donated to the city in 1906