CHATHAM PUTS STEAM IN PERSPECTIVE

A line rarely featured on these pages is the Chatham Dockyard Railway. On July 22 Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-4-0ST Ajax was in action on the dockyard line working demonstration freight trains. Built in 1941 and delivered new to Chatham, Ajax has worked at the Medway site ever since. The Admiralty disposed of all other steam locomotives at Chatham in 1972, but Ajax was retained until closure in 1984, after which it was placed in storage until the opening of Chatham Historic Dockyard the following year. Here it is dwarfed by HMS Cavalier to the left.