11 LOCOMOTIVES, 33 HOURS: RHDR MARKS 90 YEARS

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway hosted its most ambitious gala to date on May 13/14 - without its star attraction. RHDR 4-8-2 No. 6 Hercules had been due to be the headline act at the railway’s ‘90th Anniversary Steam & Diesel Gala’, making its first gala appearance since the completion of its intermediate overhaul. Unfortunately, the Greenlydesigned ‘Mountain’ failed during the first day of the gala with an overheating bearing. It had been hoped that Hercules would be able to run the following day so it could complete its 90-mile challenge, but it was decided to fail the locomotive to conduct a more thorough examination. RHDR General Manager Danny Martin said: “We’re not sure whether it was a lubrication or a machining issue, but we’d be very surprised if it was the latter. “Hercules had already done six days running-in with no problems, but she should be back within a week.” Despite Hercules’ failure, the gala was an undoubted success, with “several thousand” visiting the railway over the two days. Mr Martin said: “We don’t know exactly how many people turned up, but we ran a dozen trains all carrying 200 passengers, and every one was full.” For the first time in the 15ingauge railway’s history, trains ran for 33 hours consecutively, starting at 9.30am on Saturday morning and continuing through the night until 6.30pm on Sunday evening. The railway also hosted three visiting locomotives, two of which came from the Bure Valley Railway - 2-6-2 No. 6 Blickling Hall and 2-6-2T No. 1 Wroxham Broad. The third visiting locomotive was Bassett-Lowke ‘Class 30’ 4-4-2 Synolda from the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. The 1912-built locomotive hauled a top-and-tail shuttle service between New Romney and St Mary’s Bay with RHDR resident 0-4-0TT No. 4 The Bug. All the RHDR’s operational locomotives were in action during the event, including steam locomotives Nos. 2 Northern Chief, 3 Southern Maid,7 Typhoon, 8 Hurricane,9 Winston Churchill and 10 Doctor Syn, as well as the railway’s two diesels, Bo-Bos Nos. 12 J. B. Snell and 14 Captain Howey.

MARTIN LEACH Six RHDR steam engines brought the curtain down on the gala with a procession from New Romney to Hythe via Dungeness on Sunday evening. Nos. 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10 are on the balloon loop approaching Dungeness.