Hirelings for Firings…

As recorded on the news pages, boiler ticket expiry late in 2005 for two stalwarts of the Rolvenden fleet, Norwegian and Wainwright, meant K&ESR had to turn elsewhere for major motive power to cover the Santa season. History has a way of repeating itself, or rather the lessons of history. So rather than collect coal dust in the yard or see occasional use as banker engines, P-class 753 and the Trust’s 32678 had to fill a real gap this Christmas season.

With Class-5 motive power reduced to just No.23 Holman F Stephens and No.24 Rolvenden, the two 0-6-0 tanks were used in tandem on several days. Ironically, this happened about the same time of year in November 1936 when the old K&ESR first had to turn to the Southern Railway for a hireling. Frustratingly, reports in The Tenterden Terrier magazine don’t indicate quite why numbers 3, 4 and 8 were unable to cover the sparse service or whether it was down to the decline in use of the rail-buses, or both. Anyway, the engine provided was none other than P-class 1556, aka 753. This must have been reasonably successful for following this two month period, the engine returned for another nine months in 1938.

As will be recorded elsewhere on the website in due course, the nomadic scrapyard dodger, 2678, was dispatched to the K&ESR in February 1940 to join stablemate 2659 – ex-LBSCR No.59 Cheam, and to replace 2655 (Stepney) which had been based on the line for almost two years. Whether it was a case of lump it or like it, or the railway decided it had got its paws on a little gem is open to interpretation but she would stay on the line to nationalisation and beyond.

The first of the Santas I witnessed was on 04 December when 753 and 32678 worked the 1215, 1345 and 1515 services with 32678 piloting in the Wittersham Road direction. Although the weather was initially nothing to write home about, it improved dramatically in the afternoon, providing some wonderful golden reflections on Tenterden Bank and a murky mist at the end of the day. These pictures have already been posted on the Gallery.

The following weekend I was on nights. I needed some fresh air, so popped down Rolvenden relatively late on Saturday afternoon, just in case, only to find both austerities working. Some late running, over and above the WTT being five minutes later than advertised meant the only train worth photographing was the returning 1430 on Orpin’s Curve with No.24 in charge; a dramatic scene indeed.

Sunday dawned with another drama – the Hemel Hempstead oil explosion and fire. The frost promised a sunny start but although nine Santas were scheduled that day, starting at 1045, the news and need for a sleep meant it was lunchtime time before I made Cranbrook Road. Shortly, asymmetric engine beats echoed across the sunlit High Weald followed by definitely two plumes of exhaust. Which engine would leading? Moments later, 32678 came into view on the returning 1215, working furiously, then behind it, 753 – the train engine, straining no less hard up the 1-in-50 Bank, white exhaust largely filling the chiefly blue sky with some darkness on the horizon. Was this the forecast cloud or the pollution blown south from Hemel?

A little later I was walking the dogs in the clinging mud of Rolvenden Layne, heading towards the Newmill Channel. Some of the finest aspects of the K&ESR are best appreciated from distant views and although I couldn’t get into a position in time photograph the hirelings on the 1345, I saw the two locos steam serenely past Gazedown Wood en route to Wittersham Road. They had also swapped round; 32678 now piloting in the southbound direction.

In more hope than anticipation I returned to witness their return up Tenterden Bank though unsure of the influence of the gathering gloom from the north. The ascent was every bit as dramatic as 90 minutes earlier, heightened by the dullness of the pallor behind. So that was very much it for the day and I left cursing what I saw were the missed opportunities earlier in the day.

With a day off on Sunday 18th, I arrived at Rolvenden to seen 753 and 32678 again in steam, waiting in the Up Loop about to run light-engine to Tenterden. Yet another perfect day was forecast, way against the odds for this time of year and slightly warmer than the previous weekends. The scene of the little engines working round Orpin’s Curve that morning was nothing to write home about, their formation implied 753 would be the pilot engine uphill to start with and my reservations about having missed seeing the 1045 the previous week were duly exacerbated when No.23 worked the first train off Tenterden Town. The hirelings would therefore work the 1130, 1300, 1430 and 1600 departures.