The Line that Refused to Die by Klaus Marx

Klaus Marx recalls the Branch Line Society railtour of 12 April 1958
First published in issue 39 of The Tenterden Terrier Spring 1986
Reproduced with permission of present editor Mr P D Shaw

The years immediately following the cessation of passenger services and total closure of the northern section are well documented. Even the Headcorn section saw further train movements in the early part of 1954 with, for instance, the clearance of wagons on 15 January and movement of the Ashford crane on 10/11 April to Robertsbridge via Tenterden due to inadequate clearance limits on the Tonbridge to Hastings line. “Terriers”, of course, continued to work the daily goods train up to Tenterden Town and at the end of the summer hop-pickers specials ran up to Bodiam, occasionally Northiam, and there was the longstanding through evening train to London Bridge.

What exactly lured me to participate in the Branch Line Society’s railtour of 12 April 1958, is not exactly clear at this distance of time, but the line was one which had tremendous drawing power where railway enthusiasts were concerned, a fact well proven today beyond question. Before me I still have the cutting from the Kentish Express of 18 April 1958, which has such mind-blowing headlines as ‘Enthusiasts re-open Weald’s steel lane’ and ‘Speed took Second Place on Sentimental Rail Trip’ and began ‘Not since the days over four years ago, when it was finally closed to passenger traffic, has there been so much excitement as on Saturday…The Line had come to life again.’

The special was chartered from BR from Robertsbridge to Tenterden and back and consisted of four Maunsell Hastings line coaches scheduled to carry 120 people. Motive power was provided by two of the St Leonard’s based “Terriers”, one at each end of the train. At the special request of the Society one of them was to be 32636, formerly (ex-LB&SCR No.72) Fenchurch of 1872, then the oldest working locomotive on the national system, manned by Driver P Hawkins and Fireman F Jenner who had worked up the rake of empty main line stock single-handed from Hastings to Robertsbridge. The engine was in very smart condition and a credit to the depleted shed staff at St Leonard’s. Taking the leading end at Robertsbridge on the outward journey in a rather less spotless state, having been taken off the morning Tenterden goods, was 32678 (ex-LB&SCR No.78 Knowle) which had hosted me back in 1953. This time it was crewed by Driver F Hazell and Fireman F Blair who normally operated the daily goods with experience going back several years before the closure. In charge was Mr A G Pay, a head office inspector from Waterloo with Mr A B Allcorn, Robertsbridge’s genial stationmaster, and Guard D A Vidler.

Most people had travelled down on a party rate return ticket from Charing Cross to Robertbridge at a single fare and a half costing 12s 6d – 62.5p – and found the waiting special in the K&ESR bay platform, 32678 and the guard’s compartment of the first coach standing beyond the platform edge. The weather was fine with just a few white clouds around to improve the photographic skyline.

Stops were made at very station allowing photography at either end. I have shots of 32636 at Salehurst Halt and Junction Road Halt where apparently a new concrete platform was installed after the line was closed to passenger services! At Bodiam I chose a snap of the forecourt, seem to have missed out at Northiam, but there was a six minute pause at Wittersham Road where one was able to take in the whole train, the middle section screened by the rapidly expanding hedgerow behind the platform. There were several wagons in the siding. Progress was slow since level crossings had to be opened and closed by the fireman.

So on to Rolvenden where little remained to indicate that it was formerly the nerve centre of the line as the locomotive shed and most of the sidings had been demolished. There the “Terriers” in turn took water in preparation for the 1in 36 up to Tenterden, and this stretch proved the most dramatic of the trip. The cavalcade charged furiously up the gradient, but passing Cranbrook Road crossing the special was already down to a crawl and a couple of hundred yards short of the terminus the “Terriers” came to a wheezing stop, attempted a final assault without avail and thereupon determined to stand tight on the bank and raise steam for the next ten or so minutes.

They may have managed to ‘arrive triumphantly’, as the press records, at the crowded platform at Tenterden station, but it was a close run thing as the procession eased over the cattle grids protecting the level crossing in Station Road.

The majority of enthusiasts walked up to the end of the track half a mile north of the station, a point marked by a stack of three horizontal sleepers astride the final rail length. The goods yard was still in business. After a stop of nearly half an hour ‘at Tenterden station where BR have at last been applying a paintbrush to good effect’ it was time to begin the return journey, almost leaving behind one enthusiast who appeared from the direction of St Michael’s Tunnel.