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Steam & Diesel Gala

From 9.30am on Saturday May 13th the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway will be running a train timetable for 33 consecutive hours through the night until 6.30pm on Sunday May 14th. This timetable will be the first of its kind in RH&DR history and forms part of the popular railway’s 90th anniversary celebrations.

Saturday morning will begin with a parallel run departing New Romney to ease into the day’s activities as the Railway begins to run the most intense service ever attempted throughout the Hythe section before reducing to hourly running as it continues through the night.

Sunday will play host to Hercules’ 90-mile challenge and will end with a procession of all steam engines (that can travel through the tunnel) for a trip around Dungeness and back.

No.5 engine Hercules, recently back from intermediate overhaul, will be the star of the show, with all other available locos and visiting engines from at least two other railways adding to the spectacle.

Weekend tickets are available to purchase from www.rhdr.org.uk

History was recently made at the Sheffield Park station of the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex when the legendary Flying Scotsman steam engine was reunited with Typhoon, from the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.

Typhoon is a third of the size of the Flying Scotsman – they were last together in 1927 at King’s Cross in London.

Both locomotives were based at the East Sussex railway for a week-long Flying Scotsman gala over Easter.

The Flying Scotsman, now owned by the National Railway Museum in York, was rescued from the scrapheap by RH&DR chairman Sir William McAlpine in 1973, a year after he had saved RH&DR from closure.

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway runs for 13.5 miles from the Cinque Port of Hythe, visiting the seaside village of Dymchurch, calling in at the railway headquarters at New Romney, and on to the National Nature Reserve of Dungeness.

The railway was the culmination of the dreams of millionaire racing drivers Captain J.E.P. Howey and Count Louis Zborowski. The official opening took place in 1927 with the line initially running from Hythe to New Romney. The line was extended to Dungeness a year later.

2017 marks the 90th anniversary of the railway and there are plenty of special events throughout the year culminating with a gala weekend on July 15 and 16.

Read our Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway Success Story

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