Kent & East Sussex Railway

I have an American pen pal who always signs herself off with "TTFN".
How things spread...

 

"TTFN" has been pretty common in the US for quite a long while; many decades now.

Noel

 

Tigger …. TTFN

 

Possibly picked up by GIs who were stationed in the UK and listened to ITMA on the radio during that time?

Tom

 

He'd hate the Louis Jordan song GI Jive... to this day I can't work out what "...worn out 3As or beat-up 4Fs" refers to - some sort of physical assessment of GI recruits?

 

Probably - there certainly was a classification system

 

Meanwhile, back on the Kent & East Sussex....

 

Would that be the K&ESR or the KESR?

Asking for a friend...

 

I wonder if searchers for the Rother Valley Railway have ever headed for Doncaster by mistake. (In the same way that (allegedly) a bride once booked her reception at Leeds Castle, when she was getting married in Leeds (Yorkshire).)

 

Paul, given that the railway has concluded that it needs proper branch line engines, rather than predominantly shunting locomotives, how do you see the current motive power strategy developing in the longer term? In particular, are there any other suitable locomotives that the railway would realistically consider acquiring or hiring if the right opportunity arose?

 

How about the U class that we had (1618?).
Iirc it's currently languishing.

 

Isn't 1618 due to be the next MLS project once Stowe and 541 are back out?

Mentioning U classes....I wonder if Swanage will get round to doing anything more with the other U and N? (Off topic I know, sorry)

Chris

 

Yep, that's it. I love that toon- just makes a mockery of that whole acronym thing.

 

Yes 1618 is the next MLS project.

 

Charwelton running in at the Avon Valley Railway. Adam Bryant's photo, borrowed from Facebook.

 

The whole issue of what steam locomotives to acquire for each railway is full of unexploded mines, while part of me would like to see a few more locos from Java or even Cuba, for that matter, back here in the UK; the realistic side of me asks the question: have we got to the point where building a brand new loco from scratch could work out cheaper in the long run?

Like, certain other railways having replicas of some of the older locos might sound good, but the reality is they may not be able to deal with today's tourist traffic requirements. The K&ESR has a Col Stephens tradition of acquiring second-hand locos from wherever it could get them.

But this then asks the question: would the K&ESR be better off building a new Ilfracombe Goods, or any one of the ex SR 0-6-0 Tender class locos that could have ended up on the K&ESR? Some people might even get excited at the prospect of a new 0-8-0 Hecate or an 0-6-0ST Ringing Rock, as examples.

We have already seen what some people have done to the J94 0-6-0ST and turned it into something different. Is this something that may be worth thinking about? After all, there are a fair number of these locos still about. While I missed out on the BofB loco visiting the railway, and I am sure it paid for its visit, but is that the sort of vision the K&ESR wants to provide, marketing-wise, or do you think the K&ESR is unique in light railway terms and needs to do more to promote the Col Stephens Light Railway vision?

 

I'm afraid that the "light railway vision" is fabulous, but doesn't pay the rent. The fact is, we need engines that can get 5 mk1's up Tenterden bank. The ethos of getting "whatever is available" was prevalent at the start of preservation, but those engines would struggle now. We do need engines to pull a second set, perhaps the Victorian coaches, too, but the sad fact is that a larger engine can do that with less effort than a smaller one. There are still people within our society that don't want to see Austerity tanks, mk1's and things like the Hastings unit on our line. (I can think of one person who thinks that ALL our trains should be a Terrier/P class and Victorian coaches.)

An Ilfracombe Goods, nice though it may be, wouldn't be able to cope with our core traffic. It would be investing in something that we already have in quantity; locos that can haul our smaller trains. We now have 4253, 5668 and 6619, not to mention 4270 on loan. There are other engines often discussed that would be good to see with us, but we have to accept that we are not the most attractive place to bring an engine to (we're not t'Moors, or the Valley), and some people view us as a lesser line, because of our "light railway" tag. 76017 proved that we could use larger engines well, as well as look after them. What our loco future will be remains to be seen.

 

Given the vast expense of building a new loco from scratch, I suspect 'some people' would be a vanishingly small number compared to, for example, those interested in forking out towards the prospect of seeing an A1 or P2 out and about on the main line. Then there's the engineering challenges of whether there are any drawings left and so on. It's not as if there would be the pre-existing starting point which has made the likes of the Standard tank, Brighton Atlantic, Saint and so on viable.

If it's taken this long for the Patriot and Clan - much better known classes - to get to where they currently are, I strongly suspect that any project to recreate obscure Colonel Stephens era one-offs like Hecate and Ringing Rock would come to fruition round about the twelfth of fantasy century.

Nice idea, but...

 

Not to mention that the costs of doing this at standard gauge are much, much, greater than 2ft gauge

 

Hi all, I totally agree with what the last 3 writers have said. I have been saying the same thing for years about a certain 2ft gauge rail in the West Country. I do take the heritage aspect of this very seriously, but the reality is that it needs to at least break even financially at the end of each year. In one way, I am following the Col's viewpoint in trying to make sure it pays, which in some eyes would make me the pariah of the heritage world, but that is not the case.