Goggo kindly invited me to join him on a visit to Bath at the weekend, but Squeak needed cheering up and it was her son's birthday as well as mine so I had a long weekend with her in Kent. On Sunday we went for an afternoon drive and ended up at Tenterden so a brief visit to the Kent and East Sussex Railway and its museum seemed like a great idea as we both like trains.
Sadly we had just missed the last train to Bodiam Castle so that will have to wait for another day, but we had tea and a good look around the station and small museum, and the period look and atmosphere there is really nice. Squeak bought me a lovely model of a Scammell Scarab in the station shop:
They have some lovely old rolling stock, including Pullman coaches, cranes and other items of interest. We had not much time, but apparently you can visit the maintenance sheds and other places along the line.
The small museum chronicles the life and work of Colonel Stehens who ran KESR and 15 other Light Railways, clearly an exceptionally dedicated and hard working person. Lots of photos, models and railway items to see, and at the end the extraordinary loco Gazelle, originally used by the Shropshire and Mongomeryshire Light Railway for small numbers of customers: just SIX, who had to stand on the floor behind the driver. After complaints they extended the sides and made a roof over the rear of the floor and installed two seats. Later they added a screen for the driver with two portholes, and then they bought an old horse-drawn tram wagon and converted it to railway use for greater passenger comfort. I think this must be one of the world's most whimsical and charming trains, and in 1948 Punch magazine commissioned the brilliant Roland Emett to do a series of drawings of branch lines and he visited the S&MLR where he saw Gazelle and the odd coach, and many of his cartoons, automata and especially the Oystercreek and Far Twttering Railway which he made for the Festival of Britain. Emett aslo made The Breakfast Machine for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and many other fantastic whimsical creations.
Gazelle is thought to be the world's smallest preserved standard gauge loco.