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Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway
The Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway (BWLR) is located near the villages of Wormshill and Bredgar in Kent, just south of Sittingbourne. It is a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge railway about one-half mile (0.8 km) in length.
The BWLR is a private line which has been built up as a hobby by a group of friends since the early 1970s.[1] It is a fully operational line, operated to a high standard, with a station, engine sheds and workshops at Warren Wood station and a smaller station at the other end of the line, known as Stony Shaw.
The line is open to the public on the first Sunday of each month throughout the summer to raise money for various charities. On open days a number of other attractions are on display including a model railway, a Showman's road locomotive, a traction engine and a steam roller
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LEIGHTON BUZZARD RAILWAY
The Leighton Buzzard Railway is one of the leading narrow gauge lines in England and is of local and national importance.
Constructed immediately following the First World War to serve the local sand industry it was originally worked by steam locomotives. These were later replaced by petrol powered locomotives, probably becoming the first permanent railway in the world to be exclusively worked by internal combustion power.
In the late 1960s a Society started running public passenger trains at weekends while midweek, commercial operations continued. In 1977 the Society took over the line completely, making LBR one of very few heritage railways in Britain to enter preservation without ever being closed. Steam soon returned and the collection of steam and internal combustion locomotives has become one of the largest in Britain. The railway is an accredited museum and custodian of NRM-owned locomotives and wagons.
With its history inexorably linked with WW1 (it was built and equipped with war-surplus materials and locomotives) LBR has also become the natural base for a significant collection of 1914-1918 vintage narrow gauge equipment.
In addition to steam hauled passenger services regular displays of industrial narrow gauge operations are held at its Stonehenge Works terminus
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Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway
The Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway in County Kent is a short gauge 76.20 cm heritage railway operating from Sittingbourne to the banks of The Swale. The railway was built as an industrial railway by paper mill owner Frank Lloyd in 1904 to transport fibre materials and finished products between Ridham Dock on the Swale and the company's paper mill at Sittingbourne and, from the mid-1920s, to a second paper mill at Kemsley. In the late 1970s the railway was threatened with closure by its then owners Bowater, but the Locomotive Club of Great Britain accepted an offer to run the railway from 1970. However, the part of the line from Kemsley Down to Ridham Dock was abandoned due to the rebuilding of the paper mills. In 2008-09 the line was no longer under threat of closure due to the owners of Sittingbourne Paper Mills closing the paper mill and selling the land. The lease that kept the line open expired in January 2009, but negotiations resulted in the railway being saved, although no trains ran for the public in 2009.
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Hampton Kempton Waterworks Railway
A locomotive with a driver carries passengers in covered cars. Each has four seats behind it and a suitable cover and ramp for a wheelchair. The first section of the track is a loop that is in service on selected non-winter weekends. The steam locomotive used is a "Darent", built in 1903 (formerly Provan Gas Works, Glasgow). Two engine locomotives were added from a mine in Indonesia; they are in serviceable condition but are subject to further restoration, so all trains are currently run by a steam locomotive.
The site houses the only nationally operational Ransomes & Rapier crane.
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Visit us
Address
Contact
Hampton Kempton Waterworks Railway
Snakey Lane
Hanworth
Middlesex
TW13 6XH
07796 322 463
Opening hours and fares
We are open from March to the end of October from 10:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (3 trains per hour, last train at 3:40 p.m.).
Fare: £4 for adults aged 16 and over. £2 for children aged 3-15 (children under 3 free).
London Museum of Water & Steam
The museum runs a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge railway which in 2009 saw the introduction of a new-build Wren Class steam locomotive, named for the engineer Thomas Wicksteed. The railway had previously been operated by visiting loan locomotives. The line runs for 400 yards around the Kew Bridge site, and passenger trains are operated at weekends and on other special event days.
Although not an original feature of the waterworks at Kew Bridge, the railway was inspired by similar facilities provided at major waterworks in the UK, notably the Metropolitan Water Board Railway that originally ran between Hampton and the Kempton Park waterworks. A small part of that railway is now operated as the Kempton Steam Railway, comprising the only other site in London where rides can be taken on steam trains of such a large size; it has benefitted from some very generous assistance, in its restoration, from the London Museum of Water & Steam.
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