Reference Material

In 1998, when I first discovered the existence of the EKLR, the web, as we know it today, was nowhere near as extensive, and it wasn't until recently that I began searching online. All of my initial research was done using books, because the web then was not the web we know and love today, and all of those interesting bits of memorabilia which keep popping up on ebay were still in their boxes and cupboards. Sadly, although the web has helped me in my research, a lot of what I find in google listings are simply cut-and-paste jobs or catalogues of other links, so I am not going to create yet another list of links to further clog up the web. (If I have overlooked your site and you really feel it ought to be included here, please drop me an email explaining why. My email address, (slightly clouded to try and defeat the spammers) is "adrian AT semleystation dot com" )

The sites that I do suggest visiting are

• The Wikipedia article gives a brief history and a good summary of the extent of the line as finally built.
• The Holman F Stephens museum site, which does come up with articles every now and then as archives come to light. Look for them under The Colonel's Topics.
• The Disused Stations site has some good photographs and interesting notes.
  • At the bottom of the Shepherdswell page, as well as links to all the other stations on the EKLR, are links to the collieries which were both the reason for the line being built in the first place, and the subsequent reason for it's struggle as all but one of them closed without bringing any coal to the surface.
• This site has two paintings of the EKLR, which is why I am including it. To find that something is obscure as the EKLR should have featured in oil paintings amazed me.
  • I first found this site by accident when I thought up a great title for my obsession, The ghost of the East kent Light Railway, and did a quick search of the web to make sure that nobody else had thought of it before me. I was out of luck, but I did find the link to the two paintings. The page I found has since dropped the title, but I have so far resisted the urge to grab it and use it.

The principal books, devoted soley to the EKLR, are

• The East Kent Light Railway by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, published by Middleton Press
  • The first book I bought, mostly photographs, many of which are from the few months after British Rail closed the line. The picture of desolation is quite depressing, and doesn't really show the line off as it deserves.
• The East Kent Railway volumes 1 & 2, by M Lawson-Smith and S R Garrett, published by The Oakwood Press
  • The definitive history of the EKLR, with over half of the first volume devoted to explaining how the developing Kent coalfields produced the need for a railway. Quite a lengthy read, but it also provides a fascinating insight into the tortuous financial arrangements needed to build a railway using shareholder funds.
• The East Kent Railway by A.R.Catt, Locomotion Papers number 17
• The East kent Light Railway by Matthew Beddall, published by himself
• Memories of the East Kent Light Railway compiled by Peter A Harding, published by himself

There are also a few magazine articles

• Ralways South East Winter 1991/2 Article by david G Collyer
  • A nice potted history of the line, complete with some points raised by Stephen Garrett, one of the co-authors of the two-volume guide mentioned above.
• Railway Bylines Vol 11 August 2006 Article The East kent Between the Wars

Over the years I have collected these and other books and articles containing photographs and texts on the EKLR, but I began to find much duplication, both of photographs and descriptions. There was only so much material available in print, and, sadly, even less on the web, where duplication has now become the norm. And yet, despite having almost everything ever published about the line, I still wanted more. There were, for example, no photographs of wagons in the sidings by Richborough Castle, or of trucks at Hammill Brickworks. Wingham Colliery branch was not shown on any maps, nor was Moat farm, which had a siding where wagons were loaded and unloaded. And, of course, there was still the mystery of number 5, which had apparently clocked up over 30,000 miles on the EKLR, which itself was only about 28 miles total length. How could an engine have run for that long without ever being photographed, other than standing idly beside the maintenance hoist outside the engine sheds?

If you know of any other material I ought to be studying, please let me know. My email address, (slightly clouded to try and defeat the spammers) is "adrian AT semleystation dot com"

My interest now is in recreating the EKLR as it used to be, but inside a computer, with the aid of 3-D modeling packages and railway simulation software. This allows me to look at some of the scenes of which I can find no photographs, and to experience traveling along the line as it was. And it allows me to see the elusive number 5 at work.