14q3 phoenix no 69

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The Phoenix

Journal of the Rother Valley Railway Supporters’ Association – Phoenix No 69

RVR Supporters’ Association

Committee for 2014/15:Peter Brown (Chairman)David Felton (Treasurer)Bob Evans Bruce BassamTrevor Streeter (Membership secretary)Steve Griffiths (Secretary & editor ofthe Phoenix) [email protected]

Plus:Shop manager: Mark Goodrum Mess van manager: Peter BrownLottery manager: Geoff Wyatt

The Rother Valley RailwayRobertsbridge Junction Station, Station Road,Robertsbridge, East Sussex, TN32 5DGtelephone: 01580 881833

RVR e-mail: [email protected] website: www.rvr.org.ukRVR Facebook: FacebookMembership: [email protected]

Rother Valley Railway LtdDirectors:Gardner Crawley (chairman)Mike Hart OBE (deputy chairman)David Felton (managing director, finance director & company secretary)David Slack (operations director)Roy Seaborne (non-executive director)

Registered Office: 3-4 Bower Terrace, Maidstone,Kent, ME16 8RY (e-mail etc as above)

Co. Managers: Trevor Streeter (Webmaster)Mark Yonge (Press Officer)

Rother Valley Railway Heritage TrustTrustees: Gardner Crawley (Chairman), Mike Hart OBE (Deputy Chairman),

Peter Davis, David Felton, Graham Peters, Roy Seaborne. Address etc as above

Phoenix copyright: The Rother Valley Railway Supporters’ Association

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Any uncredited articles have been produced by the Editor

Material for the Autumn issue - to the Editor by 1 December please

Editorial

As many of you already know, at long last the formal process of obtaining the necessary permissions to reconstruct the missing link of the railway has begun, with the submission to the local district council this summer of RVR’s planning application. Following the statutory public consultation period which allowed representations to be made on the proposals, their decision is now awaited. Our cover photo shows the approximate route, which is essentially a reinstatement of the old route. More details on page 8.

RVRSA made a succinct response to the application via the local council’s planning website. Naturally, we supported the proposed development and pointed to some of the benefits. It’s fair to say that as well as many positive comments, the council received a sizeable number of objections too, far more than most local schemes attract. These objections were mainly on grounds of possible adverse effects on flood-risk, road traffic, parking and amenity. Objectors aired their views at open meetings of the parish council and the Robertsbridge Enterprise Group; and the parish council has gone on to submit its views in the light of the meeting. Of course, the importance of these various issues is recognised by everyone – after all, we all live somewhere and like to see quality of life and surroundings maintained. While we supporters may be biased, we are confident that the positives of the scheme will be seen to greatly outweigh any disbenefits, and that local concerns can be addressed successfully. We were particularly pleased to see the strong support from K&ESR’s Chairman Geoff Crouch on behalf of our sister railway!

In this issue we feature a welcome message from the Chairman of the RVR Heritage Trust, Gardner Crawley, which includes an update on the tank wagon. It looks to me as if another appeal might be needed to complete this work.

One story that came a bit late for this issue was a visit by a group of K&ESR ‘old lags’ - members with over 40 years membership - to view progress at Robertsbridge and celebrate 40 years since the first official train on the reopened line at Tenterden in 1974.

On a domestic note, your editor would be very pleased to hear from members about what they think of the magazine. Is the print readable in the standard printed format? Are there any features you’d like to see added? Did anyone attempt the crosswords that featured in a couple of recent issues?

Finally, please may I invite your contributions to the magazine once again, whether in the form of letters to the editor, articles or photographs (which will be returned of course). Just drop me a line at [email protected] or at the station.

EditorSeptember 2014

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Cover: the route to Junction Road – a photo from the RVR planning application documents

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Message from the Trust – Gardner Crawley, BSc(Eng) FICE, Chairman

Progress on the re-connection project continues apace with the platform at Robertsbridge Junction Station nearing completion. The restored rolling stock in the platform is a great advertisement for the railway to travellers on the main line.

Network Rail is also pressing on with its part of the mainline connection. Peter Barber has sourced a new second-hand point which RVRSA volunteers (including our friends from K&ESR, NR and LUL) will be installing in due course.

Our donation of the carriage shed at Rolvenden is also nearing completion with the shed complete apart from the final mains electric connection and the netting along the bottom. The trackwork is also proceeding well thanks to the K&ESR tracklaying gang.

Current interest in Robertsbridge village is centred around the planning application for the Northbridge Street to Junction Road section. A lot of work and some serious studies have gone into this so it is not surprising that is not readily assimilated. The landowners in particular have genuine concerns about how the reinstatement will affect their businesses. It is up to all of us to accept that they are all entitled to their points of view.

Finally, although we bought the timbers for the Victorian tank wagon some time ago we have not had the funds to fabricate the replacement chassis. Unfortunately over time the timbers have become too hard to machine and will have to be replaced. The only way we can get this historic wagon restored is if we can raise all the money to carry out the work in one go. Now we’ve had a closer look at it we see it is a bigger job than we first thought. The running gear needs overhaul/replacement and many of the fixings will also need replacing. Work to get the wagon to static display standard will cost £19,380.

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The detailed breakdown is opposite:

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Tank Wagon

Ref Description of Work CostTimber chassis:

C.1 Replacement Oak timbers £1,130.00C.2 Cut and fit timbers to match originals £2,800.00

Subtotal £3,930.00Running Gear:

S.1 2 x buffing gear leaf springs new @ £1000 ea = £2,000.00S.2 4 x suspension springs dismantle and repair @ £400 ea = £1,600.00S.3 4 x Armstrong oiler pads @ £50 each = £200.00S.4 Misc running gear & other parts say £500 £500.00

Subtotal £4,300.00Assembly:

W.1 4 x Replacement tie rods @ £30 ea = £120.00W.2 Replacement bolts etc say £250 £250.00W.3 Additional cost end retention timber frame £500.00W.4 Additional cost timber for tank horizontal supports £200.00W.5 Additional cost machine top angle to tank horizontal supports £500.00W.6 Labour for assembly 30 man days @ £100 £3,000.00W.7 Welding and fitting labour 15 man days @ £150 £2,250.00

Subtotal £6,820.00Transport:

T.1 Hiab lorry of frame to Lloyd to RVR = £300 £300.00T.2 Hiab lorry of tank to RVR = £300 £300.00T.3 Fix tank on chassis at Robertsbridge 2 man days @ £100 + Hiab £500.00

Subtotal £1,100.00

Contingency 20% £3,230.00Total cost to refurbish to static exhibit quality £19,380.00

News from Robertsbridge Junction

As Gardner indicates, work has continued to develop Robertsbridge Junction station. The platform’s facing walls now reach their southernmost extent, and have been shaped to form a ramp down to ground level, and then infilled. The concrete oversails along the platform edge are have been prepared using formwork, as before, along with the copings on the rear walls. Once these are complete, the existing line of railings, lamps and flower beds can be extended further south, and the platform surfacing can also be finished once the brick edges have caught up. Steps down from the platform to the small station yard have been started too. The station building’s construction will pause once everything has been completed up to platform level.

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The platform steps take shape - station building base structure is to the left. Below the south end slope takes shape, with blockwork wall about to be shaped (SG)

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Network Rail connection

Work on renewing the ancient trackwork in the Robertsbridge mainline station’s bay platform as part of the connection project came to an unscheduled halt in late June, as indicated in the last issue on page 10, because of a failure in the ro-rail excavator being used. At the time of writing, work has resumed and the old trackwork has gone.

Track deliveries, and rail welding

Visitors to Northiam Station this summer will have noticed a mountain of track panels building up, and then mysteriously disappearing again a few weeks later. These pre-loved panels have been acquired by RVR for the join-up section and delivered hot from another railway to the only site which had enough spare room to take them. They have now been broken down into component parts by our contractor Andrew Woods, and various heaps of material are being shipped across to Robertsbridge for storage.

A feature of the rail arriving in recent months has been that it comes usually cut up into 20 foot lengths, for easier handling and transport at the point of origin. The rail needs to be welded up into 60 foot lengths again, ready for reuse. RVR has been pleased to facilitate Network Rail using this material for training exercises in the operation of its amazing new flash-butt welding machines. These very versatile road-rail vehicles can perform many welds a day, each weld taking only a few minutes and the rail being ready to use after a simple grinding off of the rail surface at the joint. The new machines (MFBW) are able to stress the rails as well as welding them, in a single operation. They arrive by road on a low loader, and a trainee crew follows and learns how to prepare the rails for welding and operate the high tech systems.

Vehicles

With all three banana vans now virtually finished (see article elsewhere in this issue), work on the ex-Southern Railway BY van is speeding up. Much of the floor has had to be removed as unsafe, which meant a new home has had to be created for some the vehicle’s contents which consisted of a variety of carriage doors and various bits and pieces squirrelled away for restoration work on this and other vehicles. The most obvious progress can be seen on the southern exterior end of the van, now fully restored. More recently rapid progress has been evident on its western flank, which at the end of August could be seen in a variety of colours simultaneously: bare wood, primed, (grey) undercoated (red/grey) and a lovely rich olive green topcoat. Some planking is being replaced, and the doors require considerable attention. The floor is being renewed, the chassis scraped and treated, and the roof will need renewal in due course. The above mentioned vehicles are all privately owned and the work undertaken by or on behalf of the owners at their own expense.

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The privately owned BY van in its coat of many colours (photo JE)

The SR brake van has also seen attention, with an external repaint on the platform side and verandah ends. It’s hoped to make a start on the roof and east side next, weather and labour permitting.

On the mess van (the ex-SR GBLV) some lamination occurred to the plywood we used where the door frames were narrowed on the western side, and this has had to be repaired and repainted. The problem became evident close to the V-shaped grooves routed into the ply to represent planking, and it looks as if the ply was defective or simply the wrong grade for the job. Only time will tell if the problem reappears, but fortunately the heavy plywood doors themselves seem to be fine. This vehicle is one of the first that visitors see so we are keen to keep it looking reasonably smart – so expect to see almost continuous external maintenance on it! In between times, work on refurbishing various platform items continues. In particular the sack-lift barrow is being restored. One of the trickiest challenges has been to remove the distinct leftward bent of the lifting segment, which is wrought iron. We puzzled over this for a while, at one point contemplating using a road vehicle to reshape it, but in the end Geoff Wyatt wedged it between two immoveable objects and eased it back into shape using a crowbar and just the right amount of brute force.

The missing link: formal statutory processes begin

VR has now applied for planning permission for the final section of line. The planning application is for the reinstatement of the 3.5km of the Rother Valley Railway between Northbridge Street (Robertsbridge) to Junction Road (Bodiam) (B2244), and crossing the A21 en route. This scheme will link up the two sections of railway already

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reinstated by RVR. It will bring about the extension of the Kent and East Sussex Railway eastwards from Bodiam to Robertsbridge, enabling trains to run the whole length of the route. Once completed, the project will provide a direct rail link between the mainline railway network, Bodiam Castle, and on to Tenterden.

The route follows the line of the original line of the railway, utilising the existing embankments where extant. The reinstatement will include restoration of shallow embankments, the reconstruction of 5 bridges, 2 causeways (to improve the flows in the River Rother) and 10 culverts. RVR’s collection of stored bridge sections will be employed on the project, with an ex-Cow Lane (Reading) section being used to rebuild bridge No.6 at Northbridge Street for example. Bridges 16, 17 and 24 will re-use former Staplehurst bridge sections. Bridge 26 (Austen’s) remains intact and will be restored to use – see photo.

There will be three new modern automatic full-barrier level crossings and three pedestrian/bridleway crossings. The application also includes the provision of a “halt” platform at Salehurst, and a passing loop to the west of Junction Road (as far as Austen’s Bridge, 26) in what is otherwise a single track railway.

The term ‘automatic’ in relation to the level crossings requires some clarification. The crossing will be monitored and operated by a member of railway staff who will clear the railway signals for the train to proceed once the full barrier gates are down and all is ready for the train to pass. A control cabin is proposed close to the A21 crossing, which allows all three crossings to be monitored via CCTV by staff during the hours of railway operation. This is the only building included within this planning application (see plans).

One point of interest is the findings of the consultants’ report on the road traffic impact of the level crossings. This indicates that the A21 crossing, the busiest, would be closed twice per hour, with closure lasting just 51 seconds for a single train. The average maximum queue southbound would be 12 vehicles. The crossing is about 135 metres from the roundabout at Robertsbridge, which means southbound road traffic queues would not normally obstruct the roundabout. Queues caused by the brief and infrequent closures, mostly off-peak, should very quickly dissipate. The application includes several detailed technical studies covering such matters as flood risk, impact on flora and fauna, other environmental aspects like noise, and economic impacts. Construction details are included. Building will take 18 to 24 month.

Public responses to the application, including those of the parish council, may currently be seen at http://planweb01.rother.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/planningDetails?reference=RR/2014/1608/P&from=planningSearch - as can the full RVR application documents. Once planning permission is granted, RVR intend to submit an application to the Secretary of

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State for Transport for a Transport and Works Act Order. The project is fully funded and will begin as soon as permissions are obtained.

Robertsbridge possibilities

An eagle eyed member spotted this news from the Bluebell Railway, which appeared on the BBC local news website. “A Sussex heritage railway has seen its visitor numbers increase by 60000 since it was reconnected to the mainline network. The Bluebell railway carried 250,000 passengers in the year after its extension from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead opened in March last year. The two mile stretch which cost £3.5m links East Grinstead mainline station to Kingscote 11 miles away.(BBC teletext 30/9/14)Chief clerk Roy Watts said the railway had gone from a £3m business to a £4m business.”

A quick look at the Bluebell Railway website prompted a thought. We tend to think in terms of visitors arriving at Robertsbridge station for a ride on the extended K&ESR service to places like Bodiam and Tenterden. But what about the reverse? The Bluebell Line are marketing through tickets, which allow local people to catch midmorning Bluebell trains over their new extension to East Grinstead, changing there for mainline destinations like East Croydon. If you think about it, Robertsbridge mainline trains run to places even more appealing than Croydon, notably Hastings, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge and Sevenoaks, each of which has its own attraction for a day out in all seasons, for all ages. Something to think about perhaps when trains start arriving here from Tenterden and K&ESR are looking how best to fill seats on their extended services.

One remarkable statistic emerged from the BBC reports. Over 40% of Bluebell’s visitors now arrive via mainline train services. That’s a lot of road traffic going by rail.

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New flood-resistant path added below bridge 2, in consultation with the village (PB)

Concrete pours into the formwork for the platform oversail (PB)

Volunteer work programme

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It’s been said from time to time that there’s not much for volunteers to do at Robertsbridge these days. Well, nothing could be further from the truth in fact. If you fancy coming along any Sunday in your old clothes you will soon be asked to help with one or more of the following jobs, depending on the weather of course. This is the current work programme, excluding trackwork.

Infrastructure painting • paint girder tops on bridges 2 to 5 (awaiting paint)• complete VSOE roof repairs/painting• complete painting of yard gates• scrape & repaint station buffer stops• repaint no. 1 bridge gate with anti-climb paint.

Other• re-felt both van body roofs• replace rotted floorboard in shop (a Wednesday job) • complete shelving & fitting out of workshop (wet weather job)• creosote cut ends of sleepers (in the point onto the network rail connection and in the long f20 point). *NB protective clothing must be worn for this work*• clean (and if necessary) repaint Northbridge Street gate and fit red diamond.• restoration of remaining platform barrows.

Rolling stock• complete painting of GBLV offside doors • scrape & paint underside of GBLV floor• refelt (& repair as necessary) brake van roof• repaint offside of brake van• complete painting of ‘Titan’

Bodiam Hop Festival

As part of its role in promoting and supporting the railway, RVRSA set up its marquee (well, a gazebo) at this year’s K&ESR ‘hoppers’ event in September. Our display of posters and photographs, ably put together by Trevor Streeter, proved a popular draw and several of us took turns in manning the stall and dealing with enquiries, in between trips to the various stalls and exhibits. ‘How are you going to cross the A21’ remains the most popular question and it was good to be able to counter the odd Doubting Thomas with the fact that the Office of the Railway Regulator is on record as having no objection in principle to new level crossings. We and the crowds were blessed with fine weather.

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Fire service exercise 2014(Robertsbridge Junction) - nobody hurt here! (PB)

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festival16

Hastings Thumpers

It’s been a few issues since we included any Hasting line impressions, and it now seems time for another one. Some of us are old enough to remember the Hastings line ‘thumpers’, which provided the passenger services up to London in the days between the end of steam hauled services in the late 50s, and electrification of the line in 1985. I certainly remember them chugging in and out of Charing Cross of an evening, though I don’t recall travelling on one as they tended not to stop at London Bridge in peak hours so I had no need to. These diesel-electric1 multiple units, numbered 1001 to 1037, have their enthusiastic supporters, as I discovered from website Preservedthumpers.com, which also covers other variants. Hastings unit No 1001, owned by Hastings Diesels Ltd (HDL), is the only one of this particular variety to survive, and being certified to run on Network Rail metals it can occasionally be seen (and heard!) growling around the countryside in the attractive BR Southern Region green livery. 1001 is actually made up from a pool of surviving vehicles from several different units, including some non-Hastings types, all maintained at St Leonards, West Marina Depot, where an HDL offshoot also maintains trains and locomotives for other operators.

The Hastings line was cursed with slightly too narrow tunnels giving restricted clearances (‘Restriction 0’) that precluded normal Southern passenger stock and many locomotives - how this came to be is a story for another issue. At end of end of steam, BR had to design a special narrow-bodied multiple unit to take over the passenger services south of Tonbridge, and so the flat-sided Hastings Thumpers were born. (These trains are often called the Sussex units, to distinguish them from the Oxted and Hampshire units which have a normal loading gauge width of 9 ft rather than 8ft.) A full service of the new Hastings Thumpers ran on the line from 1958, having been introduced the year before.

On 28 October 1983 it was announced that the Hastings line was to be electrified, with single track through the offending tunnels to avoid the need for specially built stock. Electrification was completed, and the full timetable service commenced on 12 May 1986 using standard BR Southern electric multiple-unit types. The Sussex Thumpers’

1 A diesel-electric train is powered by electric traction motors, the current for which comes from on-board diesel-driven generators. Most BR-era first generation diesel multiple units had underfloor diesel engines driving the wheels directly via a gearbox and shafts (DMUs) but Southern Region preferred DEMUs despite the seat-space taken up by the large engines, because the electric traction had much more in common with the electric multiple units normally used.

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RVRSA Prize Draw results

1st prize                                     2nd prizeJune        D Earl ball 6                 P Coombs           ball  5July         H Brett 11              S Griffiths         21      August    P Coombs 5                A Bone 14

days were over, having ran the line for almost 30 years, their distinctive engine note echoing around the rolling hills for miles around, often getting through adverse weather conditions rather more reliably than the electrics on other routes. The Thumper era was three times as long as the intended life of these units!

1001 at West Marina depot (Photo: Hastings Diesels Ltd)

Dates for your diary

K&ESR AGM – Saturday 11 October, 2pm, Zionist Baptist Church, Tenterden High St

Gravesend Model Railway Show – 1 &2 November, St Joseph’s Convent School, 46 Old Road East, Gravesend DA12 1NR

Erith Model Railway Exhibition – 24 & 25 January, The Business Academy, Yarnton Way, Erith, DA18 4DW.

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The Rother Valley was one of a fascinating empire of light railways built under the direction of Holman F. Stephens.

Join us, and help preserve the history and artefacts of his many lines.

You will also receive our quarterly newsletter ‘The Colonel’, packed with news, articles and scale drawings.

For a membership form write to:

David Powell (CSS Mem.Sec.)Gateways, Bledlow Road,Saunderton,Princes Risborough,Bucks., HP27 9NGtelephone 01844 343377e-mail [email protected] www.colonelstephenssociety.co.uk

4253 update

Reconstruction of GWR 4253 continues apace. Details can be found on their website www.4253.org.uk. This picture shows sheet steel being formed into a curved shape to make new splashers for the loco, by a device reminiscent of the traditional mangle.

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Stop press: Christmas cards are now available from the Colonel Stephens Society: seehttp://www.colonelstephenssociety.co.uk/Christmas%20cards.html

RVRSA membership cards by Trevor Streeter

At this time of year we ask members to propose a photo for the back of the Association’s membership card. It seems that these are now becoming quite collectable, judging by the way people are commenting. The image with the highest number of requests will be used for next year’s card, the fourth in the series. Simply drop an email to [email protected] or, if renewing in the new year by cheque, drop me a line.

As always, we only use images from the on line photo repository so that we can ensure there are no rights issues. All images used on the website or blogger are drawn from there. To start us off I can suggest:

1. Rolvenden 2. Robertsbridge sign

3 Digger 4 Robertsbridge Aerial

Needless to say if you wish to add to the photo library at any time we’d be delighted. All photos receive due accreditation, providing we know whose they are.

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Austen’s Bridge remains intact, east of the A21. As the name suggests it dates from the era of WH Austen’s management of the line, as successor to Col. Stephens. It came into use in 1946, having been funded by the Ministry of Transport as part of a general upgrading of the line. Sadly, only a few years later official thinking had changed and the line was destined to close despite the various infrastructure investments.

A1X 32670(?) Terrier at Robertsbridge, 1960 (Robin Doust).

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Bananarama – by Bob Evans

Work on the three banana vans at Robertsbridge Junction has progressed steadily over the past year. Although there is still some work to do, they look almost completed. The purpose of the work is one of preservation and smartness, rather than full restoration, as we do not have the facilities to replace of all of the wooden panels and rusted metalwork.

These privately owned vans arrived on the RVR in August 2004 from Ramsgate. They are now used as a workshop, office and as store for a variety of railwayana. With good quality metal roof panels and double plywood wall panels sandwiching two inches of insulation, they are dry and remain frost-free inside, making them very useful. Incidentally, the small silver objects that can be seen on the doors are solar powered security lights to help illuminate the platform at night – these are temporary adornments!

For techno-buffs out there, the vans were built to diagram 1/246. Two of them (B882536 and B992523) were built as part of a batch of 400 at Wolverton works between March and October 1960. The third van (BB882126) was built to the same diagram at Faverdale works (Doncaster). They were designed to run in express block trains from ports to distribution centres, and are fully fitted (ie have vacuum brakes) and steam piped – though not apparently steam heated in this variant. The thick insulation, lack of ventilation and (in some variants) steam heating was intended to help the bananas ripen during distribution. The vans weigh about 12 tons and have a 10 foot wheelbase. The letters ‘XP’ painted on the body side indicated to shunters and

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other railway staff that that they were suited to high speed running, unlike many of the traditional four-wheeled goods vans in use at the time. They were sometimes used for non-banana traffic. (Photo: JE)

What is this contraption, pictured in the 1960s?

Robertsbridge 1873

The extract below from the Ordnance Survey of 1873 shows the station in the days before it became a junction. It is quite different from the 1909 map featured in the winter 2012 edition of the magazine (issue62). Immediately obvious is that the layout in 1873 reflects a more leisurely railway era when it was not uncommon practice to trundle a wagon across the main line at stations, with the help of a small turntable at either end of a short cross-track set at right angles to the main line In fact the South Eastern often used this arrangement, which at least in the very early days was useful for amongst other things attaching and detaching from the rear of passenger trains the trucks employed for the conveyance of gentlemen’s horses and also their carriages. Staggered platforms were often employed at SER stations, so that both passengers and trucks could pass over the running lines conveniently at the rear of the train, between the respective ends of these platforms. One wonders if these little manoeuvres were protected by signals. There were no footbridges.

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Carriage trucks were unloaded end–on at carriage docks or ramps, the Robertsbridge example of which is still evident just north of the main station building. Other stations on the line were built with similar arrangements, but in time such layouts were been modernised. The reasons are likely to have included platform lengthening to

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accommodate growing traffic, plus the introduction of faster trains making these at-grade crossing tracks uniquely hazardous. Perhaps the whole performance simply took too long at each end of the journey for the increasingly modern-world gentlemen, but by the 1898 map the cross-track and turntables had gone and a footbridge appeared, with platforms having been extended.

One can imagine the rural scene before then, where individual wagons were generally ‘barred’ around the station site goods yards by hand, or perhaps with the help of an elderly horse. Incidentally, the goods shed also features two wagon turntables in 1873 – just to the south of the shed, linking the siding in the shed to the parallel one outside. It’s tempting to imagine these two turntables still there, hidden beneath the various outbuildings and soil. However the 1898 map omits them, so most probably they were removed along with the others.

Just visible on the map-extract at the very south end is the beginning of ‘Smith’s Siding’, starting just south of the level crossing. This later acquired another siding called Stenning’s Siding, running back northwards into a timber mill of that name, now occupied by a modern housing development called Mill Rise.

Robertsbridge mainline station which opened in 1851 looked its best this summer, providing a very welcoming environment for users and passers-by, and is a credit to the station team. (SG).

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IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL DURING REBUILDING OF THE STATION!

Our shop is open every Sunday, from 10 – 4pm, offering a huge range of railway books, magazines and models, as well as the visitor centre displays. We also sell hot and cold drinks. Please e-mail stock enquiries to manager Mark Goodrum at [email protected]

RAILWAY MAGAZINES (Secondhand)We have what is probably the best collection in the south-east of England. Try us for that issue you’re missing. Many are old…some are virtually new.

RAILWAY BOOKSFrom historic to modern, biography to photo collections, we have a wide range of second-hand books at bargain prices.

MODEL RAILWAY ITEMSWe have a collection of used models and trackwork, mainly 0, OO, and N gauges. We also have some road vehicles and small buildings etc.

REAL RAILWAY ITEMSLovely cast iron rail chairs from pre-1923 companies and later, plain or lightly painted. Plus some 3rd rail insulators.

SELLING SERVICEItems can also be sold for you on commission (15%), or simply donate them to us.

PRICING POLICYPricing second-hand items is an art not a science, so all sensible offers are considered for most goods in the shop!

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We have an Ebay account, so you may occasionally find some items listed online. Look for our seller name: ‘rothervalleyrailwayltd’ (no spaces).

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