Now most of those lines, ones to Whitstable, Margate Sands, Ramsgate Beach, Dover Maritime have all gone, as well as the lines to the now abandoned Kentish coalfield. Even Dover used to have it's own collery; not that is part of the Channel Tunnel.
Anyway, the last of these lines that remains to this day is the short branch line down to Folkestone Harbour. I have written about this before, and a couple of months back rode down it on a recreation of the Golden Arrow. The branch descends from Folkestone East Junction, down through the streets of Folkestone, down a slope of 1:36, beofre launching out accross the harbour over a series of brick arches, a metal swing bridge before arriving at the once grand, and now crumbling Folkestone Harbour Station. The line carries on beyond there to the end of the pier, and to the now abandoned dock where ships no longer arrive and depart from.
The branch is used very rarely now; since 1994 when the tunnel opened, and most freight went through there, ferries reduced in number, and certainly no trains now call; just the occasional excursion. Network Rail wants to close it; Folkestone Council hasn't got much of an idea. A local businessman wants to make an executive marina; just what the south coast needs; another place for the rich to tie up their playthings!And so after many years of hearing this will be the ast train to come down the branch, it really may have happened. Another steam hauled train left London and went round the suburbs before arriving at sunny Folkestone before reversing down the branch and puffing back up for the delight of the waiting hoardes. Yes, once again people turned up in their thousands to be up close and personal with a steaming, smoking steam engine working hard to get up the hill. And to see it over one of the most picturesque branches still left in Britain.
Oliver Cromwell, 70013, was built at the end of the 1950s to haul expresses into East Anglia. But, even as her paint dried, the death of steam was being planned, and within a few short years her time was up. Only that 70013 hauled the last scheduled train, the fabled IT57; the 15 guinea special, and was designated to be preserved.In the end, 70013 was one of many to survive, mainy due to the owner of the breakers yard on Barry Island unwilling to see history cut up. And one by one the rusting engines were bought by societies and preserved lines to repair and to return to steam. And that is why there are so many steam locomotives in Britain to this day.
Oliver Cromwell was bought by a market gardener in Norfolk, and he laid half a mile of track and so Oliver Cromwell, once proud express engine trundled up and down that until her boiler certificate expired. A magazine created a fund, and through the doations of thousands of readers, Oliver was repaired and returned to steam, once again thundering up and down the rails of Britain, hauling carriages filled with the tear-filled eyes of the old, and wide-eyed awe of the young.
And so we gathered to see this huge engine, go down to the sea and probably close this short branch line. She did not disappoint; The fireman bilt the fire, steam pressure built, and with a loud sound from her whistle she slowly built up her speed, scattering unsuspecting seagulls as she puffed and puffed her way up the hill; the houses reflecting the sounds of her pistons. And with that, she was gone. But for the delight of the gathered thousands, she did it twice more before heading off to canterbury, the north Kent coast before heading back into Waterloo.
And once again, the branch returns to it's rusting state, and soon enough the trackbed will be a bus route and the station a marina for yachts, and people will look at old maps and wonder, was there ever a railway down here at all?
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