Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway

Very good news and well done to everyone involved in securing a way forward for the SKLR =D>

 

Hi all.

The last update was the thread posted above. However to find out the latest news on the S&KLR please check our website.

http://www.sklr.net

Yours Dan.

Volunteer at SKLR

 

Even though trains will not be running this gives us the time to catch up with work we didnt have time to do all the while we were running trains. Also another plus side to us not running this year is that thing like repainting parts that are required on a open day can be done as they dont need to be used.

I could also not find this but when i asked when i was at the railway. I was told you have to read through all of it and the SKLR is mentioned in small pieces. I hope this helps.

Dan
Volunteer at SKLR

 

DAN

Who do I need to contact about coming down for a few Sundays to help out with the work

regards

Colin Rainsbury

 

Colin

Your best to email info@sklr.net which will get to one of the railway officers who will get back to you. There is also a reduced membership rate this year due to not being able to travel. The next working members weekend is this comming weekend. Any other questions feel free to PM me.

 

Tend to agree - they've been struggling for 40 years (to quote their own website) maybe time to call it a day and re-locate. Perhaps the developers would assist with those costs if it expedited things for them.[/quote]

I am a working member of the S&K and am down there most weekends. If the SKLR moves it wont be the SKLR. The railway is the last part of a memory of the bowaters railway which use to run from Sittingbourne to Ridham. The whole of the railway is run entirley upon volunteers. Unlike most railways like the KESR or NYMR that have paid staff to keep the stations in tip top condition. Everyone at the S&K have a real passion for the railway and are thnkful to all the support that we are receiving.

 

Hi all a bit more of an update can you please take your time to look at the attachment and send it back thanks

Regards

Colin Rainsbury

sent to me today 17th April 2009



Dear supporters

We received the attached questionnaire from Swale Council yesterday. We need to ensure that we receive as much support as possible as part of the Cultural offering of Sittingbourne. Please can you complete the questionnaire and return it to Swale Council as indicated and highlight the need for the Light Railway and Museum as cultural offerings in the Milton Creek/Paper Mill area.

Thank you for all your assistance in keeping us 'alive'.

The SOS Appeal Team
SKLR

Dear all,

Attached is a copy of the 'Cultural provision in Sittingbourne town
centre' questionnaire. We are consulting on the masterplan that will
shape the development of the town centre over the coming years and
contains the opportunity to develop many new ideas and facilities. We
are interested in your views and ideas on what you think Sittingbourne
town centre needs from a cultural perspective and what you would like to
see provided. Paper copies are also available in venues around the town.


The deadline for all completed questionnaires to be returned is Friday
1st May so please return to:

Emma Wiggins
Head of Economic Development & Cultural Services
Swale Borough Council
Swale House
East Street
Sittingbourne
ME10 3HT

Many thanks for your help.

Please forward to anyone you think may be interested.

Catherine.

Catherine Herbert
Arts & Heritage Officer
Swale Borough Council
Direct Dial - 01795 417426



<<Cultural Provision in Sittingbourne Questionnaire 2009.pdf>>



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[attachment=0:23b3wtvd]Cultural Provision in Sittingbourne Questionnaire 2009.pdf[/attachment:23b3wtvd]

 

Hi all. Could you please try to fill in one of the questionairres above and send it to the address on the PDF. This will also help the S&K as it asks for peoples views on Sittingbourne.

Many Thanks

 

Hi Dan

if you subscribe to a number of other narrow gauge e group's you may find it turning up all over the place, I have had one group mod quite upset that I didn't include him when I sent it to my friends, but then I didn't know he was a mod until he told me, so there you go, he tells me his group has got over 500 members in it, so we shall wait and see what happens.

Sorry I didn't back to you the other day, but things just took of in a direction I had not expected.

It looks like at least ten people have down loaded it already (keep going lads and lasses and don't forgot to get your mum and dads, girlfriends boyfriends colleagues at work, next door neighbours, your milkman, well just about everyone)

regards

Colin

 

Work is ongoing on the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway check the railway press officers photo website for uptodate photos to see what is happening.
http://photos.stopem.net/

and there is my personal fotopic site with uptodate photos on it aswell (this is an unofficatial website and anything metioned is not that of the Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway)
http://danielpile.fotopic.net/

 

The BR containers that are shown in some off the pics look to be in very reasonable shape - I hope they'll be offered to standard gauge lines for preservation!

 

I believe that they are going to a standard guage preserved railway. Not sure which one. However that is the reason we got the ISO containers to replace the others we have. One of the BR containers looks good on one side but on the other it is rotton as anything, i think this may just be the skin instead of the frame. :-k

 

SKLR trains running again?

Plans are moving on rapidly to reopen part the line for a few days in October, and to resume a full service in 2011:

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/busines...ary-trips/article-2588823-detail/article.html

This is great news, and perhaps the end of a lot of heartache for those involved. Well done to all of them for their perseverance!

 

wondeful news!

 

If you are on Facebook you may wish to join a group on there dedicated to the SKLR...

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=4868804097&ref=search

Details of working parties can be found by contacting people on this group.

Good luck to the line and I for one look forward to seeing trains run there again.

 

I hear that the railway is running again on sundays but I am not able to find any timetable information...... is anyone able to help out on this matter

 

Try http://www.sklr.net/ - It's all on there.

 

The SKLR clearly managed to survive the difficulties discussed above and has also survived Covid-19.

I made my first-ever visit to the railway on Sunday. It was running a special event called the "Three Brazils Weekend". The "Brazils" refers to a standard class of 0-4-2 saddle tank produced for narrow-gauge lines by manufacturers Kerr Stuart. The railway has 3 of them, named "Premier", "Leader" and "Melior".

An enjoyable afternoon. The event seemed very well attended, so hopefully was profitable for the railway. The line's carriages are very basic, but the Kemsley Down station has a reasonable cafe, picnic area, museum, garden and other passenger facilities in addition to the railway's workshops.

 

I often thought perhaps I should break the decade-long silence on this thread, but I was content to wait for a newsworthy event. Three Brazils gala is probably that, being the first steaming of Premier since 1994, and the last operation of her junior (by months) Leader during her current boiler ticket. Although perhaps the withdrawal and overhaul if Superb was noteworthy too.

I'll contribute a couple of my own photos from the weekend from when I had the opportunity to use my camera, including some from the after hours line up outside the shed at KD. If I wasn't on duty I would have considered some lineside photographs too.

 

Had to look this up… 44 years since I had my one trip on the SKLR courtesy of this bonkers day out… https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/70s/780326da.htm

Simon