Kent & East Sussex Railway

Having attended on Saturday, I can say that yes, it was busy at Tenterden. The parking marshals were doing their best, and a couple were even deployed to the top of Station Road to try to help with the situation. We needed to use a significant area to allow for stalls and displays. However, if we hadn't had them, people may have felt that there wasn't enough to the event. We are damned if we do, and damned if we don't. Some staff had already parked elsewhere, to ease the situation a little.

@David Mylchreest I hear what you say. It is a very rare occasion that the Tenterden car park is not able to take all our visitors. Our visitor numbers on Saturday were significantly up on previous years, and everyone who made it to the station seemed to be having a very good time indeed. As I have mentioned, if this issue does arise at Tenterden, there is always the option to divert to Northiam. If the buffet there is open, (and I understand it was this weekend,) you can sit and have a cuppa while looking out across the valley. It's rather a nice spot to spend some time. (As is Wittersham Road, where I went to have my lunch, and watch the world go by....)

As for our neighbours, most of them know the situation (i.e. for a very few weekends of the year, Station Road gets rather busy.) I don't believe we get any complaints. Incidentally, the only problem I had getting up or down Station Road this weekend was when I went to leave, only to find a marshal on his radio, with his back to me, in the middle of the road! His look of surprise when he finally noticed the car behind him was priceless!

 

Latest upload on the channel from yesterday running during the 40s weekend if anyone is interested.

Certainly nice to see Hastings out and about again, do have a soft spot for the loco when I first saw it running at Bluebell during our Branchline gala in 2023. The Teddy being out was also a nice surprise and of course it made a nice racket up the bank.

Was also refreshing to see the trains full also,
hopefully a nice profit for the railway when all is counted.

 

Er.. Yes... That genuine wartime Class 14. Unfortunately, one of the Austerities was found to have a broken spring on disposal Saturday night. There wasn't the time or personnel to get it changed before Sunday. So, in the best wartime spirit, we employed the first part of "make do and mend", and used the engine we had.

Very nice video. Thanks for that. Nice to see those bits from the outside for a change!

 

Thank you mate, was pretty happy how it turned out in the end. Even the sun playing ball was a nice addition.

The 14 being out certainly didn’t ruin anything, if anything was nice seeing it out besides it’s appearances during the diesel galas