East Kent Light Railway

v t e East Kent Light Railway
Legend
Kent Coast line to Ramsgate Richboro Port (never opened) River Stour Kent Coast line to Dover Priory Sandwich Road Roman Road Poison Cross Woodnesborough Hammill Colliery Ash Town Staple Wingham Colliery Wingham Town Wingham (Canterbury Road) Extension to Canterbury (abandoned) Eastry Eastry South Knowlton Tilmanstone Colliery Halt Tilmanstone Colliery Eythorne Guilford Colliery Golgotha Tunnel ( 477 yd 436 m ) Chatham Main Line to Faversham Former main line connection Shepherdswell Shepherds Well Chatham Main Line to Dover Priory

The East Kent Light Railway was part of the Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager. The line ran from Shepherdswell to Wingham (Canterbury Road) Station with a branch from Eastry through Poison Cross to Richborough Port. Built primarily for colliery traffic within the Kent Coalfields, the line was built with many spurs and branches to serve the mines, with cancelled plans to construct extensions to several others. The success of Tilmanstone colliery allowed the main line of the railway to continue operation until 1986. A remainder of the line became the East Kent Railway, a heritage railway, in 1987.