My late father himself a legend of sorts on the SR is seen on the two iconic last days fotos of Hawkhurst and Goudhurst lines, as a kinda mental exercise he also maintained his "knowledge" of both lines based on the last weeks rule book workings as about that time he was working relief at Cuxton so had all the line down to Tonbridge to play with. During that time as well he practically rebuilt Snodland signal box repointing it, new shingles, installed a flushing toilet as me mum refused point blank to use the standard BR "thunderbox" or cess hole and it was christened by local celebrity Judge Dread who was often found in the box chatting trains and stuff with me father mumping tea as my old man he made a proper cup o' sergeant major's, 4 heaped tablespoons of BR best leaf tealeaves, boiled and set to stew, as the day went on more tea would be added to the pot and it was always full, Marvel instant milk and you had to admire the tannine plated cups, tea pot and spoons. In his last days on BR, he was at London Bridge where during the day staff had paid for a tea urn lady whose job was to keep on top of three large tea urns and she would do routes starting at Charing X panel, down to Chislehurst/Orpington boundary then cross over to the Central panels and do East Croydon all the way up to London Bridge terminus and approaches then into the kitchen to swap the urn over, fill the empty one and off she would go again round the panels.
Another interesting video. Kent was lucky as it seems to have suffered the least railway closures of any county in England. I would be interested to see the route of the Waverly Railway from Edinburgh to Carlisle via Hawick !.
The Hawkhurst Branch should have been saved in preference to the KESR and today would see good passenger numbers with a good timetable and integrated with the national railway network. The population in Hawkhurst and the Weald is relentlessly on the rise and the roads are saturated and grid locked with cars as more people have to commute to work in Paddock Wood, Tonbridge and London. Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Horsmonden have suffered economically and socially ever since the Hawkhurst Branch closure in 1961 and in all honesty the whole area today would benefit if this line was reopened. Public transport since the closure of the Hawkhurst Bus Station in c2005 has been dire!
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My late father himself a legend of sorts on the SR is seen on the two iconic last days fotos of Hawkhurst and Goudhurst lines, as a kinda mental exercise he also maintained his "knowledge" of both lines based on the last weeks rule book workings as about that time he was working relief at Cuxton so had all the line down to Tonbridge to play with. During that time as well he practically rebuilt Snodland signal box repointing it, new shingles, installed a flushing toilet as me mum refused point blank to use the standard BR "thunderbox" or cess hole and it was christened by local celebrity Judge Dread who was often found in the box chatting trains and stuff with me father mumping tea as my old man he made a proper cup o' sergeant major's, 4 heaped tablespoons of BR best leaf tealeaves, boiled and set to stew, as the day went on more tea would be added to the pot and it was always full, Marvel instant milk and you had to admire the tannine plated cups, tea pot and spoons. In his last days on BR, he was at London Bridge where during the day staff had paid for a tea urn lady whose job was to keep on top of three large tea urns and she would do routes starting at Charing X panel, down to Chislehurst/Orpington boundary then cross over to the Central panels and do East Croydon all the way up to London Bridge terminus and approaches then into the kitchen to swap the urn over, fill the empty one and off she would go again round the panels.
Another interesting video. Kent was lucky as it seems to have suffered the least railway closures of any county in England. I would be interested to see the route of the Waverly Railway from Edinburgh to Carlisle via Hawick !.
The Hawkhurst Branch should have been saved in preference to the KESR and today would see good passenger numbers with a good timetable and integrated with the national railway network. The population in Hawkhurst and the Weald is relentlessly on the rise and the roads are saturated and grid locked with cars as more people have to commute to work in Paddock Wood, Tonbridge and London. Hawkhurst, Cranbrook, Goudhurst and Horsmonden have suffered economically and socially ever since the Hawkhurst Branch closure in 1961 and in all honesty the whole area today would benefit if this line was reopened. Public transport since the closure of the Hawkhurst Bus Station in c2005 has been dire!