Rother Valley 2-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 1 (Locobase 10149)

Data from "The Rother Valley Railway," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol V (June 1900), p. 90-91. Railway information from the Colonel Hollman Fred Stephens Society website at []

This pair of locomotives were the first motive power for this 12-mile railway that began at the Robertsbridge Junction with the South Eastern & Chatham Railway and followed the Rother River, stopping at Bodiam (3 1/4 miles), Northiam (6 3/4 miles), and Wittersham (9 1/4 miles), and ending at Tenterden (later renamed Rolvendem). It was a light railway as described in the Light Railways Act of 1896 and part of the system of such railways promoted and operated by Colonel H F Stephens.

At its inauguration, the line had the 2 locomotives (Robertsbridge and Tenterden) painted in royal blue and red trim, 6 4-wheel coaches, 10 goods trucks, and two brake vans. It had easy grades and curves for the most part with the most onerous grades being two quarter-mile 1.25% and one 1.335 of similar length. Scheduled runs included 4 trains in each direction on each weekday (which included Saturday) and two on Sunday. The runs averaged about 15 mph, a typical trip requiring 50 minutes.

In 1904, Robertsbridge was refitted with 48" drivers. Tenterden went over to the East Kent Railway in 1912, where it remained except for a stint from 1918-1922 on the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Railway. According to steamindex.com, "It ended up as a star in Oh Mr Porter in 1937."

In a couple of years, the line would be extended to Headcorn (opened 1905) by which time the RVR had taken the name Kent & East Sussex and planned to extend to Rye, Cranbrook, and Maidstone. Those plans never came to fruition. At its greatest extent, the K & ES extended 22 miles from Robertsbridge to Headcorn. Remarkably, although traffic declined beginning in the 1920s, it remained open for passenger traffic until 2 January 1954 and finally closed altogether on 12 July 1961.