Chatham Dockyard's Railway

Chatham Dockyard's Railway: A great day out watching the train pass by. At its peak, it was estimated there was approximately 17 miles of standard gauge railway within the Dockyard. Today there is just under 1 mile of track remaining. The section (laid tramway style) starts just outside the Historic Dockyard (adjacent to No.7 Slip) and runs through the middle of the site to the far end of Anchor Wharf.
The Railway is operated by dedicated Railway Volunteers, who work tirelessly to restore the locomotives, wagons and cranes, and help to keep a valuable piece of the Dockyard’s history alive.
On Railway Weekends, volunteers operate ‘demonstration’ freight trains (like the one in this film) for about 1/3 mile.You can watch steam locomotive ‘Ajax’ and diesel locomotive’s ‘Rochester Castle’ and ‘Overlord’ haul a number of carefully restored historic freight wagons.
Whether you’re a railway enthusiast, you just have a casual interest or you want to re-live childhood memories. Railway Weekends provide the perfect photo opportunity to get up close to the historic railway and chat to the knowledgeable volunteers.
My thanks to driver 'David' for permitting the use of a Polaroid Cube camera on Ajax - very kind :)
Music track - Anchors Away

[@bobnweaver]

A superb video Brian. Great industrial and maritime scenes and I loved the rolling stock. What a credit to the volunteers. Regards, Jeff.

[@BrianSeaman]

Hi Jeff, thank you for your kind words. It's great to see a bit of steam, as there hasn't been much about in the south for 2020. Cheers, Brian

[@MOFFS]

I'll never forget going to the dockyard to some sort of transport show with my father who has worked on the railway for South Eastern for like 30+ years. He knew the guy driving Ajax who said "does your boy want a ride?" To which I replied "no I'm alright". My dad was so embarrassed. I was just a really anxious child lol.

[@BrianSeaman]

Sometimes loud noise (like for the child in the video) is just too much. It was the same for me, when my Dad took me to see the place he worked at in the late 50's. There were industrial steam locos at Beckton Gasworks in east London, what a noise they made. I found this clip on TH-cam that brought the memories back: th-cam.com/video/IUVZ2od1K7g/w-d-xo.html - it was a different world back then.

[@Miertreg1]

Hello Brian, a wonderful video from you. Thank you for this beautiful video.
You make wonderful films, greetings from Braunschweig from Gert

[@BrianSeaman]

Hello Gert, you are most kind, thank you! Greetings from the south of England.

[@hilsthetrainlady4683]

Wow! That looks worth a visit. I like the footage you took with the mini camera - that’s come out very nicely.

[@BrianSeaman]

Thank you Hilary - I'd recommend it as a day out - just check it's a railway day - the next one (I think) is the 19th September if that helps? Cheers, Brian

[@Wickford_N_Gauge]

Fantastic video Brian of a brilliant location 😍 Actually visited Chatham a couple of years ago on a wet November day, no trains then 😩, but it is a super interesting place to see 😁 Hope you toured the rope museum and bought a piece 😉 What surprised me most about our visit was how big Kent is, seemed to be travelling forever from London 🤪 must have been a tidy spin from West Sussex 😉 This show brought back great memories, many thanks for sharing 😎 Very best wishes from County Wicklow ☘️

[@BrianSeaman]

Hi Paul, you are very kind - it was a great day out, although sadly the Ropery staff were still on furlough, so although the building was open, no ropes were being made. What a massive shed that is! I believe they use bicycles to ride up and down when it is in operation. I'll have some other films for the rest of the visit - I was afraid I'd make this one far too long lol. Cheers, Brian