Very good! Thanks. I'm perpetually in awe of those Victorian surveyors, engineers and navvies who did all of this over 150 years ago. Miles of deep cuttings, embankments, tunnels, and hundreds of elegant overbridges and underpasses, and all hand-built. Just two level crossings to be seen. Many of those brick bridges are now carrying ten times the vehicle load they were designed for, but still survive.
Thanks for posting! A New Jersey Yank here. Used to live/work for a few years in Canterbury on an exchange. Still have friends in east Kent area. Loved the trains, traveled all over UK by rail (even worked a few weekends on the KESR) in Tenterden. Brought back nice memories!
My Father was a Fireman on a C class (0-6-0) running freight to Dover early one February morning in the early 1950's when going through Ensden (Selling) Tunnel they hit an icicle. It removed the chimney and dented the smokebox door very badly, it was all but smashed in and therefore causing the loco not to steam, they might have just got away with losing the chimney but not an airtight door. They limped into Canterbury East, shunted into a siding and awaited rescue. The loco was repaired and ran until the end of the Eastern Section steam on the Southern. I could not tell you which loco, he did tell me but I've forgotten. It was well known as a wet tunnel and all express Drivers (especially on the big Pacific classes) would have the sanders on when entering. Great piece of film, thanks for posting.
Never thought I would get into trains again. Last time was probably 48 years ago with my train set. But I find the cab views amazing !New mission in life is to ride a Cab! Keep up the good work .
Lived in Dover for a few years before living in Margate, used to travel this line from Dover Priory to Victoria every weekend, was good to see it from a drivers point of view, hopefully, eventually you will get to film the Faversham to Victoria section soon, am living back in London again, but this brought back happy memories, nice 1
Love this video. Used to live in Shepherdswell in the 1980s and catch the train to London from Shepherds Well station, which was just along the road from my house, Usually had to change trains at Faversham to get the fast train to London. My eldest son, who was at Dover Grammar School for Boys used to catch the train every termtime morning into Dover Priory and back again in the afternoon.
Fascinating - such brilliant engineering that has stood the test of time. Kent is the Garden of England noted for its orchards and hop fields very few vinyards until recent years.
Great stuff... I'm in Australia and I am about to start on building a huge OO/HO scale model railway layout, which will be British themed. These videos are a perfect way for me to see the "lay of the land" over your way.... Cheers
Great video … rode on trains both through Ashford to Canterbury West, and Canterbury East to Ashford via Dover & Folkestone. Really nice to see our home county …. not lived there for twenty years.
Brings back fond memories. Worked in B R days at Canterbury East cabin in the 70s.. Canterbury East was open 24/7 so we worked on the Down with Adisham (0600 to 2200) similar with Snowdown. Shepherdswell was 24/7 so worked with that when the previous 2 shut out. On the Up Selling (same times as Adisham) and when that shut out Faversham. I can recall when I was Beckenham D M O there was scheme, never carried out, to make Selling tunnel a cutting. A TSR was usually imposed through the tunnel when icicles appeared. Also recall when I was young the first CEP at Canterbury East on show just prior to electrification. Don’t recall in my days the glass roof at the station though. Thanks for video.
I live in dover and remember traveling on the railway as much as I could in the 1970s, I used to visit Buckland Junction signal box also Kearsney box as much as I could. Both signal boxeshave regretfully been removed. Regards Alan at Buckland Junction :o)
Great Video, thanks for posting it. Brings back fond memories for me, used to live near Faversham during the 50s and spent a lot of time with my notebook and pencil on the overbridge just to the east of Faversham station. I believe the water tower is still there, but the bridge is currently undergoing repairs.
Lovely video and very interesting to go through this part of Kent.... I used to deliver beer to the little pubs out in the sticks in this area !! Cheers for posting!
It was a wholesaler, The Beer Seller. I did visit Shepherd Neame a couple of times for small collections though, and there were some lovely little pubs out there!
Great video series as always, interesting to see the site of Snowdon Colliery, my Grandfather worked there in the twenties and my mum and her family lived in Aylesham village, later my mum worked in Dover before moving to London just before the Second World War.....thank you
This videos add my experience about england railway. In here the climate cloudly always, no sun shiny. Thank's alot for this information. Iam from tropic country.
Much more familiar with this stretech of track, having worked Canterbury East and Faversham boxes before they closed, and then the Faversham panel at Gillingham signalling centre.
Covered some of my old routes on this, but would have been nice to have either an opening or closing shot of the old girl who dutifully carried you along the way.
Thank you for the wonderful videos to such interesting places, really enjoyed them all so far including the North Norfolk one....anymore in the pipeline ???
Give it a rest. These tunnels were built, and the railways created, in general about 170 years ago. As a result, the official measurements of distance on Network Rail is in Miles & Chains for location, and Miles & Yards for length.
All those years 12 inches to the foot the nonsense goes on and on and on, I have surveyed land in Imperial and Metric. If you had to work, which would you choose?@@hastingsdiesels
The information on locations and structure-lengths is given by the Sectional Appendix in miles and chains/yards, because that is what Network Rail uses, because that is the dataset they have inherited. That is my primary source for the data in these free videos, and it would be disingenuous for me (or you) to pretend that I knew better than the official source. If you want to convert the official measurements to other units, you are welcome to do so.
Watched all three parts this morning, great journey. When these were originally in service can you tell me what the top speed originally was? I am thinking possibly 75mph? Are they still allowed to reach this speed?
Hi again. Great video - I've now watched all three in this series. Thanks. I have a question about signalling. Just as you're leaving Dover Priory station there's signal YE42 on a green aspect, which clearly applies to you (and not to the track to your right) even though it's positioned to your right. I've noticed that, wherever possible, signals are usually positioned on the left of the track to which they apply (if ground-mounted) or are slightly offset to the left of centre over the relevant track if gantry-mounted. Where they are on the right, this is presumably indicated unambiguously, somehow? My question is, how is this made clear in the case of YE42? Is it because it is 'leaning' to the left? As an example I've seen, there's a signal near to where I live in SE London (TL460) on the Up track approaching Blackheath Junction, immediately out of Kidbrooke Tunnel. Because the track is on a sharp left-hand blind curve directly out of the tunnel, the signal is mounted on a gantry way over to the right (over the Down track), so that it is visible from inside the tunnel. There is a sign that indicates which track it applies to (although this is perhaps obvious, as the tracks here are not bidirectional!). Thanks again.
Hi Ian, thank you for this. Good question. Ultimately, identifying which signal applies to your train on the track you're driving it on is all a matter of Road Knowledge. It may or may not be physically indicated on site, but it will always be the sort of thing that a driver's Route Knowledge will encompass. As it happens, we ran on the Up track through Kidbrooke Tunnel on 6 April 2019 during our Dave Markwick Memorial Tour (see www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/news/dave-markwick-memorial-tour ) and my as-yet-unpublished footage includes the approach to signal L460 (I don't know if its name changed before or since our visit?). I've produced a clip showing just the relevant part: th-cam.com/video/sNIrW1RE5K8/w-d-xo.html
@@hastingsdiesels Wow! Thanks for the preview and info re signals. Apologies re the signal number prefix. Of course it's L460. I knew that a lot of the L-prefixed signals in the vicinity of London Bridge were re-prefixed/numbered to 'TL' as part of the London Bridge rebuilding and all the track realignment / Bermondsey Diveunder work a few years ago. I understand the 'T' stands for Three Bridges, as they're now controlled from there? Anyway, I thought they'd changed the signals as far back as Lewisham-Blackheath, but obviously not. Looking forward to your full video through Eltham (my home station)! Cheers.
Aha... looking at the Sectional Appendix (which is available on the Network Rail website), it was an "L"-prefixed signal and controlled from London Bridge at the time of our visit on 6 April 2019... but within just a few weeks (by 22 April 2019) it was "TL" and controlled from Three Bridges. My video is from before the change.
Unfortunately, the pool of cab-ride material that I have is limited to locations where our train has actually been since I obtained a suitable camera and mounting: although we visited the Sheerness branch in 2001 and 2003 we don't currently plan to visit it again.
No, the railtour was from Eastbourne to Faversham and was filmed from Hastings onwards in the three parts published; the return was via the same route but in the dark.
@@hastingsdiesels Of course your answer 'no' is the definitive one, but could I just add that it looks as if the class 60 was a modification to convert a 750V DC third rail vehicle to run beyond the third rail network - so maybe it could theoretically be retro-fitted with 750V DC shoes and control gear ?? Are these items cheaper these days with electronics etc?? Might give better performance running on electric?? Just a thought experiment.
@@ridefast0 I'm not aware that the Class 60 locos were a modification of any particular design, least of all anything to do with the 750V DC third-rail network. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_60 for details of its design and procurement.
It's only dangerous if mis-used. So long as users of crossings (which btw are never 'informal' in the UK, but may be 'private' or 'occupation') stay on the path and not attempt to cross the cattle-cum-trespass guards (panel of triangular pieces of wood) they will not come into contact with the third rail.
The electrified rail looks so dangerous. It looks like a top contact? I wonder how many small animals are killed on it each year? I never looked up any references as to what animals or snakes are in the UK?
Dangerous is an understatement. But typical English solution. If they can find a cheap way of doing something they will. I don't know of any other country in the world stupid enough to think it's a good idea to have live rails like this lying about at ground level.
@@johnrauner2515 To my knowledge this system is also used in Belgium, Finland, France, Netherlands, Russia and America, so not a typical English solution after all.
Thank you again for another enjoyable ride through your beautiful countryside. The only shame is you, too, have idiots that like to play with spray paint and ruin things.
Very good! Thanks. I'm perpetually in awe of those Victorian surveyors, engineers and navvies who did all of this over 150 years ago. Miles of deep cuttings, embankments, tunnels, and hundreds of elegant overbridges and underpasses, and all hand-built. Just two level crossings to be seen. Many of those brick bridges are now carrying ten times the vehicle load they were designed for, but still survive.
“Nice one, son” 👍. Thanks for an excellent video; the caption info made it so much more enjoyable. 🐨🇦🇺
Thanks for posting! A New Jersey Yank here. Used to live/work for a few years in Canterbury on an exchange. Still have friends in east Kent area. Loved the trains, traveled all over UK by rail (even worked a few weekends on the KESR) in Tenterden. Brought back nice memories!
It's all the knowledge and information given in the captions that make these videos brilliant.
Glad you like them. My aim is to start with useful footage and then to provide further interpretation for viewers without this being unduly intrusive.
My Father was a Fireman on a C class (0-6-0) running freight to Dover early one February morning in the early 1950's when going through Ensden (Selling) Tunnel they hit an icicle. It removed the chimney and dented the smokebox door very badly, it was all but smashed in and therefore causing the loco not to steam, they might have just got away with losing the chimney but not an airtight door. They limped into Canterbury East, shunted into a siding and awaited rescue. The loco was repaired and ran until the end of the Eastern Section steam on the Southern. I could not tell you which loco, he did tell me but I've forgotten. It was well known as a wet tunnel and all express Drivers (especially on the big Pacific classes) would have the sanders on when entering.
Great piece of film, thanks for posting.
That was me on the footbridge at Shepherdswell
Great video and thanks for the captions. I live in Australia and these captions make it easy to follow on railway maps.
Excellent annotation on these videos, many thanks. The more the better!
Never thought I would get into trains again. Last time was probably 48 years ago with my train set. But I find the cab views amazing !New mission in life is to ride a Cab! Keep up the good work .
I don't live near this area so I really enjoyed seeing it from such an enjoyable and informative driver's eyeview
Lived in Dover for a few years before living in Margate, used to travel this line from Dover Priory to Victoria every weekend, was good to see it from a drivers point of view, hopefully, eventually you will get to film the Faversham to Victoria section soon, am living back in London again, but this brought back happy memories, nice 1
Love this video. Used to live in Shepherdswell in the 1980s and catch the train to London from Shepherds Well station, which was just along the road from my house, Usually had to change trains at Faversham to get the fast train to London. My eldest son, who was at Dover Grammar School for Boys used to catch the train every termtime morning into Dover Priory and back again in the afternoon.
Loved the video. Some of the countryside is quite beautiful. Enjoyed the ride.
Fascinating - such brilliant engineering that has stood the test of time. Kent is the Garden of England noted for its orchards and hop fields very few vinyards until recent years.
Fantastic video awesome thanks for posting. Used to live right next to that line just before clockhouse crossing great watching the trains
Great stuff... I'm in Australia and I am about to start on building a huge OO/HO scale model railway layout, which will be British themed. These videos are a perfect way for me to see the "lay of the land" over your way.... Cheers
Thankyou very much for this. Your commentary enhanced it splendidly.
Great video … rode on trains both through Ashford to Canterbury West, and Canterbury East to Ashford via Dover & Folkestone. Really nice to see our home county …. not lived there for twenty years.
Brings back fond memories. Worked in B R days at Canterbury East cabin in the 70s.. Canterbury East was open 24/7 so we worked on the Down with Adisham (0600 to 2200) similar with Snowdown. Shepherdswell was 24/7 so worked with that when the previous 2 shut out. On the Up Selling (same times as Adisham) and when that shut out Faversham. I can recall when I was Beckenham D M O there was scheme, never carried out, to make Selling tunnel a cutting. A TSR was usually imposed through the tunnel when icicles appeared. Also recall when I was young the first CEP at Canterbury East on show just prior to electrification. Don’t recall in my days the glass roof at the station though. Thanks for video.
I live in dover and remember traveling on the railway as much as I could in the 1970s, I used to visit Buckland Junction signal box also Kearsney box as much as I could. Both signal boxeshave regretfully been removed. Regards Alan at Buckland Junction :o)
Great Video, thanks for posting it. Brings back fond memories for me, used to live near Faversham during the 50s and spent a lot of time with my notebook and pencil on the overbridge just to the east of Faversham station. I believe the water tower is still there, but the bridge is currently undergoing repairs.
Lovely video and very interesting to go through this part of Kent....
I used to deliver beer to the little pubs out in the sticks in this area !! Cheers for posting!
Thank you Andy. I like that bit of Kent too. I'm guessing you were conveying Shepherd Neame from Faversham? :)
It was a wholesaler, The Beer Seller. I did visit Shepherd Neame a couple of times for small collections though, and there were some lovely little pubs out there!
Great video series as always, interesting to see the site of Snowdon Colliery, my Grandfather worked there in the twenties and my mum and her family lived in Aylesham village, later my mum worked in Dover before moving to London just before the Second World War.....thank you
Enjoyed video. Nice to know that they haven't demolished the old Sig an boxes.
Thank you for the scenic ride .
This videos add my experience about england railway. In here the climate cloudly always, no sun shiny. Thank's alot for this information. Iam from tropic country.
This is so relaxing thank you!!!
Much more familiar with this stretech of track, having worked Canterbury East and Faversham boxes before they closed, and then the Faversham panel at Gillingham signalling centre.
Enlightening and enjoyable, as always 👍
I really enjoyed that!
Quite an interesting ride. It looks like the sort of line Beeching would have had his eye on. Luckily it escaped the chop!
A nice video. For a couple of seconds towards the last leg of the journey the sun shone during what was otherwise an overcast day.
Thanks for the video.
The last coal trains from Betteshanger went through Maidstone East and the hoppers were dumped at Snodland. So ended the Kent coalfield.
Wonderful many thanks.
I was filming coming in to Faversham, ( I'm at 41:00), I'm also going on the Faversham Hop on the 11/01.
Great video.
Excellent and not a kettle in sight.
Covered some of my old routes on this, but would have been nice to have either an opening or closing shot of the old girl who dutifully carried you along the way.
Thank you. Some of my more recent videos do have this following similar requests. Alternatively visit our website www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/ :)
Thank you for the wonderful videos to such interesting places, really enjoyed them all so far including the North Norfolk one....anymore in the pipeline ???
Yes! I'm publishing one video every Saturday lunchtime (UK time), as far as I can.
158 yards! We have been Metric since 1973!!!
Give it a rest. These tunnels were built, and the railways created, in general about 170 years ago. As a result, the official measurements of distance on Network Rail is in Miles & Chains for location, and Miles & Yards for length.
All those years 12 inches to the foot the nonsense goes on and on and on, I have surveyed land in Imperial and Metric. If you had to work, which would you choose?@@hastingsdiesels
The information on locations and structure-lengths is given by the Sectional Appendix in miles and chains/yards, because that is what Network Rail uses, because that is the dataset they have inherited. That is my primary source for the data in these free videos, and it would be disingenuous for me (or you) to pretend that I knew better than the official source. If you want to convert the official measurements to other units, you are welcome to do so.
Kent is of course also known for hops, as the hop filed turns up at 34:28
Smashing video, does Hastings diesels have any more excursions planed. ?
We'll have some outings next year, keep an eye on www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/railtours/ or on our Twitter feed @HastingsDiesels
Watched all three parts this morning, great journey. When these were originally in service can you tell me what the top speed originally was? I am thinking possibly 75mph? Are they still allowed to reach this speed?
Thank you. Yes, 75mph in BR service, and 75mph now in preservation. Further details at www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/1001/
Excellent filming. Is there any footage of faversham towards the Medway towns??
Thank you. Sorry, no footage west from Faversham on this channel.
Hi again. Great video - I've now watched all three in this series. Thanks.
I have a question about signalling. Just as you're leaving Dover Priory station there's signal YE42 on a green aspect, which clearly applies to you (and not to the track to your right) even though it's positioned to your right. I've noticed that, wherever possible, signals are usually positioned on the left of the track to which they apply (if ground-mounted) or are slightly offset to the left of centre over the relevant track if gantry-mounted. Where they are on the right, this is presumably indicated unambiguously, somehow? My question is, how is this made clear in the case of YE42? Is it because it is 'leaning' to the left?
As an example I've seen, there's a signal near to where I live in SE London (TL460) on the Up track approaching Blackheath Junction, immediately out of Kidbrooke Tunnel. Because the track is on a sharp left-hand blind curve directly out of the tunnel, the signal is mounted on a gantry way over to the right (over the Down track), so that it is visible from inside the tunnel. There is a sign that indicates which track it applies to (although this is perhaps obvious, as the tracks here are not bidirectional!).
Thanks again.
Hi Ian, thank you for this. Good question. Ultimately, identifying which signal applies to your train on the track you're driving it on is all a matter of Road Knowledge. It may or may not be physically indicated on site, but it will always be the sort of thing that a driver's Route Knowledge will encompass. As it happens, we ran on the Up track through Kidbrooke Tunnel on 6 April 2019 during our Dave Markwick Memorial Tour (see www.hastingsdiesels.co.uk/news/dave-markwick-memorial-tour ) and my as-yet-unpublished footage includes the approach to signal L460 (I don't know if its name changed before or since our visit?). I've produced a clip showing just the relevant part: th-cam.com/video/sNIrW1RE5K8/w-d-xo.html
@@hastingsdiesels Wow! Thanks for the preview and info re signals. Apologies re the signal number prefix. Of course it's L460. I knew that a lot of the L-prefixed signals in the vicinity of London Bridge were re-prefixed/numbered to 'TL' as part of the London Bridge rebuilding and all the track realignment / Bermondsey Diveunder work a few years ago. I understand the 'T' stands for Three Bridges, as they're now controlled from there? Anyway, I thought they'd changed the signals as far back as Lewisham-Blackheath, but obviously not.
Looking forward to your full video through Eltham (my home station)! Cheers.
Aha... looking at the Sectional Appendix (which is available on the Network Rail website), it was an "L"-prefixed signal and controlled from London Bridge at the time of our visit on 6 April 2019... but within just a few weeks (by 22 April 2019) it was "TL" and controlled from Three Bridges. My video is from before the change.
Interesting.
Thanks for the reply, looking forward to that....where too next ?
Wait & see ;-)
the sittingbourne to sheerness branch would be great dont think there is a cab ride of this route
Unfortunately, the pool of cab-ride material that I have is limited to locations where our train has actually been since I obtained a suitable camera and mounting: although we visited the Sheerness branch in 2001 and 2003 we don't currently plan to visit it again.
Did you film further along the Kent coast and through the Medway towns?
No, the railtour was from Eastbourne to Faversham and was filmed from Hastings onwards in the three parts published; the return was via the same route but in the dark.
Why is it when I watch these I am waiting for Wyle E. Coyote to jump out into the middle of the tracks holding his sign?
I take it the Class 60s can use 750 V DC third rail for power?
No - Class 60 is a type of diesel loco.
@@hastingsdiesels Of course your answer 'no' is the definitive one, but could I just add that it looks as if the class 60 was a modification to convert a 750V DC third rail vehicle to run beyond the third rail network - so maybe it could theoretically be retro-fitted with 750V DC shoes and control gear ?? Are these items cheaper these days with electronics etc?? Might give better performance running on electric?? Just a thought experiment.
@@ridefast0 I'm not aware that the Class 60 locos were a modification of any particular design, least of all anything to do with the 750V DC third-rail network. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_60 for details of its design and procurement.
The Class 92 can use 750 DC third rail as well as 25k overhead line.
@@hastingsdiesels Class 73 were modified to 750
Do you guys know when you will do another railtour down to Faversham by any chance?
Hi Jamie, we don't have that in our plans at present, but that doesn't mean we won't be there in the next year or two...
@@hastingsdiesels Oh ok. It's just I live in East Kent and it's very hard to catch the Thumper.
The electrified rail seems to run very close to the informal crossings connecting fields.
Looks dangerous!
It's only dangerous if mis-used.
So long as users of crossings (which btw are never 'informal' in the UK, but may be 'private' or 'occupation') stay on the path and not attempt to cross the cattle-cum-trespass guards (panel of triangular pieces of wood) they will not come into contact with the third rail.
The electrified rail looks so dangerous. It looks like a top contact? I wonder how many small animals are killed on it each year? I never looked up any references as to what animals or snakes are in the UK?
Mainly foxes and badgers are caught by it, other animals such as rabbits or squirrels are normally fine and of course birds are always fine!
Dangerous is an understatement. But typical English solution. If they can find a cheap way of doing something they will. I don't know of any other country in the world stupid enough to think it's a good idea to have live rails like this lying about at ground level.
@@johnrauner2515 To my knowledge this system is also used in Belgium, Finland, France, Netherlands, Russia and America, so not a typical English solution after all.
👍👍
So this is a Class 201.
Thank you again for another enjoyable ride through your beautiful countryside. The only shame is you, too, have idiots that like to play with spray paint and ruin things.
There are large black cats out in the countryside. Watch for them!
🚂👍