The Railway's annual Story Time event featuring 'Jack the Station Cat' and 'Edward Bear' coincided with the best weather so far this season which brought in more visitors to the event than last year on both days.

'Jack the Station Cat' stars in a series of books written by Alan Cliff. The Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway was the first railway to be granted a license to operate such an event and is featured in one of the books as the Llanberis & Sittingbourne Extension Railway. For this event Sittingbourne Viaduct station becomes 'Tails End' and Kemsley Down, 'Much Purring'. See the link on the right of the front page for more information on 'Jack the Station Cat'.

'Edward Bear' is a member of the Railway and features in his own series of books written by Barry Langford and availabole only from the Railway.

The August bank holiday weekend will see the return of Story Time with 'Ivor the Engine' following the resounding success of last year's event.

I've never managed to get a picture of the Railway in snow before - and this is the Summer Season!

For the first time since 1969, the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway is operating scheduled freight trains.

National Grid is refurbishing the high voltage power lines between Canterbury and Kemsley so the Railway is running a freight train to the site to save the laying of a temporary road across the marshes.

UPDATED: I have taken some photos, from the train, showing the work that had been carried out to Monday 5th May. The scaffolding has been erected into towers so that the cables can be lowered without blocking the railway and the insulators on the Sittingbourne-side of the pylons have been replaced.

The Railway reopened to the public on Good Friday, 21st March, unfortunately the weather was terrible this weekend and passenger figures suffered accordingly.

These photos were taken at near freezing temperatures and so 'Triumph' looks like she's leaking steam at every joint!

The last proper work weekend before the start of the 2008 Season on Good Friday.

There's been loads going on from painting and stripping (paint that is!) to testing 'Triumph' following the winter's work and cleaning 'Melior' inside and out (firebox included).

Kemsley Down is looking fantastic with less than a month until the first visitors of 2008 arrive.

We're ready, are you?!

Whilst the Railway is closed for the winter, our volunteers work on numerous projects around the Railway to prepare for the forthcoming season.

The last weekend of 'out of season' months is when all members are invited to come and help out, this collection shows some of the work being carried out on the Sunday.

The Railway will be reopening on Good Friday (21st March) so there is less time this year to prepare for such a long season.

It's Christmas time so that can mean only one thing - Santa Specials!

They are running every weekend up to Christmas and then again on Boxing Day, visit http://www.sklr.net for more information.

The Gala Weekend ended the best season for ten years at the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway.

Mayor of Swale, John Morris, visited the Railway again (last time was the Centenary Celebrations in 2005) and rededicated 'Barton Hall' which now wears its nameplates proudly on its bonnet doors.

Rain overnight and on the Saturday morning added to the atmosphere for some of the photos but the weather was changeable throughout the day making photography awkward!

This is our first attempt at running an 'Ivor the Engine'-related Story Time event and the weekend proved to be a big success with a higher than average number of visitors at the Railway, making this the best August for ten years.

The Railway has identified the requirement for such family-oriented events over the years and it is fantastic to finally be able to hold an 'Ivor the Engine' themed event.

'Edward Lloyd' doubles for 'Ivor' to take part in 'Ivor'-related tales at Kemsley Down station.

Photographs of the special train to Kemsley Down and the award to Joel by Bob Symes, the Railway's President.

We turned Kemsley Down into a model railway exhibition for the day, in fact, as the track gang were working in Platform 1 at Kemsley Down, we also played trains with the 1:1 stock!

The event was a resounding success with double the amount of passengers attending the same event last year.

The Railway's annual Steam and Beer Festival brought the sun out to shine after weeks of near-continuous rain!

Visitors travelled from far and wide to sample beers sourced from all over the UK.

Triumph and Melior provided the traction for passenger trains throughout the weekend with Triumph powering six coach trains on Saturday evening and well into the night.

In this collection you will also see pictures of the pipelines, which are scheduled for removal.

Victor will be coming out of service soon for some essential maintenance and Barton Hall is being prepared for passenger service - check out her new livery!

The first of the Story Time events in 2007 saw the Railway transformed into the 'Llanberis & Sittingbourne Extension Railway', Sittingbourne Viaduct station becomes 'Tails End' and Kemsley Down is 'Much Purring'. Our steam locomotive 'Triumph' appears in the latest of the books - 'Jack the Station Cat and The Tail's End Tickets'.

Jack entertained passengers between trains and children were able to have footplate rides on locomotives 'Melior' and 'Triumph'. A 'Mouse Hunt' for children involved completing a log of where and the name of each mouse around Much Purring.

Tales of Jack's antics are published in the 'Jack the Station Cat' books by Alan Cliff (see the link on the front page).

The 'Edward Bear' books are exclusive to the Railway and can be purchased from the Railway Shoppe at Kemsley Down. The author, Barry Langford, is a member of the Railway.

The next Story Time event will be over the August Bank Holiday Weekend - with 'Ivor the Engine'. Ivor's classic tales will be the highlight of the weekend and Ivor will be present at Kemsley Down!

Easter Saturday saw two events on the same day at the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway - Diesel Morning and Community Day.

The first two trains were diesel hauled - 'Edward Lloyd' on the 11am from Sittingbourne Viaduct and 'Victor' on the midday train, 'Barton Hall' made an appearance but is not yet cleared for passenger trains.

In association with The Bridge Educational and Environmental Trust we held a Community Day at Kemsley Down, where the Trust showed their plans for Church Marshes Country Park, which the line runs through the middle of, and requested feedback from visitors on the future design of the Country Park's visitor centre. The Railway is a key part of this project so all fares were half price for the day!

The last weekend of the month (out of the operating season) is Work Weekend, when members can get together and work around the site in preparation for next season.

This weekend's work included:
Repairing the ceiling in the Footplate Cafe
Scrapping wagon 616
Clearing the site of scrap metal
Producing new signage

Other recent activities have seen the clearance of the Ridham-end sidings , the arrival of Premier's new saddle tank, the preparation for removal of two containers (for restoration) and preparing to start the restoration of the Thanet Tramway waiting shelter which has been sitting on Wagon 633 for several years.

Thanks to all those people who visited the Railway for the Santa Specials, 2006's passenger figures have beaten 2005's which included the 'Centenary Celebration'!

Although M-Real's Sittingbourne Paper Mill is set to close in January 2007, we are confident that we will be able to operate in 2007, the timetable is available now at our website http://www.sklr.net or in paper form from libraries and tourist information offices around Kent and other steam railways across the UK.

Tihs was the last operating weekend of the season. It's our chance to play trains! Diesel and steam hauled passenger and freight trains with double heading between Milton Regis Halt and Kemsley Down.

The second Model Railway Day - where we turn the Railway into a model railway exhibition - was a successful event despite the awful weather!

Model railway layouts were on display at various locations around Kemsley Down station.

These are photos of the Saturday, the day dedicated to the serious drinkers and live music is laid on, this year we featured the Ypres Town Band. On the Sunday, the event is Family Day and encourages families to attend as additional attractions are provided such as face painting and a clown.

'Jack the Station Cat' and 'Edward Bear' visited the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway on 30th April and 1st May.

The event saw the launch of the latest 'Jack the Station Cat' book and 'Edward Bear' launched a creative writing competition for children.

For more details of 'Jack the Station Cat' books click on the link on the main page.

Easter Sunday included an Easter Egg Hunt - kids had to write down the location of numbered eggs to receive a small egg and a large egg was won by one of the contestants at random

The 2006 Season got off to a fantastic start on Sunday 2nd April. This was the first chance for the public to see many of our enhancements to their visit experience

A selection of photographs taken on the Saturday. These weekends are dedicated to working on various projects on the railway and make it easier for members to volunteer to work on something they may normally not have the opportunity to do.

The last weekend of the month is a Work Weekend at the Railway. This is time for as many members as possible to attend and carry out the work required to keep the Railway running.
On this day, members removed Premier's chimney and saddle tank as the first part of her overhaul and restoration. The tank is being completely replaced with an exact copy to be manufactured from measurements of the old one which was too corroded to be repaired.
To find out more about volunteering and helping restore Premier or the many other projects at the Railway, visit the website or email info@sklr.net

A collection dedicated to the Creekside 5-inch gauge ride-on railway.

The Railway reopened briefly in December 2005 to operate Santa Specials on the first three weekends of the month and then finally on Boxing Day (26th). These successful events will be repeated again this year on 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23 and 26 December - advanced booking is already available!

The Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway is twinned with Museum Eisenbahn Club Losheim (MECL) in the Saarland, Germany, 2005 was our turn to visit their railway (this year they visit ours).
This was one of the most successful trips in the ten years of our partnership and saw groups arriving from the UK by road and rail.
This collection shows a few of the photographs taken of the trip. Watch this space for photos of the reciprocal visit.

The 2005 Season Finale was the Gala Weekend. This collection shows how the railway saw the season out in style!

The 2006 Gala Weekend will be held on 23rd & 24th September with trains running from 11am. Come and see if we can trump last year's very successful weekend!

Locomotives 'Premier' and 'Leader' celebrated their 100th birthday this year so to mark the occasion one of the most intense services ever devised for the railway was in operation, along with a few extra moves and, of course, our visiting loco 'Chevallier'. I have added two more pictures - Centenarian 'Leader' and 'Superb' in the engine shed at Kemsley Down.

Our first ever visiting steam locomotive - Chevallier - arrived at Kemsley Down on the evening of 23rd August 2005. This collection shows you her delivery back at Kemsley Down after many years at Whipsnade Wild Animal Park.

Kids with model trains travel free and can run their locos on our model railways!

The 7th Annual Steam and Beer Festival at the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway was another successful event with more visitors than last year.

A big thanks to the members of the railway who made the event possible.

Storytime with 'Jack the Station Cat and his loco friends' event at the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway on Sunday 19th June 2005

These are general photographs of the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway, for photographs of our special events in 2005 and 2006 please browse the other collections on this site.

Photographs of other S&KLR-related subjects may be available offline, if you are after a particular photo, drop me an email!