Betty

While enjoying my tea in the garden of the Little Railway café I was able to ask about the faffing around with the engine; the trains are not going around the loop but the engine is coming off one end of the train and then reattaching to the other end. What actually happens is that the engine continues around the loop to set the points and then reverses back along the track, along the other side of the loop, to collect the train. The reason is so that the carriages are in the desired order when the train gets back to New Romney - that's as far as each trip is running. The guy who explained it (a very nice RHDR bloke called Peter) also told me that so that the passengers can use the widest platform at New Romney that when leaving the train needs to run towards Hythe, clear the points and then come towards Dungeness. That, plus all the floor markings and no sitting inside at the café is just a small part of the extra work they are having to invest to open at the moment. KESR are opening at the weekend with one engine running two round trips.