‘The smallest public railway in the world.’ So proclaims a faded poster at New Romney Station, the midpoint of the 15in gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway which runs almost 14 miles along the south-western Kent coast from Hythe to Dungeness.
Well, almost. The railway was indeed the world’s smallest public railway by gauge from 1927 until 1978, the year it lost the honour to the 12¼in gauge Réseau Guerlédan in France. The RM&DR regained the accolade the following year when the French line closed, only to lose it again in 1982 with the opening of the 10¼in gauge Wells and Walsingham Light Railway in Norfolk.
Although the RM&DR steam railway has the appearance of an overgrown toy, and is beloved today by children and adult train enthusiasts, it was designed (by two racing car and miniature train obsessives) as an everyday means of transportation for bungalow and chalet residents, linking the respective termini branches of Southern Railway at New Romney and Hythe.
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