East Kent Light Railway

East Kent Light Railway
Richboro Port
(never opened)
Sandwich Road
Roman Road
Poison Cross
Woodnesborough
Hammill Colliery
Ash Town
Staple
Wingham Colliery
Wingham Town
Wingham (Canterbury Road)
Extension to Canterbury
(abandoned)
Eastry
Eastry South
Knowlton
Tilmanstone Colliery Halt
Tilmanstone Colliery
Eythorne East Kent Railway (heritage)
Guilford Colliery
Golgotha Tunnel (
477 yd
436 m
)
Former main line connection
Shepherdswell East Kent Railway (heritage)
Shepherds Well National Rail
The East Kent Light Railway, shown with other railway lines in Kent.
A 1945 Ordnance Survey of Sandwich showing the location of the mainline station and the branch of the light railway

The East Kent Light Railway was part of the Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager. The line ran from Shepherdswell to Wingham (Canterbury Road) Station with a branch from Eastry through Poison Cross to Richborough Port. Built primarily for colliery traffic within the Kent Coalfields, the line was built with many spurs and branches to serve the mines, with cancelled plans to construct extensions to several others. The success of Tilmanstone colliery allowed the main line of the railway to continue operation until 1986. A remainder of the line became the East Kent Railway, a heritage railway, in 1987.