Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway Gala 12/5/2019

My first visit to the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway in too long was for their annual "Steam and Diesel Gala", which was held on Saturday 11 May and Sunday 12 May 2019. This featured all of the operational home fleet, which ran alongside "Whillan Beck", a visiting Pacific from the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. An intensive timetable was in use across the weekend, featuring multiple headers, non-stop runs, and parallel runs over the double track section between Hythe and New Romney. On the Sunday when I attended, the weather was largely warm and sunny, and there appeared to be a large turnout of visitors. My thanks go to the RHDR staff and volunteers for their hard work, and to the R&ER staff for facilitating the visit of "Whillan Beck".

Locomotives:

No. 2 "Northern Chief"
No. 4 "The Bug"
No. 5 "Hercules"
No. 6 "Samson"
No. 8 "Hurricane" (running as "Bluebottle" on one side)
No. 9 "Winston Churchill"
No. 12 "J.B. Snell"
"Whillan Beck" (visiting from R&ER)

Shots included:

- "Whillan Beck" leads nos. 4 and 5 into Dungeness (08:55 ex-New Romney)
- "Whillan Beck" and "Hercules" depart from Dungeness (09:43 ex-Dungeness)
- "The Bug" departs from Dungeness, and is then seen arriving at New Romney (10:00 ex-Dungeness). Having swapped with no. 12, the same working continues diesel hauled to Hythe
- "Northern Chief" pilots "Hurricane" through New Romney with the Hythe to Hythe non-stop run (10:07 ex-Hythe)
- Nos. 4 and 9 depart from New Romney (10:52 ex-New Romney)
- 2 and 8 pass back through New Romney (10:07 ex-Hythe)
- "Hercules" accelerates away from New Romney (11:10 ex-Hythe)
- "Whillan Beck" pilots the diesel into New Romney (11:30 ex-Hythe)
- "Samson" departs from New Romney (11:40 ex-Dungeness)
- "Whillan Beck" departs from New Romney (12:40 ex-New Romney"), before "Winston Churchill" arrives and departs (12:10 ex-Hythe)
- No. 5 departs Dymchurch (12:40 ex-Dungeness)
- "Whillan Beck" runs through Dymchurch non-stop (13:35 ex-Hythe), passing "Northern Chief" (13:40 ex-New Romney)
- "J.B. Snell" crosses St Mary's Road Level Crossing (13:40 ex-Dungeness), before No. 6 accelerates in the opposite direction (14:10 ex-Hythe)
- Nos. 5 and 2 approach Dymchurch (14:30 ex-Hythe)
- "Whillan Beck" and locos 4 and 9 triple head out of Dymchurch (14:40 ex-New Romney)
- "Hercules" pilots "Hurricane" into Dymchurch (14:40 ex-Dungeness)
- "Northern Chief" and "Samson" pass "Hercules" on the approaches to Hythe (15:20 ex-Dungeness)

- The 16:35 from Hythe departs. This was the parallel run with locos 2, 5, and 9 on one train, and "Whillan Beck", 6, and 8 on the other. The run is then seen arriving at New Romney
- "Northern Chief" shunts the bar coach around New Romney to move it across into the yard for berthing
- "Whillan Beck", "Samson", and "Hurricane" shunt across New Romney and into the locomotive shed

Hope you enjoy!