the plaque unveiled at the SNBR 21st birthday event by the Mayor of Swanley.
a Brief History of the line
The Swanley Narrow Gauge railway open as a private venture in 1986. This ran over half the
present route, using 1 engine in a push pull system. The initial operators had massive plans, including to build a big boy steam engine. The original track design also included a 30' turntable to be located between the signal box
and the carriage shed. funds and other better ideas, like putting the turn table at the end of the station meant this turn table was never built. The big boy plan never proceeded either.
In 1987 the railway came under council
control and was renamed Swanley New Barn Railway (the park was then called New Barn Park).
By the end of 1987 the railway was changing control into the present operators the
Swanley New Barn Railway Society after major work persuading the council from member number 1 Chris Johnson and other founder members.
In 1987 the railway was completed as a circuit with a 3
platform terminus one end and a Halt the other (adjacent to the main car park). The railway
has improved every subsequent year to point that the early pioneers may well forget how
far the railway and society have come along. With one of the largest engine and carriage
fleets in 7 1/4" gauge and more on the way.
Other bits of History and odd facts!
The first engine on the line was Redrum (named in 1998), the engine that has clocked up the most
passenger miles is Tulyar. Only County of kent and Tulyar have clocked up 10,000 miles in 10 years
which for the 7 1/4" gauge is quite a lot.
The steam engine with the most SNBR miles is Montezuma which recently over took the Romulus.
The SNBR used to have a double slip in operation in the Lakeside station area, which was rare for a 7 1/4" railway,
but this was removed when the station area was relayed in steel track, and is now in place outside the locoshed, replacing the 12' turntable which was in operations.
The SNBR is 0.559 miles long from the turn table pivot at Lakeside back to the turn table pivot
Until 1997 no SNBR owned engine had been away on a visit to another railway, the first being the Romulus to Cramec.
Except the Kestrel, all the SNBR Mardyke diesels carry a number of a present working engine although 47485 is now a class 57 but is still in use,
D7076 is a preserved Hymek based at East Lancs, D9015 is a preserved Deltic (presently painted blue), and the SNCF is preserved somewhere in France and is part the national collection. The Hymek is the most repainted engine in the SNBR history, with now 6 repaints since 1989.
