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Unknown 2-4-0T plus six coach train

C

carlwebus

Member
Joined
28 Mar 2022
Messages
48
Location
Suffolk
Hi All

Can anybody help me to identify the attached picture.

It was in a job lot I bought fro the local auction.

At first glance I assumed it must be of the Southwold Railway (as there were others in the lot and the loco looked like a Sharpe Stewart).

However a close look at the image indicates that it can't be Southwold: the name plate of loco No. 1 should be 'Southwold' and it certainly isn't that. Also I think the train is much too long for standard Southwold?

And i do not recognise the location.
 

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  • No.1 and 6 coach train.jpg
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RailUK Forums

Narrowgauge725

Narrowgauge725

Member
Joined
1 Nov 2021
Messages
305
Location
Berwick
Now I thought I would try AI and this is the result Finpiclocation.com

The locomotive is clearly identifiable as 'Gazelle', a unique engine that served as No. 1 on the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Light Railway (S&MLR). The train consists of ex-LCC horse tramcars, which were a distinctive feature of this specific railway. Kinnerley was the headquarters and main engine shed of the S&MLR, and the background shed matches historical descriptions of the site.Kinnerley Junction.png
Click to expand...
 
G

Gloster

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4 Sep 2020
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12,944
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Up the creek
Rother Valley Railway (later Kent & East Sussex) Hawthorn Leslie loco of 1900. A copy of the photo is marked Bucknall Collection/Ian Allan Library.
 
G

Gloster

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Up the creek
To add to #3. The loco was Hawthorn Leslie 2420 of 1899 and named Tenterden. I think that the location is Rolvenden.
 
N

norbitonflyer

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24 Mar 2020
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SW London
Gloster said:
To add to #3. The loco was Hawthorn Leslie 2420 of 1899 and named Tenterden. I think that the location is Rolvenden.
Click to expand...
I was just about to say that the last three letters of the nameplate, looked like .....DEN, so perhaps Rolvenden or Tenterden
 
C

carlwebus

Member
Joined
28 Mar 2022
Messages
48
Location
Suffolk
Hi All

Now that I have been told that the loco is Tenterden I can actually make that out on the image!

AI is plainly wrong - as it often is. I 'tested' AI on an image of two B1 4-6-0s double heading a main line train. One of them was clearly Pronghorn but AI said they were K1s and 'parked' in a siding!

Many thanks for your responses.

SOLVED!
 
M

Martyr

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18 May 2026
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8
Location
Penydarren
That photo appears in the book 'The Colonel Stephens Railways: A Pictorial Survey' by John Scott Morgan, published by David & Charles in 1978.

The caption confirms the details given above and states the location is Rolvenden Yard in 1900 shortly before the opening of the line. In the background is the early locomotive shed.
 
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Rescars

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25 May 2021
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2,521
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Surrey
Martyr said:
That photo appears in the book 'The Colonel Stephens Railways: A Pictorial Survey' by John Scott Morgan, published by David & Charles in 1978.

The caption confirms the details given above and states the location is Rolvenden Yard in 1900 shortly before the opening of the line. In the background is the early locomotive shed.
Click to expand...
Got to be an early photo. Everything looking very pristine, especially for a Col Stephens line!
 
Kentish RYS

Kentish RYS

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Kent
Rescars said:
Got to be an early photo. Everything looking very pristine, especially for a Col Stephens line!
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Also the coaches, the original 4 wheelers* were turned into Bogie coaches fairly early. I don't have my KESR History book to hand but Wikipedia says 1906 which sounds about right.

*while these weren't standard non-corridor compartment coaches, I think being more open with the intention of what would be called in more recent times Paytrain/Conductor Guard Working for Minor Stations, or maybe just ticket checks (again book not to hand) it continues to show how rubbish LLM AIs are in thinking these were tramcars (Large Language Model Artificial Intelligences are fancy predictive text machines and I think being implemented in silly places, but that is a tangent). Also the Criggion Branch only ran one tramcar as a coach anyway
 
B

Bodiam

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8 Jul 2025
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Kent, UK
Rescars said:
Got to be an early photo. Everything looking very pristine, especially for a Col Stephens line!
Click to expand...
I think that was pretty much the entire passenger stock at opening. There were two 240T locos. The shed was later rebuilt with a pitched roof. Confusingly the station was originally named Tenterden. It became Rolvenden when the line was extended up the hill to Tenterden Town.
 
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Rescars

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Surrey
In Britain's Light Railways, Martin Smith writes that the loco in the picture was one of a pair delivered new from Hawthorne Leslie for the opening of the Rother Valley Railway. No1 Tenterden never strayed from the RVR/KESR, but No2 Northiam roamed more widely over the Col Stephens empire (though not the S&M - AI please note!) before ending up being immortalised as Gladstone in the classic comedy "Oh! Mr Porter".
 
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