Model railway engineering clubs from Ramsgate and Canterbury are behind a special event to be held in Ramsgate on Sunday 7 September, marking the 200th anniversary of Britain’s railways.
Working closely with Ramsgate Tunnels, the event will feature miniature trains and traction engines operating along a stretch of the promenade beside the tourist attraction between 10am and 4pm.
The occasion is supported by Ramsgate Town Council and is being organised by Ramsgate & District Model Engineering Club and Canterbury & District Model Engineering Society. They will be running a ride-on miniature railway outdoors and there will be a free-to-enter model railway exhibition in the tunnels themselves.
Tunnels tours will be available at their usual price. Train rides will cost £1 per person.
Several model railway layouts from other parts of Kent are expected along with a number of specialist traders. The tunnels’ own model railway exhibit will also be on display.
A selection of local-based miniature traction engines and steam lorries is set to join the event and will operate from a car park beside the tunnels.
Kevin Piggott, a committee member of CDMES, said: “The aim of the day is to build interest in model engineering and railways in east Kent. We have been working closely with our counterparts from the Ramsgate club and the town council to create a fun and memorable occasion.
“It seemed highly appropriate this should be alongside Ramsgate Tunnels, which once formed a part of the harbour station that saw so many holidaymakers arrive in the town until its closure 99 years ago.”
Ramsgate Harbour railway station opened in 1863 as part of the Kent Coast Railway company’s extension of its line from Herne Bay. It was ideally placed for the beach but closed in 1926 when the town’s present station was built about a mile away, near St Lawrence.
Ten years later a scaled down electric railway opened in the disused tunnel to connect tourist attractions and shops near the harbour with the rerouted main line at Dumpton Park. This was forced to close after an accident with one of the trains in 1965.
Ramsgate Tunnels is best known for becoming the central section of the town’s network of air raid shelters completed a few months before the Second World War began in September 1939. Reaching underneath several parts of the town, up to 50,000 people could find shelter from German bombing at any time.
Railway Tours
After a short break Railway Tours are also steaming back onto the calendar. Visitors can enjoy a fully guided walk through the entire length of the historic 1863 mainline railway tunnel with, circumstances permitting, the change to venture into the 1936 narrow-gauge railway branch tunnel.
There will be two tours on 7 September, at 11am and 2.30pm.
Deep Tunnel Shelter Explorer Tours will continue to run as normal alongside these tours.
To find out more and to book go to: https://ramsgatetunnels.merlintickets.co.uk/product/SIE000004
