Kent’s award-winning Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway (SKLR) has announced details of its upcoming ‘Steam, Diesel & Electric Gala Weekend’ on September 26 and 27.

The events will feature an intensive timetable of train rides, hauled by a variety of motive power. It will also include a number of ‘firsts’.

Kerr, Stuart ‘Brazil’ class 0-4-2ST Melior (W/No. 4219) will appear at a gala for the first time
since it completed its ten-yearly overhaul and returned to traffic with a new boiler on 23 August. The locomotive was built in 1924.

The other steam locomotive in action at the weekend will be another ‘Brazil’ – Premier (W/No. 886 of 1905), which recently visited the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s September gala.

The two locos will work as individuals on both passenger and mixed train services, and will pair up at the end of each of the two days to double-head the 17:05 for Kemsley Down.

Also in action will be ex-RNAD Hunslet 4wDM W/No. 2266 of 1940, which arrived at the SKLR earlier this year after three of the Railway’s volunteers bought it. The loco will work the 11:20 on each morning, which will depart from Kemsley Down to Sittingbourne Viaduct and will carry passengers in the ex-Chattenden & Upnor Railway coaches. It will also haul a demonstration freight train from Sittingbourne on both afternoons.

The line’s recently acquired Clayton 4wBE Tank II (W/No. B0483 of 1976) will also be hauling trains at the gala. It is a battery-electric loco which is similar to the Bowaters Railway’s original English Electric 4wBE The Tank, which was scrapped in 1969 before it had the chance to enter preservation. The loco will haul the 11:40 freight train from Kemsley Down each day, which will include the clamshell wagons that arrived from the Ministry of Defence site at Shoeburyness. It will then return from Sittingbourne with the 12:55 passenger train.

Hudson-Hunslet 4wDM Victor (W/No. 4182 of 1953) will also be hauling passenger trains at the gala, and the Fuller family’s Aveling & Porter 8-ton roller Rhoda will be in steam at Kemsley Down.

More attractions will be announced in the run-up to the event.

Tickets for the gala cost £10 for an Adult Return, £5 for a Child (3-15) Return, £15 for an Adult Rover and £10 for a Child Rover. Information and tickets are available on the SKLR’s website.