Passenger services were infrequent and slow. The journey took 40 minutes to go the whole length and there were ten return journeys daily. The railway was worked with old engines and ancient carriages always blackened by soot from the journey through the tunnel. All carriages were open and all trains were a mix of passenger and freight. One can only imagine how uncomfortable that journey would have been, especially through the tunnel at St. Stephens. This tunnel, at Tyler Hill was a very small bore and all the engines had to be modified with short funnels and lowered driver cabs. The passenger and goods rolling stock, too, had to be specially built to cope with this tunnel. It was said goods trains tended to slow down for their crews to check pheasant traps in the woods and to pick mushrooms in the fields.
Some years after regular services had begun in 1830 the original owners, the Canterbury & Whitstable Railway Company, made numerous attempts to lease the line to another operator. It was not until September 1844 that the South Eastern Railway, which reached Canterbury from the west in 1846, took on working the line eventually absorbing the CWR by an Act of August 1853. The branch was relaid with heavier rail and more powerful locomotives meant that the stationary engines could be dispensed with. Journey time was about now 20 minutes with no stops, although halts at South Street, Tankerton and Tyler Hill were opened later on.
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Nov 2005