It is too long since I last posted. I thought I would post pre-budget, in expectation of drastic measures rather than potentially gloomily post budget.


We continue to be extremely busy which is reassuring. We have now sold out of Steam Engine Driving Experience Days and Signal Box Experience Days, with Pullman bookings still coming in thick and fast. It seems surprising with all the economic gloom and despair that our more expensive offerings continue to sell well. We are also experiencing a 10%+ uplift in visitor numbers. At long last folk have realised what an excellent value for money day out a trip on the K&ESR is.

We have recently drafted our timetable for 2011. I will leave the details until later, but we plan a long way in advance, which enables us to get our rolling stock supply correct, as near as we can. If only we could plan the weather!

We have recently welcomed a class 14 diesel locomotive to K&ESR. I look forward to seeing that out and about with our class 33 diesel on engineering trains etc. Our Diesel Gala and Bus Rally this weekend should be great.

Our Carriage & Wagon Shed Extension Appeal has just been launched with our Trustees showing their commitment to the project to start the appeal. We have therefore reached just under £1000 in the first week. £200,000 is our target so we have a long way to go and some of the preparatory work has already been completed by our volunteers.

Last week saw a German TV crew here filming for a ZDF children’s adventure show. It is great news that we can get K&ESR on TV in other European Countries. I am looking forward to seeing K&ESR on the new ITV series “Downton Abbey” in the autumn.

“Save The Best Til Last”- The best news of all is that our Refreshment Rooms at Tenterden have been awarded a 5 Star Clean Food Award – the only (at the time of writing) restaurant in Tenterden to achieve this. Our catering team have worked extremely hard to reach this standard. We are all very proud of them.