Screen Archive South East is a public sector moving image archive serving the South East of England. The archive's collections of magic lantern slides, films, videos and associated materials capture the many varied aspects of life, work and creativity from the early days of screen history to the present day and serve as a rich and invaluable historical resource.
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Oxted, Bowaters & Hayling Island Railways
There's plenty of steam action in this amazing quadruple bill featuring Kent's farewell to steam, a railway with combustion issues and rides on the late lamented Hayling Billy
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Overview
This film, with its quirky commentary, journeys along East Surrey's Oxted line, before showing the February 1962's Kentish Venturer Railtour commemorating the end of steam running in Kent. This is followed by a visit to the Bowaters Paper Railway, where all the narrow gauge locomotives have spark-arrestor chimneys - for obvious reasons when working in a paper mill. Finally, we see Marsh's A1X Terriers at work on the Hayling Island branch line prior to its closure in 1963.
Though much that is seen in this quadruple bill has long disappeared from the modern railway - particularly when speaking of atmosphere and character - many of the locomotives featured have since been preserved and are running on numerous heritage railways across the country - to this very day.
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