Monday, December 05, 2016

The Rye and Camber Tramway



This was one of the many idiosyncratic lines around the country owned by Colonel Stephens.

The blurb for this film on Youtube gives its history:
The line was built to convey golfers to the Rye Golf Club and ran from Rye station to the golf club. 
In 1908 the first extension to Camber Sands station was opened and the intermediate station renamed "Golf Links". Camber terminal was moved to a more accessible site and a tea hut was opened at the end of summer 1938, but this only used for a few months as the war intervened the next year. 
Although initially quite successful, increasing competition from automobile and bus transport eventually caused the tramway to enter a gradual economic decline, as was the case with many small railways. 
Passenger service was ended at the outbreak of World War II but it was extensively used by the Government to convey parts for the P.L.U.T.O. (Pipe Line Under The Ocean) project for which a special siding leading to a new pier near Golf Links Station was constructed by Canadian troops. 
The line was in such a run-down a condition by the end of the war that it was deemed irrecoverable and was sold for scrap in 1947. The Rye & Camber Tramways Co. Ltd was liquidated in February 1949
Trivia fans may be interested to know that the Colonel's first names were Holman Fred.

As his father was the artist Frederic George Stephens, one of the original members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he must have been named after Holman Hunt.

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