Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway Supporters AssociationArmoured Train
In 1940 the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway was taken over by the war department during World War II. It was also used by the Department of Petroleum Warfare in the construction of PLUTO (“Pipe Line Under The Ocean”) intended to supply fuel to the Allied forces after the D-Day Normandy landings.
New Romney station was appointed for the production of the 140 cm diameter pipes. The pipes were loaded on flat wagons and transported by rail to Dungeness for further assembling.
The line delivered troops along the coast and a miniature armoured train was used on the line to see off enemy aircraft targeting the area. The RH&DR armoured train, which comprised of No.5 Hercules in between two armoured wagons was armed with Lewis guns and Boys anti-tank guns and was credited with shooting down three German planes.
Below is footage from on the Imperial War Museums website. The reel is dated 23/09/1940.
Description: Unedited silent shots of an armoured train manned by a battalion from the Somerset Light Infantry (SOMLI) patrolling a stretch of the 15-inch guage railway line that runs from Hythe across the Romney Marshes to Dungeness. The crew consists of seven men, including the driver, and the armament consists of four First World War-vintage .303 Lewis Guns and two Boyes .5 inch anti-tank rifles.
1990 Replica Armoured Wagon
In 1990, a replica armoured wagon was created by cladding No.5 Hercules and wagon frame in wood sheeting to imitate armour plating. Photos below courtesy of the RH&DRSA Heritage Group Collection.
2025/2026 Armoured Wagon Project
Back in 2018, RH&DRA started on a project to recreate the WWII armoured wagon, as the 1990’s wooden replica was getting into a very sorry state, as it was only made of plywood.
The wagon was sent to Armoured Engineering in Old Romney, and the mock-up wooden loco subsequently scrapped (it was not even good enough for loco lighting wood!). Using contemporary photographs and measurements of the surviving frame, they produced a set of drawings of the wagon in its original form (ex Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway) and of it in its armoured war-time guise.
After stripping off the 1990 vintage wooden body and shot blasting the frames, two issues arose.
The first was that during subsequent conversion to a carriage in 1947, the ends of the frames had been cut off and re-attached upside down to lengthen the vehicle slightly.
Secondly, and more serious, was the fact that that conversion had not been done very well, and that subsequent repairs (probably following damage in the Palmarsh accident) had similarly been carried out in a very shoddy manner. These had essentially created moisture traps, which had hastened the rusting and corrosion of the frame – in the opinion of all parties this rendered the frame unsuitable for use in any replica. It has since been returned to the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway for display in their museum. The condition of two of the similar surviving frames is also in some doubt (the pole wagon and the water wagon). The third was converted a while back into the digger transporter wagon and has been much modified.
Then along came Covid and the whole thing moved very much onto the back burner. At the beginning of 2022 it was briefly discussed by Trustees but given the uncertain economic climate and the war in Ukraine, it was felt that it was not the time to pursue it.
In 2025 the RH&DRSA picked up the project and applied to The Heritage Fund for a grant to recreate the armoured wagon, this time in metal as opposed to wood. The grant application was approved and works are expected to commence by the end of 2025. Updates on this project can be found here – Armoured Wagon Project.
