The C&W was the first non-mineral railway built for the purpose of making money. It beat the Stockton line by a few months and that was built for carrying coal. Both lines were built by Stephenson and both were built with rope worked inclines on long stretches. A few years later the Stockton line was rebuilt and most of the steeper inclines were bypassed or eradicated. The C&W sadly did not have the same care and remained to the end almost as built. It was only that locomotives got more powerful that spelt the end of the winding engines. Yes the little SER R and R1 class were used but I have also seen pics of an O class tender engine on the line. The locos that were stationed for use to Whitstable were shedded at Canterbury West and all had cut down fittings, a shorter chimney and dome as well as lowered cab roof, to fit through Tyler Hill Tunnel. The C&W had a few claims to fame, the first season ticket issue for example. It also had two bridges. One out towards Bogshole which was/is a farm occupation bridge and another. This is the important one for historical purpose as it crossed an existing road and was built to allow the passage of vehicles, it was a long time until the first cars so we can assume that they meant horse drawn vehicles. The Stockton line was built on ground level with no really heavy earth works. The next line built was the Liverpool and Manchester and this combined lessons learned from both the C&W and the Stockton line, but the oldest railway bridge in existance is the Causey Arch on the Tanfield railway. This is up north and was built for the conveyance of Coal and, as far as I know, never carried passengers. The Whitstable bridge did. As much as I despise official vandals this bridge really did have to go. It was too small for most vehicles, and created a huge bottleneck arount the town. It must be remembered that theselines were built in the Georgean era, not Victorian, and they were on a very steep learning curve so they built to the sizes that they understood. I think that it is sad that this line has gone as it could have been developed much like the Addiscombe line in Croydon and become a modern Tram way. That would have helped take traffic away from the roads. Sentinel S4.
