Fascinating history of well loved Hastings Miniature Railway attraction

He writes: “From Saturday to Monday the Hastings Miniature Railway will be running special services on its 600-yard track from Rock-a-Nore along the seafront. There will visiting engines and a party on Saturday evening.

Hastings Miniature is one of the oldest 10¼-inch gauge railways in Britain. It was set up by the railway entrepreneur Captain John ‘Jack’ Howey who built the 15-inch gauge Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway in 1927. He also had a great interest in miniature railways and in 1947 he opened a short track at Grosvenor Gardens in West St Leonards.

But there were complaints from local residents, so Howey moved the line to an unused piece of beach at Rock-a-Nore, where it is based today. There he built a station, plus a tunnel where he could store the train. The line opened on 5 June 1948. Initially the track only went to where the lifeboat barrier is today, but by the mid-1950’s it had been extended a hundred yards west, where a mini-station with a turntable was built (its platform still exists). In 1959 the line was extended again, along the beach to a new station at the west end of the boating lake.

After the new fishmarket was built in Rock-a-Nore Road in 1956, the railway was very popular with the fishermen as the train driver would transport them and their newly-caught fish to the market.

The line was taken over in January 2010 by Dan Radcliffe, who runs it today. A big problem in his first year was being forced to close for many months in 2010 and 2011 while the Jerwood Gallery was being built.

Since 2011 Dan has transformed the whole railway service by rebuilding the line and its stations, constructing new sheds, building a turntable and making (from scratch) new engines and carriages. Today Dan has 16 engines, including a replica of the Royal Scot, the first engine to run on the line. The 4-6-0 tender locomotive Royal Scot operated at Hastings from 1948 until the spring of 1975, and is seen in many old photos.

Other well-remembered engines on the Hastings Miniature Railway line were the 1936-built 0-6-0 Firefly, from 1948 until 1984, and the 4-4-2 Hampton Court from 1958 to 1974. Dan has made a working replica of the Firefly. Dan has also restored and now runs the miniature railway in Alexandra Park.

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