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Author
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Topic: The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway/Golden Jubilee
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Steve Klare
Film Guy
Posts: 7016
From: Long Island, NY, USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted November 11, 2008 09:34 PM
“Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway”
“Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Golden Jubilee”
(Both 1x200’, Color, Derann Film Services)
The Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway is kind of special. It straddles the division between “Model Railways” and “Real Railways”. The locomotives are large scale miniatures of pretty substantial standard gauge power, so it is arguably an immense model railroad. On the other hand it is licensed by the British Ministry of Transport to haul passengers and does an honest day’s work bringing children to school and adults to shopping and jobs. It has also been used to haul freight and even a mobile anti-aircraft gun during WWII. It is therefore legally a true railroad, and at 15” gauge is often cited as the narrowest narrow gauge railroad in the world.
There is a unique personality here. This is not a clanky little tramway rumbling stacks of boards around a lumber yard, but a little world of beautifully liveried steam engines hauling long, fast passenger trains on a double track mainline. This is a line built for speed, reflecting the race car driver that started it. The fact that the trains themselves stand roughly shoulder height just adds to the aura. Yes, it is tiny, but it just doesn’t seem to realize it.
There have been quite a few Super-8 films about the RH&D, and little wonder since it is pretty photogenic. The Walton RH&D is reviewed elsewhere here, so we’ll take a look at the Derann offerings “Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Golden Jubilee” and “Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway”.
These 200 footers are two halves of a Movietone film made of the RH&D in 1976.
“Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway” introduces us to the line and shows a sequence of stills while the narrator briefly describes the line’s origins and early years. We then get to see the engines being prepared for the day’s run. Here we find an example of how filmmakers and other journalists sometimes hang themselves by not doing their homework. They describe both the 4-6-2 and 4-8-2 locomotives as being “Pacific Class”, when the 4-8-2 wheel arrangement is called the “Mountain Class” (the only instance of this class ever operating in the UK, actually). Earth shattering? Of course not, but they would have served themselves well if they had most anybody at the railroad review the script before they recorded the narration. Wading too deep in someone else’s jargon is an excellent way of drowning in it. This reel contains a nice sequence of the trains operating on the mainline at speed choreographed to music. (It works on the screen better than it sounds here.)
“Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Golden Jubilee” is the second half dealing with the line’s 50th anniversary celebration, and the restoration to service of the line’s original engine as part of the celebration. A commemorative postal cancellation was done for the day and we get to go into the gift shop to see one issued. If we are alert and look on the shelves behind the clerk, we also see a nice stack of Super-8 Kodachrome 40 cartridges awaiting purchase (…those were the days!). They then show a sequence of the mobile artillery unit on patrol during WWII. It is an intriguing sight: a tiny armored train packing a couple of big guns and several serious looking fighting men in doughboy helmets. I kind of wonder what it did that couldn’t have been done more flexibly and less vulnerably to aerial attack with a truck or a Jeep, but it is an interesting idea and by far the fiercest looking miniature train I've ever seen. We then see Newsreel footage of the 20th anniversary and post-war reopening of the line as hosted by our old friends Laurel and Hardy. The Boys are starting to get on in years and are no longer in shape to push a piano up even a short flight of stairs, but they are still up to some classic clowning, with their overly-complicated handshake with the Mayor of Hythe and Stan scaring Ollie with the train’s whistle . The film ends with the senior driver of the line taking his train out for a jubilee run and concludes with the engine being put in the shed for the night.
Both reels have pretty good color, sometimes very good. Sequences out in bright sun are occasionally a little washed out looking, but not so much to be bothersome. The sound is very good.
“Jubilee” is still available from Derann, but unfortunately “Railway’s” negative was damaged years ago and prints are somewhat rare. After I bought “Jubilee” I went on a quest to find the other half, and it took some doing. Tim Christian kept a sharp eye out and found one for sale on the Isle of Wight, bought it, sent it to our friends in County Durham and my Mom brought it home with her after a visit to England. It therefore required the cooperation of five people in two countries to get me this film!
My original idea was to splice the halves and put them on a 400 foot reel, but I found the framing was so different between the reels that it made sense to keep them separate and use two projectors when I wanted to see them together.
Someday I will go to England and see this line for myself. At least in the meantime I have these two excellent reels to enjoy it from afar.
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All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...
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