The North Kent Area Group was formed in March 2002 aimed at enthusiasts and supporters of the railway living in North Kent and the surrounding area, to support the L&B Trust in it’s efforts to restore, reopen and operate what is possibly the most famous narrow gauge railway in Britain.

A lot is going on in North Devon, and volunteers are working minor miracles, refurbishing the buildings, laying track, repairing and restoring rolling stock, installing signals, and the million-and-one jobs that need to be done in order to keep the line open to passengers, as well as expanding the facilities we are able to offer.

Whilst we are too far away in Kent to give as much help on the ground, as we would perhaps like, we can and do still share in the excitement from afar, as well as doing our bit to help, even from this distance!

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Projects

We are hoping to get a number of projects underway in the near future. In fact, we have already completed our first reconstruction project - Bert Cooper has restored and returned an ex-Woody Bay platform trolley, found in use in a local garage, to almost as-new condition, and it was possibly the first heritage vehicle to return to the Lynton and Barnstaple, so well done Bert!

Following on from his sucess with that project, Bert has been working on the 200 or so wooden seat slats from the ex-Thorpe Park coaches, which he brought back from Devon (the slats, not the coaches!) to be stripped of the old varnish, stained and two coats of varnish applied.

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News & Events

The group is currently building a simple OO9 layout based on Woody Bay to take to exhibitions - if you have any spare rolling stock, buildings or scenery that we might be able to utilise, please bring them along with you, or contact a committee member directly. We are particularly interested in a model of the station building itself.

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More Information

Group Contact - Bert Cooper, Tel: 01322 270584
Web Page - Martyn de Young, Tel: 01732 845934