The Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway

 

This unique line was built in 1905 for the transportation of the raw materials required for the manufacture of paper and, of course, the finished product.

The line which is built to a gauge of 2′ 6″, continues to use the steam engines and rolling stock that were supplied to operate the railway in its working life prior to preservation in 1969.

How many other railways can claim that they operate the original engines on part of the original line with original rolling stock? The staff are not original but are all volunteers and new members are always welcome.

Wherever you see orange text this is a shortcut to another part of the website or other media, for example, to visit the Away Sales Events page click on the orange text. There are also buttons which take you directly to the page shown.

To find out what’s happening this week see the Latest News section on the right of this page or subscribe to our newsletter.

Check out our series of very short videos showing you ‘What to expect…’ 

Please note that our postcode for Sat. Nav. users is  ME10 2XD – click here for directions to Sittingbourne Viaduct station. The car park’s what3words address is: format.fits.trains

Group travel and private hire can be arranged in advance, follow the shortcuts or email info@sklr.net or call 01795 424899.

We will try to run to the timetable, on the days shown and use steam locomotives but reserve the right to change these for operational reasons, without notice.

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Trains are running on Sunday, 1-4pm

We’re back to the Green Timetable for the next three weeks, ahead of Wild West Weekend and the School Summer Holidays Timetable.

Trains depart Sittingbourne Viaduct station at 1pm, 2pm, 3pm & 4pm.

Trains depart Kemsley Down station at 1.35pm, 2.35pm, 3.35pm & 4.45pm.

The journey takes 15 minutes. Both our stations are wheelchair accessible but some parts of Kemsley Down station are not. We have accessible toilets at both stations.

Take time to chill-out after a really busy week, enjoy the short steam train ride to Kemsley Down, behind the first locomotive that operated the line in 1905.

This is an industrial steam railway so you will carried over the industrial outskirts of Sittingbourne and Milton Regis on the century-old Milton Regis Viaduct, then through Milton Creek Country Park and under the Swale Way road bridge before crossing the marshes into Kemsley Paper Mill, where Kemsley Down station is located.

Kemsley Down is a working site, we are currently working on ‘Melior’, ‘Dougal’ and ‘Superb’ in the engine shed and our track gang often work Sundays so you may see them on the lineside or at Kemsley Down.

The air-conditioned Footplate Café, railway shop, museum, picnic area, wildlife area, museum walk and garden railway can all be found here. The garden railway is only operational when there are enough volunteers. We have a crate of outdoor games for fair weather days, if you can’t find them, please ask in the Footplate Café.

We recommend allowing two hours for your visit, this will give you plenty of time to look around, have a drink and maybe venture out onto the King Charles III England Coastal Path (not suitable for wheelchairs or buggies) and look across to the Isle of Sheppey and Little Murston Nature Reserve. The marshes on either side of the Railway are freshwater and saltwater which attracts different birds and other wildlife, Milton Creek is on the saltwater side.

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Tickets

You don’t need to book in advance as there will be plenty of tickets available on the day, at the ticket office at Sittingbourne Viaduct.

2026 Return fares

• £10 for adults
• £5 for children (3-15)
• Infants aged under 3 travel free
• £9 for senior citizens
• £27 for families (2 adults and 4 children)
• Other fares available

If you’d prefer to buy in advance, that can be done below. Advanced tickets are purchased through TicketSource so an additional booking fee is added to the purchase. Advanced bookings close at 5pm the day before travel. Only 20 tickets are allocated for pre-booking, there are many more seats available on the day.

 

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Future events (click on the images to jump to that page)

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We are currently running these fundraising campaigns:

• Let’s put the B back in Superb. – we are fundraising to repair and reinstall Superb’s boiler
• Milton Regis Viaduct Appeal – we are fundraising to pay for the maintenance of the Viaduct during Winter 2025/26. This costs the Railway £25,000 every two years and comes from fares, sales and catering and this fund-raising appeal
• the SOS Campaign is raising money to improve facilities at Sittingbourne Viaduct station – we are now raising money for a new platform
• the Alpha Fund to raise money to cosmetically restore Alpha ahead of full restoration.

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We are working with Ideas Test, who are funding our Writer In Residence, for more information click on the logo.

We have received £26,500 from the Government’s #HereForCulture fund to improve Sittingbourne Viaduct station – find out more here.

June 2026 at Sittingbourne's Steam Railway

June 2026 at Sittingbourne's Steam Railway