Locomotive Doctor Syn returns to the tracks
On Sunday 2nd April, Locomotive No. 10 will be back on the tracks at Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway this Spring
Free your diaries, a much missed member of the fleet returns to Kent after spending a few years out of service, as Doctor Syn is welcomed back following a recent overhaul.
On Sunday 2nd April, Locomotive No. 10 will be back on the tracks at Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway this Spring.
Doctor Syn was last seen on the line in 2018 and has been patiently waiting in the engineering queue behind Green Goddess who was in the overhaul shop for accident damage repairs. Once Green Goddess was repaired, loco.10 took her turn in June 2019 for an intermediate overhaul.
“The overhaul was held up by the boiler when cracks were found around the clack bosses, but upon the correct size ones being found, it turned out that this size was no longer in production. These were in addition to the normal boiler repairs that were carried out.,” says Paul Trotter, Engineering Manager
Doctor Syn is one of the railway's two Canadian Pacific-style locomotives, built in 1931 by the Yorkshire Engine Co., the other being Winston Churchill and has an identical history of design and build.
Named Black Prince on delivery, Number 10 changed name shortly after the war when Number 9 was re-named Winston Churchill (for obvious patriotic reasons and for display at an exhibition in Canada) and Howey knew that the line could not be without a Doctor Syn (a local fictional hero of smuggling stories).
Operations Manager, Phil Brown, says: “After being out of traffic since 2018, it is great to see Doctor Syn return. A favourite amongst visitors there is a strong historical link with the Romney Marsh in the form of the books by Russell Thorndyke. Having the loco back in traffic will ensure that the ‘Day of Syn’ will be of greater importance. The overhaul hasn’t been the easiest project with issues identified with the boiler and the pandemic causing rather slow progress, but as usual, the loco has been returned from overhaul in the normal high Romney standard.”
For more info visit: https://www.rhdr.org.uk/locomotives/doctor-syn/
