Cab Ride - Paddock Wood to Strood

I grew up in Paddock Wood and travelled this line hundreds of times. I still live in Maidstone and regularly get stuck at one of the barrier crossings, usually East Farleigh! Charles Dickens loved the scenery along this line. Sometimes if he had a business meeting, he would ask the other person to meet him at Paddock Wood so they could talk as they travelled this line, taking in the scenery.

The journey takes you past my childhood home. Visible in a couple of frames. The bridge at 26:51 has been unused for decades and is unofficially part of somebody's garden now. We had a den in the trees nearby as kids!

Nicely done, enjoyed the scenery along the way..thanks for sharing, 😊

Snodland was the last station my other half worked at before he got medically retired

Happy times, thank-you. This puts me in mind of Geoff Burches videos recounting the over-laded cement trains from Snodland through Guildford to beyond.

Another fine ride on the train. Been over a month since I viewed on. Again, thank you for today’s ride! Cheers mates.! 🇬🇧👍🙂🇺🇸

Great video. Lived around the area all my life and frequently crossed at Beltring, Yalding, Wateringbury, Teston, East Farleigh. I worked at the factory at Yalding and remember when they took the old gates away and left it open. We all thought they were mad. Someone did get hit there so they installed half barriers. Should have been full barriers. Our company took over the old station building at Yalding and turned it into a shop until the site closed. Happy days.

Love the video and thanks for sharing. Empty platforms unusual to see. That shaking noise would do my head in😂 I use to live at Wateringbury and travel by train to London and back every day. Gorgeous picturesque little station, especially at 7am in the morning, only 1 or 2 other passengers around. With the river running along side the London bound platform waiting for my ride, I would always enjoy soaking up the sights and sounds of the wildlife going about their morning, sometimes mist rising off the river, swans paddling, ducks quacking, great feeling too start the day..oops! Here comes my branch line train🚉😂

thank you great ride paul in orpington

Good to see a new area (to me), thanks. An impressive signal box at Maidstone West presumably not being used to its original capability.

I fairly new to your channel, but enjoy watching 😊

Fascinating – thank you. A surprising number of stations with staggered platforms.

Thanks for another tamper ride, sir. I enjoyed seeing new (to me) third rail territory while I sipped my morning coffee. Cheers from Wisconsin!

Nice trip alongside the River Medway. Thank you.

😅As a retired Gillingham driver(8 years now),not much change on route, except New Hythe paper mill totally demolished on up side.Bet that's more industrial storage and housing.Thanks for posting brother

Very good as always

Nice video. Thanks a lot.

Absolutely perfect and the beautiful Kent countryside

There are couple of errors. London Road (Maidstone West) isn't a tunnel. It is a bridge and as such is not mentioned in the Sectional Appendix. 'NK' signal prefix in the Strood area is actually controlled from the East Kent Signalling Centre at Gillingham. Control passed to the East Kent Signalling Centre in 2016, when the signal boxes of Rochester, Gillingham Rainham and Sittingbourne closed but without any alteration to the signal prefix or signalling on the ground. The East Kent Signalling Centre also controls the line as far as Higham where the North Kent Workstations of Ashford IECC take over. This too is reflected in the Sectional Appendix. Finally one thing that was not stated in the video is that you were on the Down line as far as Maidstone West signal box and at that point the Down line became the Up Line

My dad was one of the signal men at cuxton and Rochester until he died at work in 1984