After spending several years out of service, the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway’s Pacific locomotive No. 10 Doctor Syn will soon be back hauling trains on the line.

Doctor Syn will make its debut after a long overhaul on Sunday, 2nd April, when it will haul a special service.

The last time that Doctor Syn ran on the line was in 2018, since when it has been in a queue behind Green Goddess waiting for its turn in the overhaul shop.

Doctor Syn was built in 1931 by the Yorkshire Engine Co. and is one of the railway’s two Canadian Pacific-style locomotives, the other being Winston Churchill which was also built by the Yorkshire Engine Co.

Green Goddess had been undergoing repairs after being involved in an accident, but once they had been completed, in June 2019 Doctor Syn entered the overhaul shop for an intermediate overhaul.

When it was first built, Doctor Syn was named Black Prince, but shortly after the war, it was renamed when the railway’s No. 9 was re-named Winston Churchill for obvious patriotic reasons and as it was to be displayed at an exhibition in Canada.

The name Doctor Syn was chosen as he was a local fictional hero of smuggling stories, and Captain John Edwards Presgrave Howey, who was a millionaire racing driver and one of the line’s founders, decided that Doctor Syn should command a wider audience.

For further information about Doctor Syn go to https://www.rhdr.org.uk/locomotives/doctor-syn/

Paul Trotter, Engineering Manager, said “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.”

Operations Manager, Phil Brown, said “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.”