Rail 200: Queenborough Station’s Birthday

August 7, 2025
Posted by Vicky Wright on

19th July 2025

Queenborough Station & Castle Connections

On Saturday 19th July, we came together for a day of activities and celebration to mark Rail 200 (the 200th anniversary of passenger rail travel) and Queenborough Station’s 165th Birthday!

Cycle Recycle

With thanks to Swale Borough Council for organising Cycle Recycle, there were early queues for the 10am bike sale, with all 30 bikes being sold in under 35 minutes! It is wonderful to see such a high demand for sustainable active travel in the area. The next Cycle Recycle is planned for Sittingbourne in September. Keep your eyes peeled on their facebook page for more details.

Queenborough Town Council ran a FREE Raffle

Councillor Telford and Councillor Mawhinney brought the train set magic to the day with a wonderful £50 Hornby train set available to win for all children and families present.

With raffle announcements following cake celebrations, the winner was over the moon, with hours of train set play to unfold!

Southeastern had decked the halls….!

The incredible Southeastern Team with station manager Kirstin, ticket officer Maryjane and SE staff Sophie and Juliet, decorated the booking hall with bunting, artwork and a phenomenal cardboard train (with ball pool for the children). Maryjane welcomed families with haribo and they made it a truly special and unique day in the life of the station!

The Art Workshops: Creative 1825 train carriage joy!

Throughout the morning children created some beautiful train carriage artwork, with open-top carriage templates, similar to those present for the first passenger train journey on 27th September 1825. There were some excellent designs, well done to all the children involved in making the train carriage art.

If your child decorated a train carriage and left it for the competition judging later in the day. All designs are being carefully looked after in the Station Booking Office and can be collected during booking office hours.

The hands of many children cutting our and colouring-in railway carriages on a table full of multi-coloured colouring-pens
A decorated cut-out train carriage with passengers and "1825" on its side.
A child adds finishing touches to the decoration of their train carriage.
A young person holding their decorated train-carriage poses for a picture outside inside Queenborough station booking hall. A parent stands behind them. There are hand made birthday cards on the walls.
A young person holding their decorated train-carriage and passengers poses for a picture outside Queenborough station
Two decorated railway carriages with passengers pinned to the wall in Queenborough station's ticket office.
A winning decorated rail carriage and passengers, with the prize of a "Ticket to Ride - London" board game
A winning decorated rail carriage and passengers, with the prize of a rail themed trading card game

The Rail 200 Community Procession & Birthday Cake Celebrations

Juggling Amber thunderstorm warnings, the run up to the procession was a little touch and go, however accompanied by the bewitching tunes from The Big Fish Band and with a little luck from the weather, the procession went ahead as planned at 12 noon. Led by “The Greatest Showman” and Procession Lead Matthew Fraser (from Southeastern) and joined by Lucky Moyo accompanying on the African drums we marched around the Green, marking out the big 200.

This was followed by a Birthday Cake Celebration and Sing-a-long. Thank you to Kirstin John, Station Manager for the Swale Rail Line from Southeastern for creating such an incredible, with a photo of Queenborough, with extra special icing from Sophie (Southeastern)

Drumming Workshops with Lucky Moyo

In the afternoon we had two African Drumming workshops with musician Lucky Moyo. They were transfixing, with participants learning about the essence and origin of African drumming, the hidden nuances and ways to access to beat and follow your instincts. It was a phenommenal workshop enjoyed by all.

A group of people seated in a semi-circle playing African drums in a hall.
Three people seated in a hall playing African drums
Two people seated in a hall playing African drums

The Big Fish Queenborough History & Storytelling Tour

In parallel at 2pm, we also had the very special Big Fish History Tour kicking off. Again with thanks to the weather gods, the rain stayed away with sunshine breaking through. There were sea shanties, a special Railway song created by Geoff and some gruesome and transfixing secrets revealed. Participant David Hopper said “I was fascinating learning about Nelson and many other hidden facts about Queenborough. Who knew the place held so much history? It is a special place.”

Thank you to the Big Fish Arts for bringing it to life.

Dr. Bike & Sheppey Community Cycle Club

We also had the Sheppey Cycle Club present in the afternoon, based outside Castle Connections with Dr. Bike. There was a steady flow of cyclists through the afternoon all bringing their bikes for fine tuning and learning some cycle maintenance tips from Dave the mechanic.

Kent CRP Officers Vicky and Gary, volunteers Linda, a rail enthusiast and volunteer Dominic pose for a picture in Catle Connections with Kevin McKenna MP

Capturing the Day

We were very lucky to have a number of photographers and videographers present on the day to capture the celebrations. With thanks to John Jones, John Nurden and Dominic Noades. Since the event John Jones created this wonderful video:

Supported By

With thanks for financial support and support-in-kind from Queenborough Town Council, Swale Borough Council and Sheerness Town Council. Thank you for making this such a special community event.

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