H. F. Stephens


Colonel Holman Fred Stephens was a British light railway civil engineer and manager. He was engaged in engineering and building, and later managing, 16 light railways in England and Wales.

Biography

Stephens was the son of Frederic George Stephens, Pre-Raphaelite artist and art critic, and his wife the artist Rebecca Clara. He was named after his father's friend and former tutor, the painter Holman Hunt, although the two later fell out. He was a great nephew of the naturalist, explorer and biologist, Charles Darwin.
Stephens was apprenticed in the workshops of the Metropolitan Railway in 1881. He was an assistant engineer during the building of the Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway, which opened in 1892. In 1894 he became an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, which allowed him to design and build railways in his own right.
He immediately set about his lifetime's project of operating light railways for rural areas, mostly planned and built under the 1896 Light Railways Act. His first two railways, the Rye and Camber Tramway and the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway, predated this, but he built the first railway under the Act, the Rother Valley Railway.
The railways were planned, and some later run, from an office at 23 Salford Terrace in Tonbridge, Kent, which Stephens had rented in 1900 and purchased in 1927.
Many of his railways stayed independent of the larger systems created in the Grouping under the Railways Act 1921.
Stephens had no close relatives and never married. He had few interests outside his railways, his voluntary military service and Liberal Party politics. In 1916, during World War I, Stephens attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Territorial Army with which he had been associated since the 1890s. He continued to support the TA throughout most of the 1920s.
When he died in 1931 aged 62, the management of his railways was taken over by his former "outdoor assistant" and life partner, W. H. Austen, who ran them until they closed or were incorporated into the national system in 1948.
A museum devoted to his life and achievements is at Tenterden Station in Kent.

The railways

There are several books about Col. Stephens's railways. The railways in which Stephens was involved were:
NameYear
opened		Year
closed		Passenger
services
start		Passenger
services
end		GaugeNotes
Ashover Light Railway1924195019251936Built primarily to carry stone
Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway1859199619131953Originally coal-carrying, adapted for passenger traffic by Stephens;
absorbed by Great Western Railway 1923
Cranbrook and Paddock Wood Railway18921961Worked by, and absorbed by the South Eastern Railway in 1900.
Stephen's first assignment following his training. Also known as the Hawkhurst Branch Line
Edge Hill Light Railway19191925nonenoneIronstone-carrying; included a 1 in 6 cable-worked incline; never formally opened
East Kent Light Railway19111980s19161948built to serve the Kent Coalfield;
branch to Richborough; part now a heritage railway
Festiniog Railway1832OpenManaged by Stephens c1923-1931, now a heritage railway
Isle of Wight Central RailwayStephens was Engineer and Locomotive Superintendent for a brief period in 1911.
Kent and East Sussex Railway
and Rother Valley Railway		1900196119001954Now a heritage railway
North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway1925198219251965Originally a china-clay carrier; Stephens engineered its reconstruction and extension; operated by Southern Railway at outset, remaining an independent company until nationalisation
Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway18901966 Built by an independent company but operated by the London and South Western Railway as part of its main line
The branch from Bere Alston to Callington was engineered by Stephens and opened in 1908
section to Gunnislake is still operating
Rye and Camber Tramway18951939Used intermittently by military during World War II and never reopened
Sheppey Light Railway18961950Engineered by Stephens but operated by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway,
which took ownership in 1905
Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway 186619601933Reconstructed from the long-closed Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway in 1911.
Regular passenger services ceased 1933.
Taken over for military use during World War II and remained under military control until closure.
Snailbeach District Railways18771962Lead- and later stone-carrying railway
Welsh Highland Railway19231936Incorporating the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway.
Rebuilt 1997 – 2011 as a heritage line.
West Sussex Railway18971935The "Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway"
Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Railway18971940Extension opened 1907

Other projects

Stephens was involved in many projects that did not come to fruition, 18 of which reached the early, Light Railway Order, stage. Many were extensions to existing railways; one was the 1920s 'Southern Heights Light Railway', a single-track electrified railway from Orpington to Sanderstead.
He was involved in:
The majority of the locomotives were second-hand, but a few were bought new from Hawthorn Leslie and Company including:
RailwayNo.Loco nameHL Works No.Build dateWheelsDisposalBR number
KESR1Tenterden242018992-4-0TScrapped 1941—
KESR2Rolvenden242118992-4-0TScrapped 1941—
KESR4Hecate258719040-8-0Tto SR and BR30949
PDSWJRA. S. Harris19070-6-0Tto SR and BR30756
PDSWJREarl of Mount Edgcumbe19070-6-2Tto SR and BR30757
PDSWJRLord St. Levan19070-6-2Tto SR and BR30758
SMRPyramus19110-6-2Tsold c.1916—
SMRThisbe19110-6-2Tsold c.1916—

None of these has been preserved.