The first railway at Chattenden was a standard gauge line laid by the Royal Engineers in the early 1870s.

This was used to bring building materials from a wharf at Upnor to be used in the construction of the Chattenden Munitions Depot.

[2] According to a report in the issue of "Iron" dated Saturday 29 May 1875: "A detachment of non-commissioned officers and men of the Royal Engineers, commanded by Lieutenant Barker, on Saturday left the School of Military Engineering at Chatham for Upnor, where they will be quartered for some time, as they are to be employed to lay down lines of rails to connect forts on the Thames and Medway with the new powder magazines to be constructed at Chattenden Roughs, a few miles from the old magazines at Upnor Castle.

The steep gradients involved allowed the engineers to test the effectiveness of narrow-gauge railways over hilly terrain (according to an article in 'The Locomotive' magazine in 1903, some standard gauge was still extant at this stage).

At the time 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) gauge railways were being used extensively in the North-West Frontier Province of India.

gauge Bagnall 2-4-2ST's supplied to the Indian States Military Railways in 1901-5 as a Strategic Reserve.

[2] Two new locomotives, Fisher and Chevalier were purchased just after the start of the First World War to deal with the rise in munitions traffic.

[1] During the Second World War, passenger trains were revived using bogie carriages built by Charles Roberts & Co. Ltd. in 1942.

[2] The railway started at the Lodge Hill munitions depot, at interchange sidings with the standard gauge Chattenden Naval Tramway.

One branch ran west past Tank Field, to the Upper Pontoon Hard near Frindsbury.

[1] On 17 March 1907, Colonel Brabazon, the senior officer at Lodge Hill Depot, had a photograph taken of the 78 employees.

It ran away on the downhill gradient in the direction of Upnor and derailed on the curve around Issingham Barracks.

A large number of battery-electric locomotives were used, mainly to move munitions around the Lodge Hill depot.