H. F. Stephens

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.

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.

In 1916, during World War I, Stephens attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Territorial Army (TA) with which he had been associated since the 1890s.

[2] 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.

He was involved in: The majority of the locomotives were second-hand, but a few were bought new from Hawthorn Leslie and Company including:[6] None of these has been preserved.