The railway was the dream of millionaire racing drivers Captain John Edwards Presgrave ("Jack") Howey and Count Louis Zborowski.

The latter had constructed a railway at Higham Park, his home at Bridge, Kent, and agreed to donate the rolling stock and infrastructure to the project.

However, he was killed in a motor racing accident at the Monza Grand Prix on 19 October 1924 before the Romney Marsh site was chosen, and Howey continued the project alone.

[3] The Minister of Transport indicated his intention to approve the application on 19 February 1926 and The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway Order 1926 was made on 26 May.

[2] During construction, the Duke of York (later King George VI) visited the railway on 5 August 1926 and drove Northern Chief, hauling a train with about 100 passengers from Jesson Halt to New Romney and back.

[2] Mountain Class Hercules hauled the inaugural train from Hythe to New Romney, with guests including the mayors of the two towns and General Sir Ivor Maxse.

Howey was not satisfied with just 8+1⁄4 miles (13.3 km) of track from Hythe to New Romney and plans were in hand for an extension even before the original section had opened.

[10] It was also used by the Department of Petroleum Warfare in the construction of PLUTO ("Pipe Line Under The Ocean") intended to supply fuel to the Allied forces after the D-Day Normandy landings.

[12] In 1949, Captain Howey bought the Duke of Sutherland's private train including engine Dunrobin and 60 feet (18 m) coach for the museum at New Romney.

[14] The railway's role as part of the local public transport network was extended when Warren Halt re-opened in 2009, providing a link to the Romney Marsh Visitor Centre.

It is now the largest single shareholder in the railway and its members provide a significant input of voluntary labour on both operating and maintenance work.

Stations which never existed but were at one time proposed by the directors or are currently under consideration: The line was originally laid using second-hand First World War surplus rail.

[25] These have now been entirely replaced by second-hand standard gauge sleepers cut into thirds, creosoted douglas fir, or jarrah and karri (Australian hardwoods from the eucalyptus family).

Holiday Camp – this building is known to have been erected on land owned by Allnatt Ltd since it is marked on the plans accompanying a combined conveyance/lease concluded by the railway with that company and is shown as measuring 12 by 6 ft (3.7 by 1.8 m).

Two of the original locomotives (No 5 Hercules and No 6 Samson) were built to the 'mountain' wheel arrangement (4-8-2), unique on any British railway and giving the ability to haul heavy freight with only a small loss of speed when used on passenger work.

The greater part of the railway's freight traffic in the early years was carried for the War Department, who made extensive use of the line to convey materials and equipment for the construction of the reinforced concrete sound ranging detectors they were experimenting with near Greatstone.

As a publicity stunt the first gas main train was steam hauled using No 4 The Bug, which appeared on the local TV news that evening.

Two such sidings are still in place but are both in a very poor state of repair although they were used by fishermen to transport fish across the beach for many years after the main railway service was withdrawn.

To facilitate the transfer of this traffic from rail to road on its arrival at Hythe the track serving Platform 1 there extended into the car park for some years.

After the war the Hythe workings were cut back and the wagons were unloaded in a siding (in what is now New Romney station car park), the remnant of which is now used for loading coal into loco tenders.

[2][verification needed] At Hythe, the concrete pillars were still visible until the early 1980s when they were demolished to allow access to the car park extension along the former platform 4 and engine release siding.

In 1928 the railway took delivery of eight fully enclosed 12-seat bogie coaches built by the Clayton Carriage & Wagon Company of Lincoln which incorporated electric lighting and steam heating.

The 16-foot underframes for these were constructed by Robert Hudson Ltd of Leeds and the bodies were built locally by the Hythe Cabinet & Joinery Works Ltd. By June 1936 54 of these together with two matching vans had been taken into stock.

A new coach design featuring a lower floor, for easier loading, and a higher roof-line, giving better headroom for wheelchair users, was introduced in 2015.

The train consisted of No 5 Hercules and a few wagons fitted with armour plating and armed with a Boys anti-tank rifle and Lewis guns.

[42] Supposition that the 4-8-2 locomotives Hercules and Samson were ordered for the project, which involved steep inclines, is unfounded as the engines were intended for freight traffic, in particular a contract with Kent County Council to transport up to 30,000 tons of ballast a year from their pits at Palmarsh.

The majority of these have been related to level crossings, and in every documented case the road user has either admitted liability, or been found to have been in the wrong by the subsequent investigation.

Despite the presence of large numbers of visitors and tourists, almost all recorded level crossing incidents have involved local car drivers.

The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Light Railway Order 1926[80] restricted the maximum number of directors of the Statutory Company to five and named Captain John Edwards Presgrave Howey, Gladys May Howey, Captain John Alexander Holder, Major William Bertram Bell and Henry Greenly as the first directors.

[81] These include a general manager, departmental managers (engineering, commercial and operations) and a large number of engineering staff (from locomotive fitters to permanent way gangers) and catering staff (the New Romney and Dungeness cafes and the restaurant adjoining Hythe station are open all year round; some of the railway's other commercial outlets are more seasonal).