A special year is coming up for the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway (RH&DR) as it marks its 90th anniversary and another significant landmark.

This week it will be 70 years since the line fully reopened after the Second World War.

The honours were carried out by the famous comedy duo Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy on March 21, 1947 when they visited the railway to open the New Romney to Dungeness section of the line.

Newsreel footage of their visit shows the pair typically larking about with Hardy carrying a comedic massive key and trying to get in through a door put up in front of the tunnel which passes under Station Road.

When he is unsuccessful, Laurel simply steps up and opens it, much to Hardy’s annoyance, which is met by screams of laughter from the crowds packed onto the platforms at New Romney station.

The film stars clambered on board a train from Hythe and took the journey down the line to the ceremony at New Romney with Hardy finding it a bit more difficult to get in and out of the little carriage than his screen partner.

They were presented to the mayor and then showed the little trains and told how they worked, intrigued by their charm and character which still endears visitors today.

Their slapstick-style was apparent when the driver blows the whistle, much to the comics’ surprise, as the crowds are again sent into raucous laughter.

The RH&DR will be celebrating 90 years of being open to the public with a special weekend on the anniversary on July 16.

The railway was commandeered by the War Department during the Second World War and featured the only miniature armoured train in the world.

It formed part of the coastal defence network in preparation for a German invasion and was used to transport troops and munitions to rural outposts.

It also served the war effort by helping to build Pluto [Pipe-Lines Under The Ocean] that helped send fuel and oil to the Allies after the D-Day invasion.

But the war years took its toll and although the railway wanted to open as soon as it could after peace descended it still took time to repair.

The Hythe to New Romney section opened again in 1946, but the cost of the war was evident.

The New Romney to Dungeness section was only single track and raw materials to rebuild the line were scarce and expensive.

The railway has also had its fair share of celebrity and royal visits over the years.

The Duke of York – later King George VI – visited in August 1926, while the Queen and the Royal Family visited in 1957, with Prince Charles taking to the footplate of Hurricane.

Last year, rock legend Roger Daltrey, the frontman of The Who, reopened the station at Dungeness after a refurbishment.