October 2024:
KC’s 100th Birthday Pics

The paddle steamer Kingswear Castle celebrated her Centenary with a combined steam railway and river trip on Thursday 26^th September. After a welcoming cup of coffee at Paignton guests boarded the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company train, pulled by the also 100 year old steam engine Goliath, for the scenic rail trip to Kingswear where they were taken across the river by ferry to join Kingswear Castle for a cruise on the River Dart.

KC cast off at 1pm and first sailed down to the Castles at the river mouth and then up river to Duncannon during which a delicious buffet was served to the guests along with a free bar.

Suitably for KC’s 100^th birthday there were 100 guests aboard including not only KC supporters and well-wishers of today but also many, including former crew members, from her years operating passenger trips from the Historic Dockyard Chatham on the River Medway in Kent between 1985 and 2012. There were also some aboard who remembered KC being sold and towed away in 1967 almost sixty years ago after her first career on the River Dart had ended.

John Megoran, chairman of the Paddle Steamer Kingswear Castle Trust, who first stepped aboard KC when he was 16 and sailed as KC’s captain as well as running the business in the Medway years said “It is wonderful to meet so many people from the past and present aboard KC today. For me it is a real pleasure to see a new generation taking KC to their hearts and running and maintaining her so superbly. She looks absolutely magnificent. Only another 100 years to go before the next Centenary!”

Here are a few pics taken on this happy day.

Pics courtesy of: Sereny Damon, The Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company, ITV News and Derek Peters.