Canterbury & Whitstable Railway

The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway was a Kent railway opened on 3 May 1830, running 6 miles between the cathedral city of Canterbury and the harbour at Whitstable. Engineered by George Stephenson and his assistant John Dixon, it was one of the world's earliest passenger-carrying steam railways, predating the better-known Liverpool & Manchester opening by four months.

The locomotive Invicta, built by Robert Stephenson and Company and adapted from Stephenson's existing Northumbrian, was used on the level Whitstable end of the route. The two steeper sections (Tyler Hill and Clowes Wood) were worked by stationary winding engines through cable inclines for the line's entire history.

The railway was acquired by the South Eastern Railway in 1844 and survived in goods use under SECR and Southern Railway ownership until 1952. Invicta is preserved at the Canterbury Heritage Museum.