Fast forward 55 years, and the society boasts a track which goes both up and downhill, is “about an eighth of a mile long” and has capacity for 2.5, 3.5 and 5in gauge locomotives.
Nash, 66, is a lifelong devotee of the railway.
“I fell in love with the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway when I was three or four…I first came to this track in 1972, and I’ve been hooked ever since.”
For the vice chair, part of the appeal is rooted in the ongoing challenge of “driving a steam engine”.
He said: “They are the nearest thing to a living being that mankind has created.
“They all have their moods. Coal is a variable substance, so sometimes the coal will burn properly, other times it doesn’t, [and] the temperature it burns at will be part of how well the engine steams.”
Currently, his favourite model engine is one which was “built as a Flying Scotsman model in 1934”.
“It was rebuilt by my good friend Stuart Christensen in 2013, with a new boiler, and he’s made some subtle changes to make it more like Hurricane from the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway,” Nash said.