Economic development company Sea Space has donated material from the Ore station former goods yard to the cause.

Following the clearance of the site by Sea Space as part of the Millennium Community development plans for the Ore Valley, Rother Valley Railway offered to remove the remaining track in exchange for its use in rebuilding the line between Robertsbridge and Bodiam.

Removing the track took four weeks of dedication from a band of volunteers, whose hard work has resulted in many tons of secondhand equipment finding a new lease of life, including sets of points, a buffer stop, rail, track, chairs, fishplates, Jarrah (hardwood) sleepers and ballast.

David Felton, chair of The Rother Valley Railway Ltd, said "We are extremely grateful to Sea Space for their generosity, help and assistance, which has allowed the railway to make a significant move forward."

James Saunders, project manager for Sea Space, said: "We were very pleased to be able to assist the Rother Valley Railway through this donation.

"It is particularly gratifying that one regeneration project has been able to find a use for unwanted materials by donating them to another Sussex-based regeneration project."

The railway project has previously been the recipient of donated track from SEEDA, the South East England Development Agency, who gave approximately 1.4 miles of rail from the Betteshanger Colliery site in 2005.

The Rother Valley Light Railway was the first light railway to be built in 1900 and ran between the main lines at Robertsbridge and Headcorn in Kent.

It later changed it's name to the Kent and East Sussex Railway and operated as an independent railway until 1948 when it was nationalised and taken over by British Rail.

Passenger services ceased six years later and the line was finally closed completely in 1961.

Work began on resurrecting the section between Tenterden and Bodiam in the 1970s and the first section was reopened in 1974, with the whole section finally opening on the 100th anniversary of the line on 2 April 2000.

The Rother Valley Railway is now rebuilding the abandoned three and a half mile section from Bodiam to Robertsbridge, which will link the
KESR to the national rail network once more.