Hastings Miniature Railway hit by vandalism

Dan Radcliffe, who runs the railway, said: “We had all the locks on the engine sheds at Rock-a-Nore Road, glued with Araldite, or something similar on Saturday night.

"It meant I had to cut all the locks off which led to us opening later on Sunday and facing £1,000 bill to replace the locks and hasps. Any information relating to this or similar issues would be greatly appreciated. We think it occurred between 2.30am on Saturday and 10am on Sunday.”

The popular railway, which operates miniature steam and diesel trains between the boating lake on the seafront and Rock-a-Nore, celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and has been enjoyed by generations of people in the town.

The line was taken over by Dan in January 2010 by Dan Radcliffe. A big problem in his first year was being forced to close for many months in 2010 and 2011 while the Jerwood Gallery was being built.

Since 2011 Dan has transformed the whole railway service by rebuilding the line and its stations, constructing new sheds, building a turntable and making new engines and carriages from scratch.

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