Bluebell Railway

Bluebell Railway
Interior of the signal box at Sheffield Park, showing the illuminated track diagram and lever frame
Commercial operations
Original gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Preserved operations
Length	9 mi (14.5 km)
Preserved gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Commercial history
Preservation history
Headquarters	Sheffield Park

Bluebell Railway

Legend Oxted Line to London St Margaret's Junction Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line East Grinstead High / Original Station East Grinstead Low Level Station East Grinstead (Bluebell Railway) Border between National Rail and Bluebell Railway Hill Place / Imberhorne Viaduct Imberhorne North line (Being restored) Imberhorne cutting Imberhorne South line (Being restored) Kingscote West Hoathly (Closed 1958) Sharpthorne Tunnel (731 yards (668 m)) Horsted Keynes Ardingly spur Bluebell Halt (Closed) Sherrif Mill Viaduct (Demolished) Holywell Waterworks (Closed) Freshfield Halt (Closed) Ketches Farm Halt (Closed) Lywood Tunnel (218 yards (199 m)) Aggregates depot (Site of closed Ardingly) Brighton Main Line to London River Ouse Copyhold Junction Haywards Heath Sheffield Park Newick and Chailey (Closed 1958) Barcombe (Closed 29 May 1955) Keymer Junction Brighton Main Line to Brighton Wealden Line to Uckfield Barcombe Mills (Closed 4 May 1969) Culver Junction Hamsey Loop (Closed 1868) River Ouse Lewes Tunnel (395 yards (361 m)) River Ouse Lewes East Coastway Line to Brighton East Coastway Line to Eastbourne

The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line running for nine miles along the border between East and West Sussex, England. Steam trains are operated between Sheffield Park and Kingscote, with an intermediate station at Horsted Keynes.

The railway is managed and run largely by volunteers. It has the largest collection - over 30 - of steam locomotives in the UK after the National Railway Museum (NRM) (though the Midland Railway, Butterley, owns more locomotives after the collection overall). The Bluebell also has a collection of almost 150 carriages and wagons, most of them pre-war, unrivalled in the south of England. A project is well under way to recreate a long-lost type of locomotive (a London, Brighton and South Coast Railway H2 Class Atlantic) from a few surviving parts.

The Bluebell Railway was the first preserved standard gauge steam-operated passenger railway in the world to operate a public service, running its first train on 7 August 1960, less than three years after the line from East Grinstead to Lewes had been closed by British Railways. The Bluebell Railway also preserved a number of steam locomotives even before the cessation of steam service on British mainline railways in 1968.

2007 marked the railway's 125th anniversary. 2009 marked the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society's 50th anniversary. 2010 marked the Bluebell's 50th anniversary of running services. To mark the event, the railway held a gala over 6–8 August 2010 with all available home engines and two visitor engines.

History

In 1877 an Act of Parliament authorised construction of the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway (L&EGR). The line was sponsored by local landowners, including the Earl of Sheffield. A year later an act enabled the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company (LB&SCR) to acquire and operate the line.

The line had six stations, but only Barcombe was within walking distance of a village. Chailey parish had two stations, one at Sheffield Park and the other at Newick and Chailey. It was customary for a rural line supported by a company or individuals to have stations close to the residences of its sponsors. Thus Sheffield Park station was built for the Earl of Sheffield, and Newick and Chailey for Newick Park and Reedens, the residences of two other sponsors. The other stations were at Kingscote, West Hoathly and Horsted Keynes. A branch ran from a junction at Horsted Keynes to Ardingly and Haywards Heath on the LB&SCR main line.

The 1877 and 1878 Acts included a clause that:

Four passenger trains each way daily to run on this line, with through connections at East Grinstead to London, and to stop at Sheffield Bridges, Newick, and West Hoathly.

This imposed a legal requirement to provide a service, and the only way to remove this obligation was to pass another Act.

The line was constructed to take double track. However only the section between East Grinstead and Horsted Keynes was laid as such; south of the junction at Horsted Keynes the line was single track with passing loops at stations. The line opened in 1882, with pomp and ceremony.

Goods traffic on the line consisted of local produce; milk, farm products and coal, and timber to and from Albert Turner & Son, a sawmill. The only time Sheffield Park received a substantial number of passengers was when Lord Sheffield entertained the Australian cricket team, with a match between them and Lord Sheffield's own team.

In 1954, long before the Beeching Axe, the branchline committee of British Railways proposed closing the line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction near Lewes. This was challenged by local residents, but closure was agreed in February 1955 for 15 June 1955, although the line closed on 29 May due to a rail strike. The acrimonious battle between British Railways and the users of the Bluebell Line, as it was known, lasted three years.

Shortly after closure, Margery Bessemer of Chailey discovered in the 1877 and 1878 Acts the clause relating to the "Statutory Line", and demanded British Railways reinstate services. On 7 August 1956 British Railways re-opened the line, with trains stopping at stations mentioned in the Acts. British Railways took the case to the House of Commons in 1957, resulting in a public inquiry. British Railways were censured, but later the Transport Commission was able to persuade Parliament to repeal the special section of the Act. By this means the line was finally closed on 17 March 1958.

Spring 1959 saw the formation of the Lewes & East Grinstead Railway Preservation Society, forerunner of today's Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It aimed to re-open the whole line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction as a commercial service, using a diesel railcar, a two-car DMU. The plans came to nothing: the society failed to buy the whole line; and most local residents were not interested. In the interim the re-opening of the line from Sheffield Park to Bluebell Halt just south of Horsted Keynes as a steam railway and museum was planned and opened in 1960. This was at first leased, and eventually purchased, from British Railways.

Accident

On 31 July 1943, newlyweds Ronald Knapp and Winifred Standing were killed when they were pulled under a train from Lewes to East Grinstead. The couple walked along the railway on a dark rainy night. When the train got to Horsted Keynes, the guard found a raincoat covered with blood on the engine. Another coat was found near two bodies in the middle of the tracks. The ganger who found them told the inquest the couple must have been walking with their backs to the train.

"There was a very heavy squall at the time and the couple would probably have not heard a thing," he said. The coroner said Ronald and Winifred were trespassing and no blame could be attached to any railway worker. Little more than a week after they were married, the couple's funeral was at St Giles church, where they are buried together in a grave marked by a War Graves Commission headstone.

Present and future

This cutting between Kingscote and East Grinstead was used as a rubbish tip and the waste material has to be cleared before the line can be reopened. The track north-east of this point is being relaid to allow removal by rail.

The new locomotive shed at Sheffield Park

Locomotives inside the Loco Shed at Sheffield Park on the Bluebell Railway. Engine at the front is Class A1X "Terrier" (32655) 55 Stepney

The Bluebell Railway Preservation Society completed an extension from Horsted Keynes to Kingscote in 1994, re-laying track through Sharpthorne Tunnel (731 yards / 668 metres, the longest on a UK heritage railway), and is reinstating the remaining two miles from Kingscote to East Grinstead.

Work has started northwards towards East Grinstead, where the line will connect with the national network. A problem is the former landfill site that fills a 30-foot (9.1 m) deep cutting. Some of the excavated clay has being taken south by rail to fill the site of a removed viaduct and embankment on the old Ardingly spur. In January 2008 agreement was given to start clearing foliage on the section of the tip between Imberhorne Lane and Hill Place bridges. Work on removing some of the 300,000 cubic metres (392,385 cu yd) of rubbish by lorries started on 25 November 2008. In 2009 a trial removal of spoil by rail was carried out and this has continued periodically during 2011 as funds become available; completion is anticipated in 2012. In autumn 2008 work started on site clearance at East Grinstead for construction of the new station about 100 yards (91 m) south of the national rail station. On 4 September 2010, the East Grinstead station opened with trains running over the Imberhorne Viaduct to Imberhorne, north of the cutting, and back until the extension is completed.

The Bluebell Railway has bought the abandoned trackbed between Horsted Keynes and Ardingly. It plans to reconnect it with National Rail and access the London to Brighton line at Copyhold Junction. Ardingly is a rail-freight terminal leased by Hanson Aggregates, with roadstone freight trains operated by DB Schenker (formerly EWS). This makes extension towards the main line unlikely; Hanson has renewed a contract to supply roadstone at the site. The site is also safeguarded by West Sussex County Council for rail freight. Bluebell's priority is to extend towards East Grinstead.

There is speculation about extending south towards Lewes; but the removal of the road bridge just south of Sheffield Park station, the in-filling of the cutting and route under the A272 road, and housing built on the site of Newick and Chailey station makes this unlikely. The remaining undeveloped line from Lewes to Sheffield Park has been safeguarded as a bridleway and footpath.

The stations have been restored to show different periods of the railway's life. Sheffield Park has been restored to a Victorian ambience, as it would have appeared during the time of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (up to 1922); Horsted Keynes emulates the Southern Railway (1922–1948); and Kingscote echoes the British Railways of the 1950s.

Between Horsted Keynes and Kingscote the line passes through the site of West Hoathly station, at the north end of Sharpthorne Tunnel. West Hoathly buildings and footbridge were demolished between 1964 and 1967 but remains of the platforms and goods dock are still visible.

Stations

Kingscote station

Sheffield Park station exterior

Heritage railway

• Sheffield Park
• Ketches Halt (closed)
• Freshfield Halt (closed)
• Holywell (Waterworks) (closed)
• Bluebell Halt (closed)
• Horsted Keynes
• West Hoathly (closed)
• Kingscote
• Imberhorne Lane (halt to be erected in the next few years)
• East Grinstead

Original stations

Lewes to East Grinstead Low Level

• East Grinstead Low Level
• Kingscote
• West Hoathly
• Horsted Keynes
• Sheffield Park
• Newick and Chailey
• Barcombe
• Lewes

Appearances in films and television

The Bluebell Railway has been used for various films, television and for advertisements.

• Sequence in Horsted Keynes Station in North and South (TV serial), 2004, starring Richard Armitage as John Thornton and Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale : Milton Station.
• In 1981, The last and final scenes of the final episode (and finale) of the BBC TV sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum (The Last Roll Call) were filmed at Horsted Keynes.
• October 1999: the dramatisation The Railway Children based on the book by E Nesbit. The Railway Children (TV film) was filmed at Horsted Keynes railway station using the double-sided Platforms 4 and 5, premiered in 2000.
• Sequences for the film Miss Potter starring Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger were filmed at Horsted Keynes.
• Sequences for the adaptation of the Philip Pullman book The Ruby in the Smoke starring Billie Piper as Sally Lockhart and Julie Walters as Mrs Holland were also filmed at Horsted Keynes
• The train chase in the 1996 film version of The Wind in the Willows, starring Terry Jones and Eric Idle, was filmed on/along the line.
• Scenes for Einstein and Eddington were filmed with David Tennant playing Eddington and Jim Broadbent as a father, with Horsted Keynes disguised as Cambridge.
• The 1977 TV miniseries Love for Lydia had brief scenes at Horsted Keynes. It starred Jeremy Irons, Peter Davison, Mel Martin,and the late Christopher Blake.
• An "early 1977" episode from the third series of the sitcom Get Some In! features Horsted Keynes as a station in which the four main draftees meet up (following a major fire incident at RAF Skelton) and also where Bruce Leckie walks up the track and up the platform as seen at the start of the episode.
• The 1967 film "I'll Never Forget What's His Name" starring Oliver Reed filmed on the line using the Met' Stock and NLR Tank Loco painted white as well as a "dressed" Freshfield Halt.
• At least two Ken Russell films were made in the early 1970s, notably Lisztomania starring Roger Daltrey. Sequence in that particular film showed loco Fenchurch smashing through a grand piano. Another Russell film, Savage Messiah was filmed at Horsted Keynes station which was dressed to look like Portland in Dorset.
• Dirty Dozen sequel in 1984 used Horsted Keynes for scenes which included Q Class Loco 541 and two of the then full time permanent way gang as French platelayers. Starred Lee Marvin.
• Pop videos include Tracey Ullman, The Pet Shop Boys, Sheena Easton, Runrig, Robson & Jerome. Also Elton John's 'Tumbleweed Connection' album cover picture was shot at Sheffield Park Station.
• Night Train To Murder (1984), the last TV/feature film Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise made together before Morecambe's death in May 84. Sequences at Sheffield Park were shot at night with Morecambe pushing Wise through the ticket barrier on a porter's trolley and of loco 75027 in steam. Screened on LWT in Christmas 1984, just seven months after Morecambes death.
• The 1973 documentary Metroland by Sir John Betjeman contains an opening scene in Horsted Keynes buffet, and shots in a he Metropolitan carriages.
• In 1980 the videoclip of the song "Morning train (9 to 5)" from Sheena Easton was filmed. Bluebell railway and locomotive 488 is seen in the whole clip.

Looking south towards the former line to Newick and Chailey and to Lewes, from Sheffield Park

The Bluebell Railway featured in The Railway Series written by the Rev. W. Awdry. The book was called Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine, with Stepney as the main character, visiting the fictional Island of Sodor.

The Old Line towards Lewes

In the past, The railway line originally extended beyond Sheffield Park to Culver Junction (at Culver Farm just south of Barcombe Mills), with intermediate stations at Newick and Chailey and Barcombe along the way.

At Culver Junction it joined the 1858 Lewes to Uckfield line (part of which is now restored as the nearby Heritage Lavender Line), thereby gaining access to Lewes.

The section from East Grinstead to Culver Junction was closed in 1958, and the Lewes to Uckfield line in 1969 by British Rail.

Rolling stock

The Bluebell Railway owns a very large collection of heritage rolling stock.

Main article: Rolling stock of the Bluebell Railway

Twinning

The Bluebell Railway is twinned with the Museumstoomtram Hoorn - Medemblik, which links Hoorn and Medemblik, Noord Holland, the Netherlands.

External links

• Bluebell Railway Visitor Information
• Bluebell Railway Preservation Society
• TIME Magazine Monday, Aug. 20, 1956 GREAT BRITAIN: Miss Bessemer's Crusade
• "Bluebell's locomotive problems" (pdf). Bluebell Railway. (BRPS) AGM, 13 May 2006. http://www.bluebellrailway.co.uk/bluebell/soc/agm2006loco_paper.pdf. Retrieved 02 Oct 2009.