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)
Preservation history
Headquarters	Sheffield Park

Bluebell Railway
Oxted line to Hurst Green St Margaret's Junction Three Bridges to Tunbridge Wells Central Line to Three Bridges │ to Groombridge E. Grinstead H.L. (1883) │ Second Station (1866) Original Station (1855) E. Grinstead Low Level (1882) East Grinstead (1970) │ Goods yard East Grinstead ( Bluebell Railway ) (2013) National Rail ┇ Bluebell Railway Imberhorne Viaduct Imberhorne cutting Kingscote River Medway West Hoathly Sharpthorne Tunnel ( 731 yd 668 m ) Horsted Keynes Ardingly spur Current limit of operation Sheriff Mill Viaduct (demolished) Lywood Tunnel ( 218 yd 199 m ) Ardingly (now aggregates depot) Brighton Main Line to Three Bridges Copyhold Junction Haywards Heath Brighton Main Line to Wivelsfield River Ouse Bluebell Halt Holywell Waterworks Freshfield Halt Ketches Halt Sheffield Park Newick and Chailey Cinder Hill Tunnel Barcombe Wealden Line to Uckfield Culver Junction East Coastway line to Wivelsfield Hamsey Loop (closed 1868) River Ouse Lewes Tunnel ( 395 yd 361 m ) River Ouse Lewes East Coastway line to Brighton East Coastway line to Eastbourne and Hastings & Seaford branch line to Seaford

The Bluebell Railway is a heritage line running for 9 mi (14.5 km) along the border between East and West Sussex, England. It uses steam trains which operate between Sheffield Park and Kingscote, with an intermediate station at Horsted Keynes. After more than 50 years of separation, a resumed connection to the UK's rail network, to a UK terminus station north of Kingscote, in East Grinstead, is expected to open in March 2013.

The first preserved standard gauge steam-operated passenger railway in the world to operate a public service, the Society ran 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.

Today the railway is managed and run largely by volunteers. Having preserved a number of steam locomotives even before the cessation of steam service on British mainline railways in 1968, today it has the largest collection (over 30) of steam locomotives in the UK after the National Railway Museum. The Society also has a collection of almost 150 carriages and wagons, most of them pre-war.

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 was opened in 1882.

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.

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, Horsted Keynes, where they are buried together in a grave marked by a War Graves Commission headstone.

Closure

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 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.

Preservation

On 15 Mach 1959 a group met in Ardingly and formed the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway Preservation Society. The Society elected John Leeroy as the first chairman of the Railway, and £940 was raised through donation to start the Society. On a vote which occurred at the meeting, the Society later changed its name to the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society.

The Society's initial aim was to re-open the whole line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction as a commercial service, using a two-car DMU. The plans came to nothing: the society failed to buy the whole line; and most local residents were not interested. The committee then recommended that the stretch of track between Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes could be run as a tourist attraction, with vintage locomotives and stock operated by unpaid amateur staff.

Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes

As BR still ran an electrified line from Horsted Keynes to Ardingly, the Society leased a stretch of track from BR just south of this. In 1960 the interim line was opened, running from Sheffield Park to Bluebell Halt, 100 yards (91 m) south of Horsted Keynes. After BR ceased service in 1963, the Society moved its northerly operations to the main station at Horsted Keynes.

Horsted Keynes to Kingscote

In 1974 the Society purchased the freehold of the demolished West Hoathly railway station, allowing the first steps to be taken towards an extension northwards towards East Grinstead. They then purchased the freehold of the site of Kingscote railway station in January 1985. These efforts culminated in a public enquiry, with both the Secretary of State for the Environment and Transport giving planning permission and a Light Railway Order for an extension to East Grinstead in 1985.

The Bluebell Railway Preservation Society completed the extension from Horsted Keynes to Kingscote in 1994, re-laying track through Sharpthorne Tunnel, which at 731 yards (668 m) is the longest on a UK heritage railway. At the north end of Sharpthorne Tunnel, the line passes through the site of the former West Hoathly railway station. These were demolished between 1964–67, but remains of the platforms and goods dock are still visible.

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.

North: Kingscote to East Grinstead via Imberhorne

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

Work started northwards towards East Grinstead, where the line will connect with the national network. BR donated Imberhorne Viaduct to the Society in 1992, but the purchase of the final pieces of the by-then privately owned track bed north to East Grinstead were only completed in 2003, allowing physical civil engineering activity to be undertaken from that year.

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.

West: Horsted Keynes to Ardingly

The Bluebell Railway has bought the abandoned trackbed west between Horsted Keynes and Ardingly. It plans to reconnect it with National Rail and access the London to Brighton line at Copyhold Junction.

South: Sheffield Park to Lewes

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

By the late Victorian era, Lewes railway station was the convergence point of three lines from towns of the East Sussex coast, and three lines north to reach London via Croydon. Today, Lewes only has one line the east one which joins the Brighton main Line at Burgess Hill.

Originally the Bluebell Line was the straightest and quickest route from Lewes to London. The Bluebell Railway ran directly south from 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.

Society supporters and committee members have expressed interest in re-building the line south by three more stations to Lewes; but the re-excavation of infill under the former road bridges just south of Sheffield Park and Barcombe stations, the problem of in-filling since of the cutting and former 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.

Stations

Kingscote station

Sheffield Park station exterior

The various 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 (1922–48)
• West Hoathly echoes the British Railways of the 1940s
• Kingscote echoes the British Railways of the 1950s

Heritage railway

• Lewes
• Barcombe (closed)
• Newick and Chailey (closed)
• Sheffield Park
• Ketches Halt (closed)
• Freshfield Halt (closed)
• Holywell (Waterworks) (closed)
• Bluebell Halt (closed)
• Horsted Keynes
• West Hoathly (closed)
• Kingscote
• 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

Rolling stock

Main article: Rolling stock of the Bluebell Railway

The new locomotive shed at Sheffield Park

The Bluebell Railway Society preserved a number of steam locomotives before the cessation of steam service on British mainline railways in 1968. Today it has the largest collection (over 30) of steam locomotives in the UK after the National Railway Museum (NRM). The Society also has a collection of almost 150 carriages and wagons, most of them pre-war. A project is under way to recreate a long-lost type of locomotive (London, Brighton and South Coast Railway H2 Class Atlantic) from a few surviving parts.

Appearances in the media

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

• The 1961 film The Innocents was filmed at Sheffield Park Station.

• 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.

• Ken Russell filmed 3 movies at the Bluebell Railway, the first being Savage Messiah, which was filmed at Horsted Keynes station which was dressed to look like Portland in Dorset.

• The 1973 documentary Metroland by Sir John Betjeman contains an opening scene in Horsted Keynes buffet, and shots in a Metropolitan carriage.

• The other Ken Russell film being Lisztomania starring Roger Daltrey. Sequence in that particular film showed loco Fenchurch smashing through a grand piano.

• A 1976 TV Documentary called Edgar Wallace: The Man Who Made His Name, used the Bluebell railway as one of the filming locations.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• In 1984, filming for The Dirty Dozen: The Next Mission 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.

• 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 Morecambe's death.

• Sheffield Park Station was one of the filming locations for the 1985 episode of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Greek Interpreter.

• The railway scenes in the 1985 movie A Room with a View was filmed at the Bluebell railway.

• ITV Children's programme "Splash" filmed a piece focusing on the railway's younger volunteers in 1986

• The third Ken Russell movie used the Bluebell Railway as one of his filming locations for the 1989 TV movie A British Picture.

• The railway scene in the 1990 TV Drama A Ghost in Monte Carlo, was filmed at the Bluebell railway'

• 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.

• 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.

• The 2000 movie, 102 Dalmatians used the Bluebell railway as one of their filming locations.

• The location for the TV Drama called Station Jim was mostly filmed at the Bluebell railway, the 2 notable places on the line are Sheffield Park Station and Sharpthorne tunnel.

• In the 2001 TV Drama Back Home, Sharpthorne tunnel was used as part of the journey from Benwood School to Plymouth and Horsted Keynes station was made to look like Guildford Station.

• From 2002, Horsted Keynes station has featured in the ITV drama series Foyle's War, doubling as Hastings railway station.

• The 2003 TV Comedy-Drama, The Young Visiters, used the Bluebell railway as a filming location.

• 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 2004, the TV series The Worst Jobs in History, was filmed at the Bluebell railway.

• Sequences for the film Miss Potter starring Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger were filmed at Horsted Keynes and premiered in 2006.

• 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 and premiered in 2006.

• A 2006 TV Mini-series called The Impressionists, used the Bluebell railway as a filming location.

• The 2006 Short film called Gorgeous Labour of Love, used the exteriors of the Bluebell railway.

• A 2007 TV Mini-series called Nuclear Secrets, used Horsted Keynes station as a filming location.

• Gallows (band) used rolling stock at Horsted Keynes Station for filming their 2007 single; Staring at the Rude Bois.

• A 2008 TV Mini-series called Tess of the d'Urbervilles, used one of the stations and was renamed Sandboure Railway station.

• Scenes for Einstein and Eddington were filmed with David Tennant playing Eddington and Jim Broadbent as a father, with Horsted Keynes disguised as Cambridge, this aired in November 2008.

• The 2009 TV Documentary called Charles Dickens's England used Sheffield Park Station as one of the filming locations.

• Horsted Keynes station is used in Downton Abbey, but renamed to Downton railway station, it was seen mostly in Series 2, Epiesode 1, which aired in 2011.

• The 2011 movie, John Carter used Sheffield Park station as an American railway station, using locomotives 9017 Earl of Berkeley (disguised as an American locomotive), B473, LSWR Brake Third 1520, and the 'Met' coaches.

• The 2012 movie, The Woman in Black used Horsted Keynes station as one of the 3 railway scenes, the other 2 locations being the heritage Colne Valley and Mangapps Farm Railways in Essex.

• September 2012: Intel for advert for new Ultrabook computer.

• 2013: Railway scenes and train sequence for BBC's Dancing on the Edge

• 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.

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.

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. Retrieved 02 Oct 2009. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)