Bluebell Railway

The Bluebell Railway is a heritage railway in the English county of West Sussex. It was opened as the first steam-operated heritage railway in England to standard gauge on 17 May 1960. Today, it has the second largest collection of vehicles of Great Britain according to the National Railway Museum. Your route goes from East Grinstead to the south over Kingscote and Horsted Keynes to Sheffield Park. The name comes from the blue bluebells (English: Bluebells ) that bloom along the way.

  • 2.1 East Grinstead
  • 2.2 Kingscote
  • 2.3 Horsted Keynes
  • 2.4 Sheffield Park
  • 3.1 locomotives
  • 3.2 car

History

Railway construction

Today's Bluebell Railway comprises the northern part of the railway line opened in 1882 East Grinstead - Lewes. These had respectively at three points connection to the railway network, namely in East Grinstead to London Victoria Station, Three Bridges and Tunbridge Wells, in Horsted Keynes on Ardingly after Haywards Heath on the Brighton Main Line and in Lewes on the East Coastway Line to Brighton Hastings..

Closure

Long before the mass line closures of the Beeching Axe, British Railways introduced the decommissioning, but faced massive resistance from the people in the region. Finally, the traffic on May 28, 1955, set. In contrast, a citizens' initiative successfully sued, citing the obligation to operate, which was enshrined in the still valid Bahnbau Act of 1877. British Rail took on 7 August 1957 operating again and set him final only on 17 May 1958 after parliament had confirmed the closure.

Museum Railway

During this time, the Lewes & East Grinstead Preservation Society, had the later Bluebell Preservation Society formed. She managed to lease from British Rail section of Sheffield Park to a provisional platform in front of the still scheduled staffed station Horsted Keynes and buy later. On May 17, 1960 reversed the first steam train museum. Thus, the Bluebell Railway was the first steam-powered standard gauge heritage railway in Britain.

Lack of money, the Bluebell Railway could not prevent that the route to the south overbuilt in Lewes and at Sheffield Park with roads and uses an incision in East Grinstead as municipal solid waste landfill and was backfilled. In 1963 the branch line was closed after Haywards Heath, so that the Bluebell Railway are not connected to the railway network had more.

Network extensions

Nevertheless, the Bluebell Railway constantly worked on the re-commissioning of further parts of the route network. As early as 1961 could be retracted into the Horsted Keynes railway station, which was therefore used for two years together with the passenger trains of British Rail. 1994 could be resumed via a newly constructed bridge and through the tunnel to Kingscote Sharpthorne the operation.

The greatest difficulties had to be overcome for the last about two miles to East Grinstead. This had to be removed and relocated to other landfills in compliance with the present environmental conditions of the waste. 300,000 cubic meters of waste by 90,000 tons were removed at a cost of 2.715 million pounds ( 3.2 million euros ). The total cost was around 3.6 million pounds ( 4.3 million euros ), which have been widely applied over fundraisers. On March 23, 2013, the operation was able to East Grinstead added and thus the connection can be made to the rail network again. This allows not only the easy arrival for visitors to the leadership of special trains and the replacement of vehicles.

For the future, the reactivation of the dismantled branch line to Ardingly would be conceivable, which is owned by the Bluebell Railway and in Ardingly connection has to run even in the freight line to Haywards Heath. For this, however, the construction of a broken bridge and the rehabilitation of a tunnel would be necessary. A restart of the southern part of route to Lewes would be possible only with great effort and partial realignment.

Route

The 17.7 km long route runs from East Grinstead in southern direction.

East Grinstead

The Bluebell Railway has its own platform about 300 meters from the station of the Southern East Grinstead. The only building is the newly built water tower for the supply of locomotives for the passengers was set up in a wagon shop and a small bar with Fahrkartenverkeuf.

After the station, the route passes the Imberhorne Viaduct and the exposed from the garbage incision.

Kingscote

The station building from 1882 has been restored in the style of the mid-fifties. The station is accessible except with the museum train only by bus, by bicycle or on foot.

After passing the former station of West Hoathly 668 meters long Sharpthorne tunnel is traversed.

Horsted Keynes

The former railway junction has five platform tracks. The station building and the covered platforms were restored in the style of the twenties. The station was the scene of numerous film productions, such as in the television series Downton Abbey, where he represents the Downton station.

Horsted Keynes is home to the car workshop of the Bluebell Railway, where the wagons are restored and maintained. Visitors can observe the work of a gallery.

In Horsted Keynes previously branched off the line to Haywards Heath on the Brighton Main Line. The railway line is up against Ardingly owned by the Bluebell Railway, the remaining piece is operated to this day in freight transport by Network Rail. In Horsted Keynes the track plan and signaling were already prepared for a possible reactivation of this route.

Sheffield Park

The station building has been restored in the state in the 1880s. The eponymous garden is about two kilometers away. For visitors to the Sheffield Park Station car parking, a restaurant, gift shop and a museum has.

Sheffield Park is the operational center of the museum railway. Here are the locomotive depot and a large car parking hall, which was built as part of the undercover operation action with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to ensure that valuable historical trains no longer have to be parked in the open.

The route went from here to Lewes. The route is now overbuilt in several places with roads, as well as shortly after the Sheffield Park Station.

Rolling stock

The Bluebell Railway has around thirty steam locomotives from 25 series and a large number of road, rail service and passenger cars from the 1880s up to the 1960s. Thus it has the largest collection of vehicles of Great Britain according to the National Railway Museum. The focus is on the railway companies in southern England, which is the Southern Region of British Rail and the Southern Railway in the interwar period with its predecessor companies.

Locomotives

  • The first Bluebell train on May 17, 1960 consisted of the small tank locomotive Stepney with two cars. You and Bluebell, Primrose, Birch Grove and Baxter were models for some of the locomotives in the children's book Thomas the Tank Engine.
  • Several locomotives dating from before the First World War
  • The Pacific express locomotives of the Southern Railways Blackmoor Vale and Archibald Sinclair
  • Four 1'C2' tank locomotives of the 4MT Series of 1956, the last built by the locomotive factory in Brighton Locomotive series.

Car

  • Wooden cars from the 1880s and 1890s form a complete train set, including four cars of the London Metropolitan Railway.
  • Numerous four-axle truck with steel body is made from the 1920s to the 1960s. Some of them are accessible.
  • The Golden Arrow dining train with Pullman cars that ran in Express trains such as the Brighton Belle London - Brighton or the Golden Arrow London - Dover.
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