Saturday 7 May 2016
This article was opened on 19 June 2016
Above: Our preserved train returns along
the Bluebell Railway in evening sunshine. It is passing through
Imberhorne cutting which was used as a landfill site after the line’s
closure, and re-excavated from 2008. Photo by Phil Barnes.
Hastings Diesels Limited’s 64th public
railtour was from Hastings to East Grinstead and the Bluebell
Railway.
We travelled from Tonbridge to our final pickup-point at Redhill, and
then up to Norwood Junction to reverse in the turnback siding there. We
then proceeded south via East Croydon and Oxted to East Grinstead (see
cab
video 1), where we then joined the Bluebell Railway and traversed its
entire length (see cab
video 2).
Although our train had visited this preserved line on previous
occasions, today was the first occasion on which we had run our own
railtour across Imberhorne viaduct, through the re-excavated cutting and
onward to Kingscote, Horsted Keynes, and to Sheffield Park—the
southernmost point of the Bluebell Railway.
On our return journey, we retraced our steps as far as Hurst Green; a
reversal there afforded us a trip along the whole length of the Uckfield
line (see cab video 3)
and back; a further reversal at South Croydon saw us regain the Brighton
Main Line where we continued to retrace our outward route via Redhill and
Tonbridge.
Our train behaved faultlessly, and kept almost exactly to the timings
throughout the day. Our passengers had over 4 hours at Sheffield
Park—plenty of time to look around the beautifully preserved station, and
to take a return trip on the Bluebell’s steam services. We ensured that
a 3-minute connection across the footbridge was upheld for those arriving
on the 1632 steam arrival and departing for Hastings on our train at
1635!
Historical data
The train was formed thus: 60118-60501-69337-70262-60529-60116, with motor
coach 60116 Mountfield leading upon departure from Hastings, and
trailing upon arrival back there.
The publicity leaflet and timings remain available. The actual running times have
also been published.
Cab video footage
We mounted an unattended unmonitored forward-facing camera in the
leading cab and recorded three sizeable chunks of the route, as shown
below.
In fact the camera was fitted and set running prior to—and later
stopped and recovered after—changes of direction; this avoided any
potential conflict with train operation, because the driving cab in
question was at the rear of the train when we accessed it.
Two of these three videos include the actual soundtrack recorded in
the leading cab, so you can hear the driver’s master-controller movements
and the operation of the AWS. However on the Bluebell Railway a member of its
staff was conducting our driver over the route, which resulted in a
near-constant exchange of information in the leading cab and rendered the
leading-cab soundtrack unusable for our purposes. With this eventuality
in mind we recorded audio from the rear cab for this segment and, thanks
to the starter-bell ringing in both cabs, we were able to synchronise the
soundtracks precisely!
We hope you enjoy this footage, which is © Copyright 2016 Hastings
Diesels Limited.
Above: Norwood to East Grinstead
(31m58s)
Above: East Grinstead to Sheffield Park
(49m49s), audio from rear cab
Above: Hurst Green to Uckfield
(37m25s)
Videos
Various photographers have taken video-footage depicting this railtour
and have uploaded it to YouTube; the following are links to some
starting-points but do not represent a definitive collection:
Photos
Photos on this page were taken by Richard Griffin, unless otherwise
stated.
Above: The railtour pulls into Tonbridge
at 0914hrs, with the full-yellow end of motor coach 60116 Mountfield
leading.
Above & below: Keith Hemsley captured
our train passing Holmethorpe on its way north from Redhill.
Above & below: Upon arrival at
Sheffield Park, our passengers detrained and our train was shunted ahead
into the sidings just south of the platforms. These go right up to the
farthest point of the existing line, beyond which the former railway’s
bridge over the A275 has been removed.
Above & below: These two views taken
by Phil Barnes show our train in the sidings at Sheffield Park. With the
water-tower obscuring our view of the buffer-stops in the second picture,
we could imagine that the railway still continued on towards Lewes.
Above: Two of our indefatigable on-board
staff are called Rod; the two Rods posed in front of suitable signage on
the platform at Sheffield Park.
Above: Our train re-entered the platform
at Sheffield Park prior to its departure at 1635, as captured by Phil
Barnes.
Above & below: Phil Barnes jumped
ahead by road to capture our train further up the Bluebell Railway as it
approached Horsted Keynes, passing beneath an elegant triple-arch
overbridge and running through green fields under gentle blue skies. He
then jumped ahead again (see his title picture of our train returning
through Imberhorne cutting).
Above & below: When we had completed
our traversal of the Bluebell Railway we waited at East Grinstead station
for some 15 minutes. The view south (above) shows a car-park and a
supermarket on the site of former railway infrastructure. Less
immediately apparent from these photos is that an entire station (East
Grinstead High Level, closed in 1967) crossed this station at
right-angles, near the footbridge; its site to the west of here is a
car-park.
Above: Phil Barnes took advantage of the
time we waited at East Grinstead station to go round to the bridge in
Park Road, from where he photographed our train alongside a
Southern EMU as we awaited departure. The
concrete bridge prominently visible across this view carries a path along
the route of the former High Level station.
Above & below: Phil Barnes travelled
again by road to capture our train 40 minutes later as it passed Ashurst
station on its way to Uckfield. It has just left the single-track
section at Blackham Junction. A programme of platform-lengthening works
is under way on the line.
Above & below: Evening sunshine
bathes our preserved train beside the River Uck at Uckfield station. The
station has been extensively remodelled, as it was previously sited on
the south side of the road (out of shot to the right) which it crossed by
means of a level crossing. The signal-box (below, clad in scaffolding)
controlled the level crossing as well as the signalling. But with the
line through to Lewes truncated at Uckfield it made little sense for
every train movement to involve closing the road; following the partial
single-tracking of the line in 1990, a replacement single-platform
station was built at Uckfield at its current position.
Above: A final view of the
single-platformed Uckfield station (1991), whose modern building opened
in 2010. Our passengers had a few minutes to stretch their legs and take
in the sights before our journey back to Hastings.