Bluebell Railway

An act of Parliament, the ' (40 & 41 Vict. c. ccxviii) 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 another act, the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway (Croydon, Oxted, and East Grinstead Railways) Act 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. lxxii), enabled the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company (LB&SCR), chaired by Samuel Laing, to acquire and operate the line. the line was constructed to take double track. However, only the section between East Grinstead and Horsted Keynes (and thence to Haywards Heath via Ardingly) 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 branch line committee of British Railways proposed closing the line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction near Lewes. Shortly after closure, Margery Bessemer of Chailey discovered in the 1877 and 1878 acts the clauses relating to the "Statutory Line", and demanded British Railways reinstate services. On 7 August 1956, British Railways reopened 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 persuaded Parliament to repeal section 35 of the 1878 act in section 73 of the British Transport Commission Act 1957 (5 & 6 Eliz. 2. c. xxxiii). By this means the line was finally closed down on 17 March 1958. ==Preservation==

Bluebell 323 On 15 March 1959, a group that included the future president of the society, Bernard Holden, met in Ardingly and formed the Lewes & East Grinstead Railway Preservation Society. The society elected John Leroy as the first chairman, and £940 was raised in donations to start the society. On a vote at the meeting, the society changed its name to the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. The society's initial aim was to reopen the whole line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction as a commercial service, using a two-car DMU. The Bluebell Railway Preservation Society completed the extension from Horsted Keynes to Kingscote in April 1994, Some of the society's founder members gathered at Horsted Keynes to mark the arrival of a commemorative LB&SCR A1X class No. 55 Stepney-hauled steam train. The entourage then travelled towards Sheffield Park. Kingscote to East Grinstead via Imberhorne From its inception, the society had always planned to work northwards towards East Grinstead, where the line would connect with the national network. BR donated Imberhorne Viaduct to the railway in 1992, but the purchase of the final pieces of the by then privately owned track bed north to East Grinstead was only completed in 2003, Initially rubbish was removed from the site by lorry, but, due to the substantial volume and cost of about £45/tonne, in 2009 a trial removal of spoil by rail was carried out by DB Schenker Rail (UK). At £25,000 per train and now undertaken by GB Railfreight, this practice continued periodically as funds became available. However, an increase in the landfill tax was announced in 2008, and this was due to take effect from April 2012. It would increase the cost of removal from £25/tonne to £90/tonne. So the society formed an appeal to complete the removal of the landfill waste by the end of March 2012. and thanks to the "tenner for the tip" appeal, the cash target was met and the rubbish was removed by rail in time. In autumn 2008 work started on site clearance at East Grinstead for construction of the new station about south of the national rail station. Mid Sussex District Council responded with a one-off donation of £50,000 towards the reconnection. On 7 March 2013, the last section of track was formally joined using a white fishplate, with the honour of tightening the four bolts being given to Barbara Watkins, a long-standing Bluebell Railway volunteer. The extension to East Grinstead was officially opened on Saturday 23 March, with a two-week opening festival starting that day. West: Horsted Keynes to Haywards Heath via Ardingly depot, Originally built as a double-track line, Stations could either be located at Copyhold or Haywards Heath. There is a proposal that the line could be restored as third rail electrified, allowing operation of the society's electric stock. == Stations ==

with AEC Routemaster bus on Route 473 East Grinstead – Kingscote service 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 from 1923 to 1947 • West Hoathly (if built) will emulate the British Railways of the late 1940s • Kingscote echoes the British Railways of the 1950s • East Grinstead is an amalgam of British Railways of the 1950s and 1960s Heritage railway ;East Grinstead to Sheffield Park • East Grinstead • • (closed) • • Bluebell Halt (closed) • Holywell (Waterworks) (closed) • Freshfield Halt (closed) • Ketches Halt (closed) • ;Horsted Keynes to Ardingly (proposed) • • (proposed) Original stations ;Lewes to East Grinstead (Low Level) • • Kingscote • West Hoathly • Horsted Keynes • Sheffield Park • Newick and Chailey • Barcombe • Lewes == Rolling stock ==

The Bluebell Railway 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. On 29 October 2000 the Bluebell Railway announced its intention to reconstruct a replica of SR/BR period LB&SCR H2 class Atlantic Beachy Head. By then, many surviving locomotive parts had been assembled including an ex-GNR 'Atlantic' boiler, and an ex-LB&SCR B4 class tender chassis. The boiler was tested around August 2018. The locomotive rolled out and was coupled to its tender on 5 March 2024, to begin commissioning work prior to entering service, which it did on 18 August 2024. In April 2008, the Heritage Lottery Fund provided a £2.8M grant towards new buildings next to , to provide weatherproof shelter for up to 17 carriages. The funds were also used to: create a museum and interpretation area; create new facilities for locomotive crews; create a rainwater catchment system from the roof of the carriage building, which is then processed and used to fill the steam engines' boilers; restore the railway's historic platform buildings. ==Twinning==

The Bluebell Railway is twinned with the Museumstoomtram Hoorn – Medemblik, which links Hoorn and Medemblik, North Holland, the Netherlands. == References ==