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50th Anniversary Appeal |
Help us reach East Grinstead To celebrate 50 years of Bluebell Progress, the Railway has launched its 50th Anniversary Appeal - a new web site specifically for the appeal explains what the aims are. Please help us to achieve those aims!
Over the coming year we are also planning a series of 50th Anniversary Events.
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The Bluebell Railway re-opened in 1960, preserving a five-mile
stretch of the former Lewes to East Grinstead line between Sheffield
Park and Horsted Keynes. Until 1963, electric trains from Haywards
Heath still linked with the Bluebell at Horsted Keynes on the branch
line via Ardingly. The map shows the stations and railway lines in
the area.
In the first decade of the Bluebell's existence, operating the
railway and the purchase of the freehold of the existing line were
the priorities. It was only in 1974, when the site of the demolished
West Hoathly station came up for sale, that the first steps towards
an extension northwards were taken. These culminated in a public
enquiry, and the Secretaries of State for the Environment and
Transport finally gave planning permission and a Light Railway Order
for an extension to East Grinstead in 1985.
Right: The Construction of New Coombe Bridge.
The first mile north from Horsted Keynes opened in 1990, followed two years later by the stretch through Sharpthorne Tunnel to the former West Hoathly Station site. Just north of here a new three-span girder bridge had to be built. In 1994 the railway was re-opened to Kingscote, the station building there having been purchased in January 1985.
There then followed a period of consolidation before the final push to East Grinstead.
A big problem was the number of individual land owners who had to be persuaded to sell their land to us, and it was only in 2003 that we obtained the final piece of land to clear our way north, resulting in the start of tracklaying in September 2003.
The Imberhorne (or Hill Place) Viaduct, just south of East Grinstead, is in Bluebell ownership. A site is earmarked for a Bluebell station in the old station goods yard at East Grinstead. Members of the local council are apparently keen to see the Bluebell both contributing to the local transport infrastructure, and acting as a means of increasing the number of visitors to this historic market town.
The main obstacle is Imberhorne tip. To coordinate the funding for the removal of the tip, and to oversee the work, a new limited company has been set up. Some 300,000 cu.m of domestic waste was tipped into the railway cutting in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Removal of this waste is the only realistic option to allow the railway through, but the cost is likely to be in the region of £4 million.
The Bluebell has engaged a number of consultants with specialist expertise in reclamation of such sites and we are actively exploring the options for obtaining the necessary funding. Reaching East Grinstead has been the major priority for the railway for some 30 years, and we remain determined to overcome this final obstacle.
Imberhorne Viaduct.
The contract for the refurbishment of Imberhorne Viaduct was let in the Summer of 2002, the cost covered by contributions received under the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. The work involved the re-pointing and repair of brickwork, re-waterproofing of the structure and the replacement of the coping stones on the viaduct where these have been dislodged by vandals in the past. Many of the coping stones for this have been recovered from our land beneath the viaduct.
Volunteer teams have cleared the trackbed of dumped machinery, trees and a pond, and have installed drainage and fences. All the trackbed is now clear, and much of it fenced and drained. A bridge and a cattle creep north of the tip have been subject to considerable work.
In 2004 track was laid northwards from Kingscote to the end of the tip, and during 2005/6 inert spoil which was not part of the main rubbish tip, has been removed by train southwards (as seen in the above photos). The spoil has been used to rebuild the cut-back embankment of the Ardingly spur at Horsted Keynes, and is now being used to fill the "triangle" to the south of Horsted Keynes station.
The 2008 share offer raised £670,000. This enabled the purchase of the tip site, preparation of the facilities for extraction, many legal and insurance payments to be made, and a tenth of the tip was extracted over a three week period, which will enable accurate planning for the remaining extraction. The funds raised will also pay for the removal of the remainder of the inert spoil, which could not be removed until the main site was in our ownership.
The most recent updates are on the Lastest
Progress Page.
Left: The 1997 sponsored walk took us through Lywood Tunnel.
The trackbed is in good condition although repairs are required to a collapsed culvert. The short Lywood Tunnel appears to be in good condition. The purchase has been funded initially with a loan from a member and a wonderful response to an appeal to the membership. The land became available due to the break-up of the estate of which it was part, although complicated by a short length of the trackbed being in the ownership of another member of the same family. The two major areas of work that would be required to re-open the line are the replacement of a missing short girder-bridge span, and the replacement of the small Sherriff Mill viaduct, the condition of which was one of the reasons the line was closed in 1963. It was demolished in 1969, but we believe the gap can be bridged by extending the embankments and using two bridge sections we already own.
Right: The ARC depot in the former Ardingly Station goods
yard, and the remains of station platform.
The branch, with only one intermediate station, was electrified in the 1930s, and initially 2-NOL units were used for the Seaford-Horsted service. In the final years up to 1963 the line was served by 2-HAL and 2-BIL units which connected with Bluebell Railway steam trains at Horsted Keynes. In the last years before closure the line was singled, with the other track used for stock storage, most notably the new Kent Coast electric stock prior to its introduction, and subsequently the steam stock that it replaced, awaiting scrapping. The stub of the line from Haywards Heath now serves the ARC depot at Ardingly, which occupies the former station goods yard, and still sees a few aggregates trains a week. The station building survives complete at road-level.
A reminder of the days when the Bluebell shared Horsted Keynes with
electric trains.
Keith Harwood took this photo of 2-BIL electric unit No 2098 at
Horsted Keynes in the early 1960s. No.323 "Bluebell" is visible on
what was then the Bluebell side of the station.
Last updated by Richard Salmon, 9 August 2009