Sussex Railway - Part One
This is the first post of two on Sussex Railway and it’s from Bruce Cakebread. Part Two will shortly follow and is written by Stuart Cakebread. Thank you to Stuart & Bruce for these two - it’s a genuine treat to see in depth train knowledge and a personal glimpse into yester-train-year.
Shoreham Station 1880
BRUCE CAKEBREAED
An Older Brother’s Knowledge
The 1st railway line built in Sussex was between Shoreham-by-Sea and Brighton and was completed in May 1840. The same date as the introduction of postage stamps. The reason why the line was built along the coast was due to the fact that the equipment they needed could be carried by boat and the goods be discharged at various ports. The main line from Brighton to London was completed in 1841. The 1st railway works owned by a railway company was situated by Brighton Station. During the early years new locos were built up north and Brighton Works only repaired locos. In 1870 a new chief mechanical engineer was appointed. His name was Stroudley. Up to his appointment classes of locos only had 2 or 3 locos. He was of the opinion it would be cheaper for future classes to be larger and to build them at Brighton. One of the first classes he designed were the A1 class consisting of 50 locos. They were nicknamed Terriers. A few members of the class still exist and The Bluebell Railway has 2 locos. In 1850 the railway became the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR).
Brighton Works 1880
During the period 1841 – 1900 numerous routes were created namely Brighton – Portsmouth, Hastings and North Sussex. In 1932 the main line from Brighton – London was electrified. Electrification of the East and West Coast routes were completed by 1939.
One of the important trains, named the Brighton Belle , was made up of Pullman Cars. Unfortunately this was withdrawn in the early 1960s. In the 1890s Magnus Volks created an electric line which ran for a few miles on the coast. It is still running today, I strongly recommend a visit.
Brighton Belle
In May 1955 British Railways closed the line between Lewes and East Grinstead. A local resident complained that the railway was in breach of the act passed by Parliament. The original Act stipulated that there must be at least 3 passenger services on every weekday at 3 named stations. BR was forced to reopen the line in August 1956. In 1958 the act was altered by Parliament and BR was allowed to close the line. During the next few years a group was formed to arrange reopening of the line between Sheffield Park and just south of Horsted Keynes in August 1960. This was the 1st Heritage line to be open in England and it was named the Bluebell Railway. Since 1960 the line has been extended northwards to East Grinstead. I strongly recommend a visit be made to such a historical line, abllow at least 3 hours.
Bluebell Railway 2000
Cover Image - ‘Brighton Locomotive Depot seen from above 11 July 1954’ - Ben Brooksbank via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_railway_station Copyright - CC BY-SA 2.0 . A lovely additionally note is that this photo was taken a few months before Stuart was born.
All other images were supplied by Bruce Cakebread.
