THE idea of getting volunteers to run a failing British Railways line at a profit had been humorously floated in the Ealing Comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt in 1953, and not without sympathy. But after the students managed to lease four miles of track on the Bluebell line, and a diminutive tank engine named ‘Stepney’ had trundled fare-paying passengers from Horsted Keynes to Sheffield Park on August 7, 1960, it was no longer a joking matter.
Ever unsentimental, British Railways stopped running trains from Haywards Heath to Horsted Keynes in 1963, cutting the volunteers off from the national network;* but whatever British Railways’ intentions, the defiant volunteers continued to operate their line. In 1985, the preservation society began extending the line northwards, reopening Sharpthorne Tunnel (at 731 yards, the longest on a heritage railway in this country) in 1992, and reaching Kingscote station two years later. On March 23rd, 2013, the Bluebell Railway started running trains into East Grinstead, meeting the national network again for the first time in fifty years.*
Acknowledgements to The Severn Valley Railway: 50 Glorious Years (2015) by Robin Jones. Additional information from The Bluebell Railway Official Website.
The locomotive was former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway ‘Terrier’ 0-6-0T No. 55 ‘Stepney’, built at Brighton works in 1875. It is still in operation at the Bluebell line. A British Pathé News video of the locomotive working the line in 1961, a year after the reopening, can be seen below.
At Horsted Keynes, a spur leaves the Bluebell line and joins the national network at Haywards Heath via Ardingly. Until 1963, British Railways ran third rail electric trains to Horsted Keynes. The trackbed remains but the rails through Lywood tunnel have been lifted.
Reconnecting the line southwards to Lewes is a much more difficult problem, as the remodelled A275, the gardens of a housing estate and a noxious rubbish tip present serious civil engineering and public health challenges. Reinstating the spur from Horsted Keynes to Haywards Heath, via Lywood Tunnel and Ardingly, is a more viable option.