47 Bluebell steam railway, East Sussex, 28th January 2012

Photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/101390618614769540246/BluebellRailway?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOW-_ISKpPugzgE&feat=directlink

East Grinstead is my destination and the Bluebell preserved steam railway. As a teenager I was keen on model-making so when a series of programmes in the 70’s called Model World was aired it was compulsory viewing for me. The presenter was a certain Bob Symes and I remember one of the episodes featured a trip on the Bluebell railway as an excuse to do research prior to building a layout of one of the stations.  So let’s call this trip a homage to Bob Symes and memories of Airfix models hanging from my bedroom ceiling; Mevagissey model railway; balsa wood gliders and the radio controlled plane I coveted but never owned...one day, perhaps, one day ...

Rather ironically, getting to the Bluebell line by train is quite tricky involving two connections and a bus ride - unless you have a bike of course.

1110 and I am puffing like a steam loco up the hill out of East Grinstead.  The map shows the end of the Bluebell line is barely 4 miles away.

1145 Unless the station has disappeared my map reading skills are substandard because I cannot find any sign of it where it’s supposed to be.  And this B-road is busy, I’m in danger of having an accident...

1206 Solved! tucked away in tiny writing on an inconspicuous finger post are the words ‘Kingscote Station’ I hang a left and two minutes later I am there, chaining my bike to the wooden fence surrounding the open frontage of the station building.  I am clearly not expected, because the ticket office is deserted.  However the platform isn’t as one of the trains has just pulled in so I grab the guard who opens up the office and makes his machine regurgitate a ticket printed on substantial card – I can just about remember real stations working like this.

There are a few minutes spare while the engines (we are on a sort of push-me-pull-you arrangement) are topped up with coal and water.  The clientele are strictly divided between young families and older men carrying long-lens cameras.  Rolling stock and engines of various sorts are parked about the sidings.  Our engines are a small green one and a small blue one – I am afraid that is about the extent of my knowledge – sorry dad – you would be ashamed of me.

Eventually, amidst whistles blowing and flags waving, we move off.  The first thing I notice is the clickety-clack noise – something you don’t get so much in modern trains with welded rails -  very soporific.   The countryside glides by, the carriages slipping through the clouds of steam produced by every chuff.  For the most part we are riding a few feet above the surroundings so there is a good view.  A child and his father wave from a wood, a man with shotgun and dogs pauses to look.  There is something about steam trains that has this effect.

Eventually we reach the other end of the line and I pass the time looking round the half-restored engines in the shed. It must be incredibly expensive to run these in any sort of working order.  I chat for a while to one of the volunteers, try to sound knowledgeable, and nod sagely when he relates some indecipherable technical point. 

1345 I indulge in a pot of Earl Grey in the cafe while waiting for my train back to Kingscote while a birthday party with about a dozen kids goes on in one corner so Brief Encounters it aint!  Reading some literature, it seems as if they are extending to join up with the main line railway at East Grinstead in due course at the cost of £millions.  They have to remove thousands of tonnes of rubbish from one of the cuttings that has been used as a landfill in the intervening years.  As the man on the promo video puts it – ‘we are moving rubbish from one landfill to another and paying for the privilege’.  I hope it’ll be worth their effort, it would be nice to see.