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Bluebell Railway - The Romance Of Steam

"I got out at Ketchworth and gave up my ticket, and walked home as usual, quite soberly, and without wings, without any wings at all." - Brief Encounter

Sheffield Park station - platform 2

The age of steam travel is often now pictured as a lost age of romance. Brief encounters between proper people on smoky platforms; locomotives alive with power, burbling and breathing before pulling away from a platform in a kind of long explosion. Unlike modern locomotives the power and vitality of a steam engine is so apparent, pouring out at the funnel, around the wheels, at every seam and joint. Watching a steam engine pull away from a platform it is easy to see how such vibrant machines could have been thought of in human terms. So why do steam engines give rise to these feelings? What makes them so different to nice quiet, clean electric locomotives?

Steam engines use only a small part of their energy for the mundane, utilitarian business of getting from A to B. Eureka, the engineering magazine, tells me that the last British steam locomotives, only achieved about 8% efficiency. The most efficient steam locomotives of all, the huge American "Big Boys" only managed 14%. In contrast Henry H Schobert in his book Energy and Society describes the diesel electric locomotives which took over in the United States from steam engines in the 1950s. With a diesel motor running an electric generator, 30% efficiency was obtained, and from that time on the steam engine made no economic sense. It is clear then that with only a small part of a steam engine's energy going into moving a train from departure to destination, there's plenty left over to be devoted solely to drama and spectacle. There is scope for a great demonstration of power, in noise, heat, giant mushroom clouds of smoke and steam. All this drama might come from a waste of energy, but the affection it inspires goes to show that the simple matter of getting from A to B isn't the whole story. Perhaps it is only a small part. I think of the thwarted lovers in Brief Encounter, with their confusions, doubts, misunderstandings and hopeless longings. They did not move smoothly from A to B, and the reasons for this make their story so compelling. Fate in Brief Encounter plays itself out against a background of dark nights and steam trains thundering by, leaving romantic palls of smoke in which two lovers are metaphorically lost. Efficiently reaching a destination is not really the point. Laura has a pleasant life, a good husband and two lovely children. She has reached the security of her destination and it has left her discontented.

We live in an age of ever increasing efficiency; and it is hard to be unhappy about that. And yet, just for a moment, to step out of such a world is a relief. That is the feeling I had walking into the station of the Bluebell Railway at Sheffield Park in East Sussex on a cold day in February. I walked into a ticket office warmed by a coal fire. Most of the heat, no doubt, was disappearing up the chimney, but the small pool of heat around the fire seemed warmer and more welcoming for the cold around it. Out on the platform steam locomotives were working hard just standing still. I wandered around, took photos, and went to platform 2 where there is a museum dedicated to memorabilia of the Southern Railway. On the platform there was a poignant stack of period luggage, waiting for a journey it would never take. Meanwhile trains were plying back and fore on a nine mile stretch of track from Sheffield Park to Kingscote in West Sussex, which for all practical purposes is a journey from nowhere to nowhere. With the Bluebell Railway the journey is the only thing that matters.

The Bluebell Railway opened in 1960 while steam trains still worked on British railways. The idea was to preserve part of the Lewes to East Grinstead line, using trains and rolling stock from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. Practical realities meant that the fledgling museum had to take what it could find, creating not so much a preserved southern railway, as an amalgam representing the time of steam trains. In the first summer of operation 15,000 people took a trip on the line. This would indicate that affection for steam trains existed while they were working, and is not solely a nostalgic illusion. Today the Bluebell Railway has a collection of about thirty locomotives, second only to the National Railway Museum collection. There are regular and varied services, from Pullman dining services, to more informal trips. Extension work is in progress on recreating the line to East Grinstead where it will once again connect with current rail services. A full timetable is available on the Bluebell Railway web site - see contact details below.

Sheffield Park is the main station, where there are refreshment facilities, a gift shop, a museum and access to the engine sheds. At Horstead Keynes station there is a shop, buffet and exhibition.

 

Pullman ready to leave on a snowy day

Directions: Sheffield Park station is half way between East Grinstead and Lewes off the A275 in East Sussex. There is no car parking at Kingscote station. A bus service from East Grinstead serves Kingscote. Click here for an interactive map centred on Sheffield Park station

Opening Times: Station opening hours vary. On days when trains are running, stations are open roughly half an hour before the first train of the day, and half an hour after the final train. On other days the sales and information office is open 9am - 5pm, with locomotive sheds, museum and shop at Sheffield Park open 11am - 4pm. There is a restaurant and bar at Sheffield Park which is usually open for lunch, even when trains are not running.

Access: There is level access to the stations. At appropriate times when trains are not leaving or arriving, level access between platforms is possible under the supervision of station staff. Adapted toilet facilities are available at Sheffield Park and Kingscote stations. One carriage has been modified with double doors, wheelchair lifts and an open saloon. Ring in advance to confirm when this adapted carriage is operating. Access to any other carriage is provided via a portable ramp, and wheelchair passengers are accommodated in the carriage break van.

Contact:

telephone: 01825 720825

web site: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/bluebell.html