Bluebell staff on the platform at Kingscote. Exposed digitally with my Canon EOS 7D.
For many years Kingscote was effectively Bluebell’s northern terminus. That changed this year when the extension to East Grinstead was finally opened along with the direct connection to Network Rail.
Now, as a quiet mid-point on the Bluebell line, it embodies all the qualities of a small town passenger station from a time long ago. Adding to the rural solitude is a ban on visitor automobiles in the car park. (Railway riders are encourage to use other stations on the line).
The facilities are faithfully decorated to convey the spirit of long ago. I appreciated a lack of modern intrusions. Not so much as an electronic beep could be heard during my brief visit. (I turned off the various sounds uttered by my digital cameras!). I should have brought my Rollei Model T for effect.
During my hour visit at Kingscote, I was rewarded with the arrive of a wedding special hauled by a diminutive locomotive named ‘Bluebell’ and decorated appropriately.
Vintage sign inside Kingscote Station. Lumix LX3 photo.Station offices look like something from the late steam era. Notice the old manual typewriter. Lumix LX3 photo.Waiting room at the Bluebell Railway station in Kingscote. Lumix LX3.A period poster decorates the street side of Kingscote Station. Lumix LX3 photo.Locomotive ‘Bluebell’ is ready to depart Kingscote on the Bluebell Railway. Lumix LX3 photoA study in motion: drive wheel, cylinder, valves, crosshead and valve gear of locomotive 92212 at Kingscote Station. Canon EOS 7D photo.London Transport locomotive L150 leads a train of Metropolitan Railway carriages at Kingscote in July 2013. Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
British Rail class 9F 2-10-0 92212 makes an impressive arrival at East Grinstead. Canon EOS 7D photo.
At the end of July, my friends and I made a pilgrimage to the Bluebell Railway, traveling by Southern Railway electric muliple unit from London to East Grinstead and transferring to the Bluebell’s steam train there.
This was my second trip over the Bluebell this year. While not the best day for photography, owing to a humid hazy morning with flat dull light and rain showers in the afternoon, I managed to make a variety of images of this classic British preserved railway. Regardless of the weather, Bluebell offers a pleasant trip to an earlier era.
In the last dozen years, I’ve made about a half dozen Bluebell visits that have allowed me to better appreciate the line and more fully experience it. It is one of just several dozen top notch preserved railways in Britain.
Engine driver on British Railways locomotive 92212 at Kingscote station. Canon EOS 7D photo.Levers at Sheffield Park signal box. Canon EOS 7D photo.Privatization of British Rail has invoked nostalgia for the old days of a unified nationalized network. Canon EOS 7D photo.Horsted Keynes is a popular mid-line layover.
See my earlier posts on the Bluebell for more details and photos of the line:
Luggage on the platform at Horsted Keynes on April 20, 1948, no sorry, make that 2013.
Old advertisement at Sheffield Park.Nameplate on locomotive Stowe inside the engineshed at Sheffiled Park. Lumix LX3 photo.
One of the great features of Britain’s preserved Bluebell Railway is its exceptional attention to detail. Everywhere you look there is something to make the past, alive. Old advertisements, piles of luggage, semaphore signals, cast iron warning signs, and buckets of coal.
You hear the clunk of a rod moving a signal blade from red to green, followed by the shrill guard’s whistle and the slam of a wooden door. Then a mild hiss as the automatic brake is released and the sharper hiss from the locomotive as it eases off the platform. Yet, the Bluebell experience isn’t all about its locomotive, or its trains. The Bluebell is a railway experience.
Outer home semaphore on the Bluebell Railway near Horsted Keynes. I’m especially impressed by Bluebell’s great attention to period railway signalling (two ll’s). Canon EOS7D with 28-135mm lens.
The number plate on a smoke box door catches the hint of a blue sky beyond. Canon EOS7D with 28-135mm lens.A class 9F 2-10-0 emits wisps of steam on the platform at Sheffield Park. Lumix LX3 photo.Southern Railway advertisements hint of the glamour of railway travel from another era. Lumix LX3 photo.
The time warp ends when you arrive back at East Grinsted, where you insert your ticket with its magnetic stripe into automatic barriers, then board a modern electric multiple unit with sealed windows, plastic décor and space-age loos that look like they belong on the set of Star Trek.
Crews chat on the platform at Sheffield Park. Lumix LX3 photo.
The Bluebell Railway is Britain’s first standard gauge preserved steam railway. It dates from the early 1960s, and for more than 50 years has offered excursions over a scenic portion of former Southern Railway, ex London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. Today the railway runs from East Grinsted to Sheffield Park (south-southwest of London), and includes a relatively long tunnel.
Departing Kingscote behind a British Railways class 9F on April 20, 2013. Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
Bluebell, like many of Britian’s steam railways, is a fully functioning preserved line, complete with stations, signal boxes (towers), authentic period signal hardware (including semaphores), engine sheds and lots of staff (presumably mostly volunteers), all of which contributes to the appearance of an historic British railway. In other words, it’s like a time machine!
Bluebell’s staff wear period railway attire. Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
On Saturday April 20, 2013 David Hegarty and I traveled from London by train via East Croydon to East Grinsted. It was a beautiful clear bright day. Bluebell had just recently reopened its line for connections to British rail network at East Grinsted.
New track! On April 20, 2013, our train from East Grinsted navigates the recently completed connection from the British rail network. After more than five decades of isolation from the British rail network, Bluebell is finally connected.
While not especially photogenic, I found the new East Grinsted transfer a big improvement for reaching the Bluebell. On previous visits, I’d hired a car and drove directly to Horsted Keynes—a mid-point station on the Bluebell. All things being equal, its nice to arrive by rail.
Enginemen on Southern Railway 2-6-0 1638 at Horsted Keynes. Exposed with a Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
It was interesting to travel behind steam (British Railways 2-10-0 class 9F) over newly laid track. We spent a full day wandering up and down the line by train. At one point we went for a long hike following signposted footpaths to a known good spot (what friends like to call a KGS). I’d found the spot, north of Horstead Keynes, about 10 years ago.
Bluebell’s dinner train departs Sheffield Park on April 20, 2013. Canon EOS 7D with 28-135mm lens.
Biggest challenge to making photos on the Bluebell is their operating practice of locomotives facing north, which can present some difficult lighting angles considering most of the line is on a north-south alignment.
My known good spot: here a Bluebell train works the bank north of Horsted Keynes. Lumix LX3 photo.
