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Bluebell Railway

Bluebell RailwayHeritage railways in East SussexHeritage railways in West SussexLondon, Brighton and South Coast RailwayMid Sussex District
Museums in East SussexRailway museums in EnglandStandard gauge railways in EnglandUse British English from July 2015
British Railways Class Standard Four No 80151 Horsted Keynes 1
British Railways Class Standard Four No 80151 Horsted Keynes 1

The Bluebell Railway is an 11 mi (17.7 km) heritage line almost entirely in West Sussex in England, except for Sheffield Park which is in East Sussex. It is managed by the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society. It uses steam trains which operate between Sheffield Park and East Grinstead, with intermediate stations at Horsted Keynes and Kingscote. It is the first preserved standard gauge steam-operated passenger railway in the world to operate a public service. The society ran its first train on 7 August 1960, less than three years after the line from East Grinstead to Lewes had been closed by British Railways.On 23 March 2013, the Bluebell Railway started to run through to its new East Grinstead terminus station. At East Grinstead there is a connection to the national rail network, the first connection of the Bluebell Railway to the national network in 50 years, since the Horsted Keynes – Haywards Heath line closed in 1963. Today the railway is managed and run largely by volunteers. Having preserved a number of steam locomotives even before steam stopped running on British mainline railways in 1968, today it has over 30 steam locomotives, the 2nd largest collection in the UK after the National Railway Museum. The Bluebell also has almost 150 carriages and wagons, most of them pre-1939.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Bluebell Railway (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Bluebell Railway
Keysford Lane, Mid Sussex

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Wikipedia: Bluebell RailwayContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.0329 ° E -0.0467 °
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Address

Holywell Waterworks

Keysford Lane
RH17 7EL Mid Sussex
England, United Kingdom
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British Railways Class Standard Four No 80151 Horsted Keynes 1
British Railways Class Standard Four No 80151 Horsted Keynes 1
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Nearby Places

St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes
St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes

St Giles' Church is an Anglican church in the village of Horsted Keynes in Mid Sussex, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. Serving an extensive rural parish in the Sussex Weald, it stands at the north end of its village on the site of an ancient pagan place of worship. The present building succeeds the original wattle and daub church, its wooden successor and a Saxon stone building—although the Norman architects who erected the cruciform structure in the 12th century preserved parts of the Saxon fabric. Long established local families have been important in the life of the church for centuries, as indicated by the extensive range of memorials and fittings in the building and its large churchyard. The village got its name from the de Cahaignes family, one of whose ancestors is apparently commemorated by the rare 13th-century "heart shrine" in the chancel. Another family with more recent connections to the parish is the Macmillan publishing dynasty, the most famous of whose sons—former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan—is buried in the family plot. Various changes have been made to the Norman church, mostly in the 13th and 14th centuries, and some Victorian restoration was undertaken. Nevertheless, the building still retains its original cruciform shape and its central tower topped by a landmark broach spire. The church continues to play an active part in parish life, maintaining links to the local school and holding regular services. English Heritage has listed it at Grade I for its architectural and historical importance.