

21 June: Beer, Brass and Steam with real ale, a picnic supper, Horsham Borough Band and a ride on a steam train. Phone 01825 720800 - More information. |
Twinned with the Museumstoomtram Hoorn-Medemblik
Your ideal Film/TV location? - A great day out for all the family.
Two Bluebell Railway Screensavers are available for downloading to your
PC.
The volunteer-run Bluebell Line was the UK's first preserved standard gauge passenger railway, re-opening part of the Lewes to East Grinstead line of the old London Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1960. Since then it has developed into one of the largest tourist attractions in Sussex, yet it still remains true to its objectives of the preservation for posterity of a country branch line, its steam locomotives, coaches and goods stock, signalling systems, stations and operating practices.
A steam train ride on the Bluebell is one of the top things to do with kids on holiday for a day out in Sussex (the line crosses the border between East Sussex and West Sussex, and is not far from Surrey). This heritage railway is close to Haywards Heath, Gatwick Airport, Uckfield, Brighton and Lewes, in the Ashdown Forest/Mid Sussex area of England. Your children will love to take our vintage steam rail trip during your vacation.
On this web site you can find Visitor Information, and details of the Timetable showing the train times for the UK's only all-steam railway. In addition to scheduled passenger trains, there is also the Golden Arrow Pullman Train on which you can experience the ultimate "meal out", and in the run up to Christmas each year, the very popular Santa Specials where the children receive presents from Father Christmas, and a full programme of other Special Events. The web site contains much more that just this, though.
Photo, above right, thanks to Andrew Strongitharm. The unusual combination of a GWR "Dukedog" and an SR "West Country" depart northwards from Horsted Keynes station at the 2005 "Giants of Steam" gala.
To view larger versions of most of the pictures on this site, just click on them.
Also available on these web pages:
- Information on how to get to the Railway;
- Full details of catering arrangements, both on the trains and at the stations;
Information for disabled visitors;
- You can order items from our shop by mail order;
- Contact information, phone numbers and addresses; and Who's Who, including Photos of Bluebell Railway Staff
- Details of the benefits of membership, and opportunities to join in the running of the railway as a volunteer;
- For younger members there is The Stepney Club and the 9F Club.
- All the latest news from the Bluebell.
- Information about our historic collections of Locomotives and Carriages and Wagons, with photos of most items of stock;
- Comprehensive details of the Signalling and Signal Boxes;
- The Fund-raising Football Competition;
- Pages detailing the History of the Bluebell Line.
- Pages describing the role of the Bluebell Railway in Carlton's TV film of "The Railway Children", and the rolling stock used in the film.
- The Bluebell Railway Trust (Registered Charity No.292497) and the Museum.
- Other pages, with information about the stations, extensions to the current line, accommodation locally, and other general background material;
- Links to related pages, plus a Search Engine to help you find whatever you are looking for on the Bluebell web site or elsewhere on the Internet.
The railway is operated by "Bluebell Railway plc", which is majority owned by the volunteer membership through the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, and this membership also provides the dedicated volunteer labour which enables the line to continue running. Any financial surplus made from running the trains is ploughed straight back into preservation work. The only "dividend" members receive is the immense satisfaction of seeing "their" railway provide a day's entertainment for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Disclaimer: Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of these pages, the Bluebell Railway cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. In addition any information or advice given on these pages is provided in good faith, but should not be relied upon for safety-critical applications. Bluebell Railway reserves the right to vary any of the provisions of this web site without prior notice. This website does not form part of any contract between the Railway and current or prospective visitors or customers. Those requiring information on specific matters should seek written confirmation from the Railway.Please email the web site editor, Richard Salmon, with any comments or suggestions about format or content.
External links are provided in good faith, but the Bluebell Railway cannot be held responsible for the content to be found on other web sites.
Privacy: We do not collect personal information on users. We do not share any statistical data on the usage of the site with other websites, companies or individuals.
Cookies: This BRPS website (.co.uk) does not use or issue cookies.
The Bluebell Railway is not responsible for cookies that may originate from third-party sites, such as YouTube or Facebook.The Privacy policies and Use of Cookies by the Bluebell Railway plc's (.com) website is outlined here.
Out of principle we do not normally use restrictive features such as frames or Java, since these go against the original and laudable concept of html as a user-formatted document language. This also makes for far faster down-loads. Pages can also be viewed and navigated acceptably with images turned off. One little bit of Javascript is included in this page to escape from being locked into someone else's frame, but if your browser doesn't support this, it should not be affected.
© Copyright of all items is retained. Material on this web site may not be reproduced (or further distributed beyond normal web access) in any form without the express permission of the Bluebell Railway or other copyright owners as appropriate.Credits:
Some photographs are by the editor and the others are by Mike Esau, Ian Wright, Lewis Nodes, Jon Horrocks, Peter Richards, Hiroshi Naito, Mike Nichols, Michael Taylor, Jeremy Ovenden, Jon Bowers, the late Tony Dunkley, Robin Frankham, Nigel Kendall, the late Harold Roy Pettit, Peter Edwards, James Young, Jonathan Hall, Graeme Pettit, Martin Oakley, Barry Coward, Nigel Longdon, Jeff Machin, Tony Pearce, Ian Bowskill, Chris Majer, Adrian Lee, Anthony Goff, Tony Frost, Dave Bowles, David Harp, David Chappell, Les Anstey, Chris Gardner, Andrew Strongitharm, Paul Pettitt, Chris Dadson, Dave Clarke, Nick Beck, Simon Robinson, Owen Chapman, Chris Nevard, Dave Chambers, Martin Creese, Dave Stickland, Clive Emsley, Dave Smith, Fred Bailey, Robert Bird, Roger Stronell, Derek Hayward, Chris Ward, Tom Waghorn, John Sandys, Benjamin Boggis, Paul Sharpe, Brian Easter, Duncan Bourne, Stephen Hunt, Ken Upton, Neil Munro-Thomson, Bill Vigar, John Fry, Linda Chen, Matt Allen, Neil Glaskin, Ashley Smith, Kate James, Tom James, Nick Talbot, Ray Wills, Tracey Wheatley, Bryan Benn, Dave Devlin, David Haggar, Alan Bedford, Steve Fairweather, Keith Duke, Derek Forrester, Ben Coughlan, David Pratt, Rob Faulkner, Stephen Parker, David Warwick, Sean Tompsett, Thomas Newble, Keith Leppard, Clive Hanley, Phil Stoneman, Mike Snow, Andy Prime, John Jesson, Geoff Pethick, Dave Jefferys, Chris Majer, Peter Richards, Richard Thomas, Rebecca Parkes, Pat Plane, Ian Maggs, and many more, with permission.All the decent artwork (i.e. that not done by the webmaster!) is by Matthew Cousins GRA, to whom many thanks.
Thanks are also due to Lewis Nodes, Tim Baker, Tony Hillman, Peter Richards, Martin Nichols, Malcolm Roe, John and Robin Elliott, Peter Churchman, Graham Townsend, Mike Watts, Mark Smith, Roger Williams, Martin Lock, Michael Taylor, David Rider, Julian Best, Steve Gostelow, Geoffrey Snow, Jim Turtle, Roy Watts, Nigel Longdon, Kate Saker, Paul Sturm, Katsumi Suzuki, Hiroshi Naito, Geoff Harris, Martijn Huibers, Mark Armstrong, Peter Forrestier Smith, Jon Bowers, Martin Skrzetuszewski, Nick Beck, Blair Robinson, Ted Crawforth, Fred Bailey, Terry Cole, Robert Bird, Jon Elphick, Jan Kozminski, Caroline Collins, Duncan Bourne, Gary Smith, Nicholas Pryor, Chris White, Richard Green, Rob Faulkner, Avril Gaynor, John Jesson, Dave Clarke, Gavin Bennett and many other Bluebell members.
Like so much on the Bluebell Railway, this web site is provided at minimal cost to the Railway thanks to voluntary effort.The search engine is advertising supported, provided by FreeFind, and the EasySearch facility even generates income for the Bluebell Trust.
Most Frequent Queries:
- Details of Fares
- Details of Opening times
- Details of Lineside Photographic Permits
To the
UK Heritage Railways Home
Page,
To the Bluebell Web Sites' Entry Page, the Public / Visitors' web site, or the "What's New" page.
Timetable - Special Events - How to get to the Railway - Disabled Facilities - School Visits