April - Intercity Railway Society

Preservation News
Bluebell Railway, East Grinstead Opening Festival by Mark Richards:
To celebrate the official opening of the northern extension to East Grinstead a two week special
programme of events was to be held from 23 rd March until 7 th April. I decided to attend the opening
day, unfortunately the weather was less than kind with frequent snow showers in the morning and all
day accompanied by a bitter chill in the air.
The line to East Grinstead was
officially closed on 17 th March
1955 so the reopening of
services through to Sheffield
Park came almost 55 years to
the day since closure. There
were seven locos in steam on the
opening day with four sets of
ordinary passenger stock in
addition to the Pullman set which
worked a special ‘Grinsteade
Belle’ from Sheffield Park
departing 09.30 arriving East
Grinstead at 10.11. This service
was hauled by Southern Railway
Maunsell U 2-6-0 1638 which is
seen later in the day running
round its train at East Grinstead.
The other locos in use on this
first day were BR Std 9F 2-10-0
92212, SER H 0-4-4T 263, P 0-6-
0Ts 323 ‘Bluebell’ and 178 (seen
double headed at East Grinstead
below) and LBSCR E4 0-6-2T
473 ‘Birch Grove’.
LBSCR A1 ‘Terrier’ 55 ‘Stepney’ was working brake van shuttles from Horsted Keynes up the Ardingly
branch.
The rolling stock in use was a range
of vintages. The most historic and
notable were the Metropolitan Railway
compartment stock recently used on
the London Underground 150
celebrations paired with SER, LBSCR
and LCDR compartment stock. The
other coaching sets were formed of
mainly BR and Southern Railway
stock along with LNW and GNR
Observation Cars (which were
available to travel in at a supplement).
92212 was booked to haul a special
‘Imberhorne Limited’ excursion from
Sheffield Park to East Grinstead (with
two return trips) in the evening using
the Pullman stock.
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