Some of our members were lucky enough to visit the Bluebell Railway. With the weather lovely it made for a very nice day. We arrived at 12.15 for the train at 1pm it was a very busy station, but friendly. Some of us had lunch there, they have a wide range of things to eat, such as sausages, steak and kidney pie and fish and chips, on average the cost was about £7.00.
At present there are three stations, these are Sheffield Park, Horsted Keynes and Kingscote Station.
For any one who has never been before, the main station is Sheffield Park Station, here you can park in the car park, if it is full there is another large car park across the road, so never a problem. the station lies on the A275.
Sheffield Park Station
At this station they have the loco works, this contains all the main trains about 15 in all with some other being repaired. Here you are able to get up close and see how big they are. There are boards next to each train describing what type of train they are and what work is being done on them. Also here there is a restaurant which on Sunday you can have a Sunday roast as well as a real ale bar selling food this is called the Bessemer Arms which was named after a local resident who saved the line from closing. There is also a well stocked gift shop, and a museum on platform 2 which should be opening soon.
Horsted Keynes Station
At this station you will find the Carriage and Wagon department which shows rail stock being restored. There was also a cafe and a small museum which was not open on the day we visited. There is also a secondhand bookshop with many old train books and cheap jigsaws to buy.
Kingscote Station
This is the end of the line at the moment although it is hoped that they will one day be all the way to East Grinstead, At this station their is a field to picnic on and a food snack bar.
The train runs every hour at the weekend.
