Favourite Brighton area railway station ........

[bigc]

hehe.yes

the people i was with wanted me to go and pull someone on the train at that point..because it was pulborough. needless to say I didnt.

 

[scotjem]

My Uncle did the tickets and signal box at Henfield station. He lived in the station house until the line closed down.

What are the photos of?

There is one picture of two members of staff packing up the furniture the night the last train left. What did your uncle look like ?

 

[blueandwhitearmy]

Moulsecoomb

 

[Yorkie]

There is one picture of two members of staff packing up the furniture the night the last train left. What did your uncle look like ?

Shortish and bald. He would have been 63 because he had to retire two years early when the line closed down.

 

[Gully]

Talk of the Steyning line reminded me of something my dearly departed gran told me, one of my forefathers worked at West Grinstead on the same line, having run away from home in Amberley to get a job there when the line first opened. I haven't a clue how long he worked there but I understand he ended up as Station Master at Ockley.

 

[Pevenseagull]

Pevensey & Westham, Pevensey Bay and Norman's Bay

 

[Zeitgeist]

Talk of the Steyning line reminded me of something my dearly departed gran told me, one of my forefathers worked at West Grinstead on the same line, having run away from home in Amberley to get a job there when the line first opened. I haven't a clue how long he worked there but I understand he ended up as Station Master at Ockley.

What a shortsighted decision to shut down this line?!. To add insult to injury, there's a development of houses on the site of Henfield station called "The Beechings" I've vague memories from my early childhood of waiting at the crossing gates by the old Shoreham toll bridge for a train to come by. I felt cheated if the gates were open!......

 

[Yorkie]

What a shortsighted decision to shut down this line?!. To add insult to injury, there's a development of houses on the site of Henfield station called "The Beechings" I've vague memories from my early childhood of waiting at the crossing gates by the old Shoreham toll bridge for a train to come by. I felt cheated if the gates were open!......

Those houses were named Beechings deliberately. It was to remind people of what they had been robbed of.
The line needed electrifying and Dr Beeching in his 'wisdom' decided all these little branch lines were useless and so should be closed down. Henfield was fine because it had a good bus service - two an hour until 11pm at night.

Now they have a bus every two hours until 6pm at night (unless it has improved since 98 when my Dad died)

 

[Strike]

He also closed the line between Three Bridges and East Grinstead. I have walked the whole way of the old route, the old Rowfant station building, is still there whilst Crawley Down station is now a housing estate. There is a road in East Grinstead ironically called Beeching Way as well. As Yorkie says to remind the locals of that nasty man from Forest Row.

 

[coach03]

Aldrington Halt.

I can remember going up there in the 60s as a little lad with my Grandad and seeing the terrible site of a smoke belching behometh screaming at full tilt towards us as it powered on towards Brighton. I ran as fast as my little legs would carry me to the tunnel and hid under it as the monster thundered on above......
FANTASTIC ! (although I was terrified at the time)

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

He also closed the line between Three Bridges and East Grinstead. I have walked the whole way of the old route, the old Rowfant station building, is still there whilst Crawley Down station is now a housing estate. There is a road in East Grinstead ironically called Beeching Way as well. As Yorkie says to remind the locals of that nasty man from Forest Row.

It's a good throwaway line if one has visitors. EG is famous for two things, the hospital where they treated the Battle of Britain pilots and Beeching. Seriously, though, it's a complete pain. They closed the East Grinstead to Three Bridges line just as Crawley was being developed, so road is the only way between the two towns, and a large number of East Grinstead residents go to work there. They allowed the Burleigh estate to be built across the line at Crawley Down, so the line can never be re-opened. Don't even bother to drive between the Duke's Head and Copthorne between 8 and 9am, and as for the road through Sharpthorne and West Hoathly.... As for West Hoathly Station shutting, that is another great pain, as I have to drive to East Grinstead to catch the train to London. And at West Grinstead, the ignominy of it all. They've turned the station pub, the Tabby Cat, into a Little Chef. Does anyone remember it as a pub?