118-610: The Westerham Valley branch line was a short railway line in Kent that connected Westerham , Brasted and Chevening with the village of Dunton Green and the South Eastern Main Line , a distance of 4.5 miles (7.2 km). Authorisation for the construction of the line was obtained in 1864, 1867 and 1870 by the South Eastern Railway (SER). No works having been undertaken by 1876, several local inhabitants, aware of
236-408: A crank on a driving axle. Steam locomotives have been phased out in most parts of the world for economical and safety reasons, although many are preserved in working order by heritage railways . Electric locomotives draw power from a stationary source via an overhead wire or third rail . Some also or instead use a battery . In locomotives that are powered by high-voltage alternating current ,
354-586: A dining car . Some lines also provide over-night services with sleeping cars . Some long-haul trains have been given a specific name . Regional trains are medium distance trains that connect cities with outlying, surrounding areas, or provide a regional service, making more stops and having lower speeds. Commuter trains serve suburbs of urban areas, providing a daily commuting service. Airport rail links provide quick access from city centres to airports . High-speed rail are special inter-city trains that operate at much higher speeds than conventional railways,
472-710: A fourth rail system in 1890 on the City and South London Railway , now part of the London Underground Northern line . This was the first major railway to use electric traction . The world's first deep-level electric railway, it runs from the City of London , under the River Thames , to Stockwell in south London. The first practical AC electric locomotive was designed by Charles Brown , then working for Oerlikon , Zürich. In 1891, Brown had demonstrated long-distance power transmission, using three-phase AC , between
590-527: A funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria. The line originally used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel . The line is still operational, although in updated form and is possibly the oldest operational railway. Wagonways (or tramways ) using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate
708-488: A hydro-electric plant at Lauffen am Neckar and Frankfurt am Main West, a distance of 280 km (170 mi). Using experience he had gained while working for Jean Heilmann on steam–electric locomotive designs, Brown observed that three-phase motors had a higher power-to-weight ratio than DC motors and, because of the absence of a commutator , were simpler to manufacture and maintain. However, they were much larger than
826-431: A steam engine that provides adhesion. Coal , petroleum , or wood is burned in a firebox , boiling water in the boiler to create pressurized steam. The steam travels through the smokebox before leaving via the chimney or smoke stack. In the process, it powers a piston that transmits power directly through a connecting rod (US: main rod) and a crankpin (US: wristpin) on the driving wheel (US main driver) or to
944-469: A transformer in the locomotive converts the high-voltage low-current power to low-voltage high current used in the traction motors that power the wheels. Modern locomotives may use three-phase AC induction motors or direct current motors. Under certain conditions, electric locomotives are the most powerful traction. They are also the cheapest to run and provide less noise and no local air pollution. However, they require high capital investments both for
1062-443: A commercial service, using a two-car DMU . The plans came to nothing: the society failed to buy the whole line, and most local residents were not interested. The committee then recommended that the stretch of track between Sheffield Park and Horsted Keynes could be run as a tourist attraction, with vintage locomotives and stock operated by unpaid volunteer staff. As BR still ran an electrified line from Horsted Keynes to Ardingly,
1180-585: A commuter service would be provided, thereby allowing it to cease its subsidies of bus services which were now over-subscribed following the closure of the Westerham branch. In July 1962, British Railways granted a lease of Westerham Station building, which became the Headquarters of the Association. A lease of Brasted Station was also later agreed. However, British Railways were later to change their policy regarding
1298-544: A diesel locomotive from the company in 1909. The world's first diesel-powered locomotive was operated in the summer of 1912 on the Winterthur–Romanshorn railway in Switzerland, but was not a commercial success. The locomotive weight was 95 tonnes and the power was 883 kW with a maximum speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). Small numbers of prototype diesel locomotives were produced in a number of countries through
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#17329267256061416-468: A double track plateway, erroneously sometimes cited as world's first public railway, in south London. William Jessop had earlier used a form of all-iron edge rail and flanged wheels successfully for an extension to the Charnwood Forest Canal at Nanpantan , Loughborough, Leicestershire in 1789. In 1790, Jessop and his partner Outram began to manufacture edge rails. Jessop became a partner in
1534-437: A large turning radius in its design. While high-speed rail is most often designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. Since 1980, rail transport has changed dramatically, but a number of heritage railways continue to operate as part of living history to preserve and maintain old railway lines for services of tourist trains. A train is a connected series of rail vehicles that move along
1652-488: A larger locomotive named Galvani , exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Arts Exhibition in 1841. The seven-ton vehicle had two direct-drive reluctance motors , with fixed electromagnets acting on iron bars attached to a wooden cylinder on each axle, and simple commutators . It hauled a load of six tons at four miles per hour (6 kilometers per hour) for a distance of one and a half miles (2.4 kilometres). It
1770-464: A litter-strewn track, and ending symbolically with a signal 'halting' a train service. The withdrawal of the backer following the refusal of his planning application to develop land at Westerham Station cast serious doubt on the proposed re-opening. In the Association's Annual General Meeting on 2 November 1963, members were informed that efforts to raise the £30,000 plus £10,000 for equipment had failed. Furthermore, British Railways were now in talks with
1888-423: A locomotive. This involves one or more powered vehicles being located at the front of the train, providing sufficient tractive force to haul the weight of the full train. This arrangement remains dominant for freight trains and is often used for passenger trains. A push–pull train has the end passenger car equipped with a driver's cab so that the engine driver can remotely control the locomotive. This allows one of
2006-551: A merger between two local interest groups, the Westerham Branch Railway Passengers' Association and the Westerham Valley Railway Society , began to investigate the possibility of re-opening the line, staffed by volunteers, for commuters on weekdays and as a heritage railway at weekends between April and October. British Railways offered the ownership of the line for £30,000 on the basis that
2124-471: A museum and interpretation area; create new facilities for locomotive crews; create a rainwater catchment system from the roof of the carriage building, which is then processed and used to fill the steam engines' boilers; restore the railway's historic platform buildings. The Bluebell Railway is twinned with the Museumstoomtram Hoorn – Medemblik , which links Hoorn and Medemblik , North Holland ,
2242-477: A number of trains per hour (tph). Passenger trains can usually be into two types of operation, intercity railway and intracity transit. Whereas intercity railway involve higher speeds, longer routes, and lower frequency (usually scheduled), intracity transit involves lower speeds, shorter routes, and higher frequency (especially during peak hours). Intercity trains are long-haul trains that operate with few stops between cities. Trains typically have amenities such as
2360-567: A petition against closure signed by almost 2,500 local inhabitants and presented by the MP for Sevenoaks , John Rodgers . The Minister claimed that service was losing £26,000 per year which was equivalent to £150 per passenger. One of the last trains to run was the "Westerham Flyer", a Class H 0-4-4T No. 31518 flying a Union Jack and bearing the notice "Flyer 1881-1961". In 1962, the Westerham Valley Railway Association , born of
2478-650: A piece of circular rail track in Bloomsbury , London, the Catch Me Who Can , but never got beyond the experimental stage with railway locomotives, not least because his engines were too heavy for the cast-iron plateway track then in use. The first commercially successful steam locomotive was Matthew Murray 's rack locomotive Salamanca built for the Middleton Railway in Leeds in 1812. This twin-cylinder locomotive
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#17329267256062596-460: A pivotal role in the development and widespread adoption of the steam locomotive. His designs considerably improved on the work of the earlier pioneers. He built the locomotive Blücher , also a successful flanged -wheel adhesion locomotive. In 1825 he built the locomotive Locomotion for the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the northeast of England, which became the first public steam railway in
2714-439: A revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO 2 emissions . Smooth, durable road surfaces have been made for wheeled vehicles since prehistoric times. In some cases, they were narrow and in pairs to support only the wheels. That is, they were wagonways or tracks. Some had grooves or flanges or other mechanical means to keep
2832-467: A sawmill. The only time Sheffield Park received a substantial number of passengers was when Lord Sheffield entertained the Australian cricket team, with a match between them and Lord Sheffield's own team. On 31 July 1943, newlyweds Ronald Knapp and Winifred Standing were killed when they were pulled under a train from Lewes to East Grinstead. The couple walked along the railway on a dark rainy night. When
2950-724: A single lever to control both engine and generator in a coordinated fashion, and was the prototype for all diesel–electric locomotive control systems. In 1914, world's first functional diesel–electric railcars were produced for the Königlich-Sächsische Staatseisenbahnen ( Royal Saxon State Railways ) by Waggonfabrik Rastatt with electric equipment from Brown, Boveri & Cie and diesel engines from Swiss Sulzer AG . They were classified as DET 1 and DET 2 ( de.wiki ). The first regular used diesel–electric locomotives were switcher (shunter) locomotives . General Electric produced several small switching locomotives in
3068-407: A standard. Following SNCF's successful trials, 50 Hz, now also called industrial frequency was adopted as standard for main-lines across the world. Earliest recorded examples of an internal combustion engine for railway use included a prototype designed by William Dent Priestman . Sir William Thomson examined it in 1888 and described it as a "Priestman oil engine mounted upon a truck which
3186-620: A terminus about one-half mile (800 m) away. A funicular railway was also made at Broseley in Shropshire some time before 1604. This carried coal for James Clifford from his mines down to the River Severn to be loaded onto barges and carried to riverside towns. The Wollaton Wagonway , completed in 1604 by Huntingdon Beaumont , has sometimes erroneously been cited as the earliest British railway. It ran from Strelley to Wollaton near Nottingham . The Middleton Railway in Leeds , which
3304-460: A week after they were married, the couple's funeral was at St Giles' Church, Horsted Keynes , where they are buried together in a grave marked by a War Graves Commission headstone. In 1954, long before the Beeching Axe , the branch line committee of British Railways proposed closing the line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction near Lewes . This was challenged by local residents, but closure
3422-408: A wheel. This was a large stationary engine , powering cotton mills and a variety of machinery; the state of boiler technology necessitated the use of low-pressure steam acting upon a vacuum in the cylinder, which required a separate condenser and an air pump . Nevertheless, as the construction of boilers improved, Watt investigated the use of high-pressure steam acting directly upon a piston, raising
3540-463: A £3.8 million appeal; the greater part of this amount would be put towards reconnecting the line to East Grinstead. Mid Sussex District Council responded with a one-off donation of £50,000 towards the reconnection. On 7 March 2013, the last section of track was formally joined using a white fishplate, with the honour of tightening the four bolts being given to Barbara Watkins, a long-standing Bluebell Railway volunteer. The extension to East Grinstead
3658-529: 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,
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3776-410: Is a single, self-powered car, and may be electrically propelled or powered by a diesel engine . Multiple units have a driver's cab at each end of the unit, and were developed following the ability to build electric motors and other engines small enough to fit under the coach. There are only a few freight multiple units, most of which are high-speed post trains. Steam locomotives are locomotives with
3894-399: Is dominant. Electro-diesel locomotives are built to run as diesel–electric on unelectrified sections and as electric locomotives on electrified sections. Alternative methods of motive power include magnetic levitation , horse-drawn, cable , gravity, pneumatics and gas turbine . A passenger train stops at stations where passengers may embark and disembark. The oversight of the train is
4012-410: 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
4130-673: Is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed . Rolling stock on rails generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tyred road vehicles, allowing rail cars to be coupled into longer trains . Power is usually provided by diesel or electrical locomotives . While railway transport is capital-intensive and less flexible than road transport, it can carry heavy loads of passengers and cargo with greater energy efficiency and safety. Precursors of railways driven by human or animal power have existed since antiquity, but modern rail transport began with
4248-550: Is worked on a temporary line of rails to show the adaptation of a petroleum engine for locomotive purposes." In 1894, a 20 hp (15 kW) two axle machine built by Priestman Brothers was used on the Hull Docks . In 1906, Rudolf Diesel , Adolf Klose and the steam and diesel engine manufacturer Gebrüder Sulzer founded Diesel-Sulzer-Klose GmbH to manufacture diesel-powered locomotives. Sulzer had been manufacturing diesel engines since 1898. The Prussian State Railways ordered
4366-585: The Hanson Aggregates depot built on the former Ardingly railway station site. The society plans to reconnect the line with Network Rail at Copyhold Junction, to allow access to the London to Brighton Main Line . Stations could either be located at Copyhold or Haywards Heath. There is a proposal that the line could be restored as third rail electrified, allowing operation of the society's electric stock. While
4484-629: The Kent County Council regarding the sale of the line to enable the construction of the A21 Sevenoaks bypass which required the demolition of a bridge along the route of the line. More positive news was received later in November 1963 when it was revealed that not only had a new backer been found, but also that terms were agreed with British Railways for the sale of the land to the Association. However, one month later, Kent County Council contacted
4602-857: The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) to form the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR). In 1923, the Westerham Valley branch, together with its operators the SECR, became part of the Southern Railway at the grouping . The Southern Railway was nationalised in 1948 and became the Southern Region of British Railways . The line began to suffer competition with buses, notably the 403 route which ran from Croydon via Sanderstead , Chelsham and Westerham to Sevenoaks , and as train fares rose dramatically from 1938, passenger numbers fell. By 1960
4720-665: The United Kingdom , South Korea , Scandinavia, Belgium and the Netherlands. The construction of many of these lines has resulted in the dramatic decline of short-haul flights and automotive traffic between connected cities, such as the London–Paris–Brussels corridor, Madrid–Barcelona, Milan–Rome–Naples, as well as many other major lines. High-speed trains normally operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates
4838-414: The overhead lines and the supporting infrastructure, as well as the generating station that is needed to produce electricity. Accordingly, electric traction is used on urban systems, lines with high traffic and for high-speed rail. Diesel locomotives use a diesel engine as the prime mover . The energy transmission may be either diesel–electric , diesel-mechanical or diesel–hydraulic but diesel–electric
Westerham Valley branch line - Misplaced Pages Continue
4956-458: The puddling process in 1784. In 1783 Cort also patented the rolling process , which was 15 times faster at consolidating and shaping iron than hammering. These processes greatly lowered the cost of producing iron and rails. The next important development in iron production was hot blast developed by James Beaumont Neilson (patented 1828), which considerably reduced the amount of coke (fuel) or charcoal needed to produce pig iron. Wrought iron
5074-418: The rotary phase converter , enabling electric locomotives to use three-phase motors whilst supplied via a single overhead wire, carrying the simple industrial frequency (50 Hz) single phase AC of the high-voltage national networks. An important contribution to the wider adoption of AC traction came from SNCF of France after World War II. The company conducted trials at AC 50 Hz, and established it as
5192-523: The 1858 Wealden Line (part of which is now restored as the nearby Heritage Lavender Line ), thereby gaining access to Lewes. The section from East Grinstead to Culver Junction was closed in 1958, and the Lewes to Uckfield line in 1969 by British Rail. Bluebell supporters and committee members have expressed interest in re-building the line south by three more stations to Lewes. However, a substantial number of large civil engineering obstacles and intrusions onto
5310-532: The 1880s, railway electrification began with tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting in the 1940s, steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives . The first high-speed railway system was introduced in Japan in 1964, and high-speed rail lines now connect many cities in Europe , East Asia , and the eastern United States . Following some decline due to competition from cars and airplanes, rail transport has had
5428-510: The 1930s (the famous " 44-tonner " switcher was introduced in 1940) Westinghouse Electric and Baldwin collaborated to build switching locomotives starting in 1929. In 1929, the Canadian National Railways became the first North American railway to use diesels in mainline service with two units, 9000 and 9001, from Westinghouse. Although steam and diesel services reaching speeds up to 200 km/h (120 mph) were started before
5546-429: The 1960s and 1970s, but tests undertaken by contractors working for both the society and the borough council found the 96,000 cubic metres (3,400,000 cu ft) of waste within the 500-metre-long (1,600 ft) cutting were not toxic. The excavated clay -cap covering the landfill site was taken south by rail, to fill the site of a removed viaduct and embankment on the old Ardingly spur. In January 2008 agreement
5664-500: The 1960s in Europe, they were not very successful. The first electrified high-speed rail Tōkaidō Shinkansen was introduced in 1964 between Tokyo and Osaka in Japan. Since then high-speed rail transport, functioning at speeds up to and above 300 km/h (190 mph), has been built in Japan, Spain, France , Germany, Italy, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan (Republic of China),
5782-431: The 218-yard (199 m) Lywood Tunnel remains in good condition, there are two major areas of work that would be required to re-open the line, these being the replacement of a short girder-bridge span bridge and the 117-yard (107 m) Sheriff Mill Viaduct, which was demolished in 1969. The removed clay-cap from Imberhorne cutting has been deposited on the banks of the former Sherriff Mill viaduct to allow later bridging of
5900-702: 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. In 1877 an act of Parliament authorised construction of the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway ( L&EGR ). The line was sponsored by local landowners, including the Earl of Sheffield . A year later another act enabled the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company (LB&SCR), chaired by Samuel Laing , to acquire and operate
6018-460: The 40 km Burgdorf–Thun line , Switzerland. Italian railways were the first in the world to introduce electric traction for the entire length of a main line rather than a short section. The 106 km Valtellina line was opened on 4 September 1902, designed by Kandó and a team from the Ganz works. The electrical system was three-phase at 3 kV 15 Hz. In 1918, Kandó invented and developed
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#17329267256066136-462: The Association and informed them that the Council's intended purchase of the land would save taxpayers the sum of £120,000 and, furthermore, that in the event British Railways were unwilling to sell the land to it, as had been intimated, compulsory purchase powers would be used. Faced with the prospect of a compulsory sale, British Railways now broke off negotiations with the Association and agreed to sell
6254-599: The Association merged with the Kent & East Sussex Railway Preservation Society . By March 1967 the railway track had been lifted and Westerham Station demolished. Works on the section of the M25 from Sundridge Road to Westerham commenced in December 1976 and were completed in December 1979. Save for the section taken by the M25, a surprising amount of the line still remains and it is possible to walk from Dunton Green as far as junction 5 on
6372-522: The Butterley Company in 1790. The first public edgeway (thus also first public railway) built was Lake Lock Rail Road in 1796. Although the primary purpose of the line was to carry coal, it also carried passengers. These two systems of constructing iron railways, the "L" plate-rail and the smooth edge-rail, continued to exist side by side until well into the early 19th century. The flanged wheel and edge-rail eventually proved its superiority and became
6490-511: The DC motors of the time and could not be mounted in underfloor bogies : they could only be carried within locomotive bodies. In 1894, Hungarian engineer Kálmán Kandó developed a new type 3-phase asynchronous electric drive motors and generators for electric locomotives. Kandó's early 1894 designs were first applied in a short three-phase AC tramway in Évian-les-Bains (France), which was constructed between 1896 and 1898. In 1896, Oerlikon installed
6608-492: The M25/A21 interchange although it is possible the platform may still exist buried when the cutting was infilled for the M25/A21 roadworks. Rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport ) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks , which usually consist of two parallel steel rails . Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport , next to road transport . It
6726-557: The Secretaries of State for the Environment and Transport giving planning permission and a Light Railway Order for an extension to East Grinstead in 1985. The Bluebell Railway Preservation Society completed the extension from Horsted Keynes to Kingscote in April 1994, re-laying track through Sharpthorne Tunnel, which at 731 yards or 668 metres is the longest on a UK heritage railway. At
6844-455: The advantages of the railway and impatient for action, rallied together to sponsor a bill similar to the original 1864 bill. The line was to be built in two phases: phase one from Dunton Green via Brasted to Westerham, and phase two covering the 4 miles from Westerham to Oxted, where it would join the Oxted Line , the construction of which had not by then been completed. However, the second phase
6962-454: The condition that a commuter service be provided, thereby enabling it to cease its annual subsidy of £8,700 towards the additional bus services laid on following the line's closure. Even during this time of hopeful negotiation, a seeming inevitability of closure was accepted, when, in the ' Look at Life (film series) ' ' episode, 'Drawing the Fires', from 1963, Westerham Station was shown empty, with
7080-526: The disposal of disused branch lines and, as they had done with the Bluebell Railway , were no longer prepared to simply lease the line to a private operator. Instead, they now required an outright sale of the line to the Association for £53,000. Thanks to the help of an anonymous backer, the Association was able to put forward an offer of £30,000 for the track, buildings, land and branch platform at Dunton Green . British Railways accepted this offer subject to
7198-430: The duty of a guard/train manager/conductor . Passenger trains are part of public transport and often make up the stem of the service, with buses feeding to stations. Passenger trains provide long-distance intercity travel, daily commuter trips, or local urban transit services, operating with a diversity of vehicles, operating speeds, right-of-way requirements, and service frequency. Service frequencies are often expressed as
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#17329267256067316-402: The end of the 19th century, because they were cleaner compared to steam-driven trams which caused smoke in city streets. In 1784 James Watt , a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer, patented a design for a steam locomotive . Watt had improved the steam engine of Thomas Newcomen , hitherto used to pump water out of mines, and developed a reciprocating engine in 1769 capable of powering
7434-467: The end of the 19th century, improving the quality of steel and further reducing costs. Thus steel completely replaced the use of iron in rails, becoming standard for all railways. The first passenger horsecar or tram , Swansea and Mumbles Railway , was opened between Swansea and Mumbles in Wales in 1807. Horses remained the preferable mode for tram transport even after the arrival of steam engines until
7552-515: The engine by one power stroke. The transmission system employed a large flywheel to even out the action of the piston rod. On 21 February 1804, the world's first steam-powered railway journey took place when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales . Trevithick later demonstrated a locomotive operating upon
7670-470: The era of great expansion of railways that began in the late 1860s. Steel rails lasted several times longer than iron. Steel rails made heavier locomotives possible, allowing for longer trains and improving the productivity of railroads. The Bessemer process introduced nitrogen into the steel, which caused the steel to become brittle with age. The open hearth furnace began to replace the Bessemer process near
7788-515: The first commercial example of the system on the Lugano Tramway . Each 30-tonne locomotive had two 110 kW (150 hp) motors run by three-phase 750 V 40 Hz fed from double overhead lines. Three-phase motors run at a constant speed and provide regenerative braking , and are well suited to steeply graded routes, and the first main-line three-phase locomotives were supplied by Brown (by then in partnership with Walter Boveri ) in 1899 on
7906-399: The former Southern Railway target station sign for Brasted, which currently (2008) holds the record of £3250 for the highest price paid at auction for such a sign. The site of Brasted station is now under the westbound hard shoulder lane of the M25 although the station approach road and site of the goods yard can be seen alongside the motorway. The site of Chevening Halt is now a field alongside
8024-480: The former trackbed make this a difficult project to envisage the completion of. For execution, the project would require: The remaining undeveloped line from Lewes to Sheffield Park has been safeguarded as a bridleway and footpath. The various stations have been restored to show different periods of the railway's life: The Bluebell Railway preserved a number of steam locomotives before the cessation of steam service on British mainline railways in 1968. Today it has
8142-506: The gap. Also in 2013, the former Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway bridge that crossed over the M50 motorway were donated to the railway for eventual installation in the replacement bridge. By the late Victorian era, Lewes station was the convergence point of three lines from the East Sussex coast and three lines to the north all of which reached London via Croydon . Today, Lewes has a line to
8260-706: The highest possible radius. All these features are dramatically different from freight operations, thus justifying exclusive high-speed rail lines if it is economically feasible. Bluebell Railway The Bluebell Railway is an 11 mi (17.7 km) heritage line in West Sussex in England . 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
8378-530: The homes of two other sponsors. The other stations were at Kingscote , West Hoathly and Horsted Keynes . A branch ran from a junction at Horsted Keynes to Ardingly and Haywards Heath on the LB&;SCR main line. The 1877 and 1878 acts included a clause that: This imposed a legal requirement to provide a service, and the only way to remove this obligation was to pass another act. Designed under instructions from LB&SCR Chief Engineer Frederick Banister ,
8496-567: The infilling of the Chevening cutting, the Association realised that their plans to re-open the line could no longer be realised. This was notwithstanding intervention by the MP for Faversham , Terence Boston , who unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the new Labour Minister of Transport, Tom Fraser , to hold an enquiry into the County Council's plans to convert the line into motorway. In autumn 1965,
8614-658: The invention of the steam locomotive in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the 19th century. The first passenger railway, the Stockton and Darlington Railway , opened in 1825. The quick spread of railways throughout Europe and North America, following the 1830 opening of the first intercity connection in England, was a key component of the Industrial Revolution . The adoption of rail transport lowered shipping costs compared to water transport, leading to "national markets" in which prices varied less from city to city. In
8732-502: The landfill waste by the end of March 2012. With the receiving site changed to Appleford , Oxfordshire and thanks to the "tenner for the tip" appeal, the cash target was met and the rubbish was removed by rail in time. In autumn 2008 work started on site clearance at East Grinstead for construction of the new station about 100 yards (91 m) south of the national rail station. At the railway's 50th anniversary celebration weekend in 2010, East Sussex resident Dame Vera Lynn launched
8850-664: The largest collection - over 30 - of steam locomotives in the UK after the National Railway Museum (NRM). The society also has a collection of almost 150 carriages and wagons, most of them pre-war. A project is under way to recreate a long-lost type of locomotive ( LB&SCR H2 class Atlantic ) from a few surviving parts. In April 2008, the Heritage Lottery Fund provided a £2.8M grant towards new buildings next to Sheffield Park , to provide weatherproof shelter for up to 17 carriages. The funds were also used to: create
8968-1218: The limit being regarded at 200 to 350 kilometres per hour (120 to 220 mph). High-speed trains are used mostly for long-haul service and most systems are in Western Europe and East Asia. Magnetic levitation trains such as the Shanghai maglev train use under-riding magnets which attract themselves upward towards the underside of a guideway and this line has achieved somewhat higher peak speeds in day-to-day operation than conventional high-speed railways, although only over short distances. Due to their heightened speeds, route alignments for high-speed rail tend to have broader curves than conventional railways, but may have steeper grades that are more easily climbed by trains with large kinetic energy. High kinetic energy translates to higher horsepower-to-ton ratios (e.g. 20 horsepower per short ton or 16 kilowatts per tonne); this allows trains to accelerate and maintain higher speeds and negotiate steep grades as momentum builds up and recovered in downgrades (reducing cut and fill and tunnelling requirements). Since lateral forces act on curves, curvatures are designed with
9086-563: The line north of Horsted Keynes, the Bluebell Line was severed from the BR system. In 1974 the society purchased the freehold of the demolished West Hoathly station , allowing the first steps to be taken towards an extension northwards towards East Grinstead station . It then purchased the freehold of the site of Kingscote station in January 1985. These efforts culminated in a public inquiry , with
9204-460: The line to the Council. However, in April 1964, the Council indicated their willingness to lease the line to the Association, thereby ensuring the line's continued existence if the Association were to finance the cost of constructing a bridge over the railway cutting at Chevening to enable the Sevenoaks bypass to cross it. The cost of this bridge was estimated by the Council at £14,000, added to which
9322-438: The line was constructed to take double track. However, only the section between East Grinstead and Horsted Keynes (and thence to Haywards Heath via Ardingly) was laid as such; south of the junction at Horsted Keynes the line was single track with passing loops at stations. The line was opened in 1882. Goods traffic on the line consisted of local produce; milk: farm products and coal, and timber to and from Albert Turner & Son,
9440-469: The line was reported to be losing £26,000 per year and a proposal was made to close it in April 1960. However, the Central Transport Users' Consultative Committee argued against this move, claiming that 200 passengers per day used the line. This advice was rejected by the then Minister of Transport , Ernest Marples , and the last day of operation of the line would be 28 October 1961. He rejected
9558-531: The line, with trains stopping at stations mentioned in the acts. British Railways took the case to the House of Commons in 1957, resulting in a public inquiry. British Railways were censured, but later the Transport Commission persuaded Parliament to repeal the special section of the act. By this means the line was finally closed on 17 March 1958. On 15 March 1959 a group that included the future president of
9676-491: The line. The line had six stations, but only Barcombe was within walking distance of a village. Chailey parish had two stations, one at Sheffield Park and the other at Newick and Chailey . It was customary for a rural line supported by a company or individuals to have stations close to the residences of its sponsors. Thus Sheffield Park station was built for the Earl of Sheffield, and Newick and Chailey for Newick Park and Reedens,
9794-429: The locomotive-hauled train's drawbacks to be removed, since the locomotive need not be moved to the front of the train each time the train changes direction. A railroad car is a vehicle used for the haulage of either passengers or freight. A multiple unit has powered wheels throughout the whole train. These are used for rapid transit and tram systems, as well as many both short- and long-haul passenger trains. A railcar
9912-560: The main portion of the B&;O to the new line to New York through a series of tunnels around the edges of Baltimore's downtown. Electricity quickly became the power supply of choice for subways, abetted by the Sprague's invention of multiple-unit train control in 1897. By the early 1900s most street railways were electrified. The London Underground , the world's oldest underground railway, opened in 1863, and it began operating electric services using
10030-433: The mid-1920s. The Soviet Union operated three experimental units of different designs since late 1925, though only one of them (the E el-2 ) proved technically viable. A significant breakthrough occurred in 1914, when Hermann Lemp , a General Electric electrical engineer, developed and patented a reliable direct current electrical control system (subsequent improvements were also patented by Lemp). Lemp's design used
10148-465: The motorway which is situated near Chevening . Nothing remains of the three stations, save for several houses in Railway Terrace, Westerham , near the site of the old station. The site of Westerham station is now covered by a road known as "The Flyers Way" after the name by which the train was known locally. Perhaps of additional interest to collectors of railway memorabilia is the extreme rarity of
10266-412: The noise they made on the tracks. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century. Such a transport system was later used by German miners at Caldbeck , Cumbria , England, perhaps from the 1560s. A wagonway was built at Prescot , near Liverpool , sometime around 1600, possibly as early as 1594. Owned by Philip Layton, the line carried coal from a pit near Prescot Hall to
10384-451: The north end of Sharpthorne Tunnel, the line passes through the site of the former West Hoathly railway station. It was demolished in 1967, but remains of the platforms and goods dock are still visible. 2010 marked the Bluebell's 50th anniversary of running trains. To mark the event, the railway held a gala over 6–8 August 2010 with all available home engines and two visitor engines. Some of
10502-615: The north which joins the Brighton main Line at Burgess Hill and from there on to Gatwick Airport, East Croydon and London, a line west towards Brighton, a line south to Newhaven and Seaford, and a line east to Eastbourne, Hastings and Ashford. Originally the Bluebell Line was the straightest and quickest route from Lewes to London. The Bluebell Railway ran directly south from Sheffield Park to Culver Junction (at Culver Farm just south of Barcombe Mills ), with intermediate stations at Newick and Chailey and Barcombe . At Culver Junction it joined
10620-513: The possibility of a smaller engine that might be used to power a vehicle. Following his patent, Watt's employee William Murdoch produced a working model of a self-propelled steam carriage in that year. The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built in the United Kingdom in 1804 by Richard Trevithick , a British engineer born in Cornwall . This used high-pressure steam to drive
10738-402: The purchase of the final pieces of the by then privately owned track bed north to East Grinstead was only completed in 2003, allowing physical civil engineering activity to be undertaken from that year. A major problem was the former landfill site in the 30-foot-deep (9.1 m) cutting just south of Imberhorne Viaduct. It had been filled with domestic waste by East Grinstead Town Council in
10856-467: The society leased a stretch of track from BR just south of this. In 1960, the interim line was opened, running from Sheffield Park to Bluebell Halt, 100 yards (91 m) south of Horsted Keynes . In 1962, the society extended services to Horsted Keynes. Also in 1962, a halt was opened at Holywell (Waterworks). However, this was closed the following year. BR withdrew passenger services from Horsted Keynes to Haywards Heath in 1963; and with complete closure of
10974-420: The society's founder members gathered at Horsted Keynes to mark the arrival of a commemorative LB&SCR A1X class No.55 Stepney -hauled steam train. The entourage then travelled towards Sheffield Park. From its inception, the society had always planned to work northwards towards East Grinstead, where the line would connect with the national network. BR donated Imberhorne Viaduct to the railway in 1992, but
11092-560: The society, Bernard Holden , met in Ardingly and formed the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway Preservation Society . The society elected John Leroy as the first chairman, and £940 was raised in donations to start the society. On a vote at the meeting, the society changed its name to the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society . The society's initial aim was to reopen the whole line from East Grinstead to Culver Junction as
11210-441: The standard for railways. Cast iron used in rails proved unsatisfactory because it was brittle and broke under heavy loads. The wrought iron invented by John Birkinshaw in 1820 replaced cast iron. Wrought iron, usually simply referred to as "iron", was a ductile material that could undergo considerable deformation before breaking, making it more suitable for iron rails. But iron was expensive to produce until Henry Cort patented
11328-543: The stock to be stored at Dunton Green, but since the intervention of the Kent County Council, it became 'reluctant' to allow this and threatened to scrap the stock were it not collected. The coaches were loaned and later sold to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the locomotive to the Bluebell Railway where it remains today. By November 1964 the funds to construct the bridge had still not been found and, following
11446-470: The time, was Liverpool and Manchester Railway , built in 1830. Steam power continued to be the dominant power system in railways around the world for more than a century. The first known electric locomotive was built in 1837 by chemist Robert Davidson of Aberdeen in Scotland, and it was powered by galvanic cells (batteries). Thus it was also the earliest battery-electric locomotive. Davidson later built
11564-536: The track. Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate locomotive or from individual motors in self-propelled multiple units. Most trains carry a revenue load, although non-revenue cars exist for the railway's own use, such as for maintenance-of-way purposes. The engine driver (engineer in North America) controls the locomotive or other power cars, although people movers and some rapid transits are under automatic control. Traditionally, trains are pulled using
11682-503: The train got to Horsted Keynes, the guard found a raincoat covered with blood on the engine. Another coat was found near two bodies in the middle of the tracks. The ganger who found them told the inquest the couple must have been walking with their backs to the train. "There was a very heavy squall at the time and the couple would probably have not heard a thing," he said. The coroner said Ronald and Winifred were trespassing and no blame could be attached to any railway worker. Little more than
11800-466: The transport of ore tubs to and from mines and soon became popular in Europe. Such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica . This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way. The miners called the wagons Hunde ("dogs") from
11918-609: The wheels on track. For example, evidence indicates that a 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD. Paved trackways were also later built in Roman Egypt . In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug ,
12036-601: The world in 1825, although it used both horse power and steam power on different runs. In 1829, he built the locomotive Rocket , which entered in and won the Rainhill Trials . This success led to Stephenson establishing his company as the pre-eminent builder of steam locomotives for railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the United States, and much of Europe. The first public railway which used only steam locomotives, all
12154-507: Was a soft material that contained slag or dross . The softness and dross tended to make iron rails distort and delaminate and they lasted less than 10 years. Sometimes they lasted as little as one year under high traffic. All these developments in the production of iron eventually led to the replacement of composite wood/iron rails with superior all-iron rails. The introduction of the Bessemer process , enabling steel to be made inexpensively, led to
12272-585: Was accomplished by the distribution of weight between a number of wheels. Puffing Billy is now on display in the Science Museum in London, and is the oldest locomotive in existence. In 1814, George Stephenson , inspired by the early locomotives of Trevithick, Murray and Hedley, persuaded the manager of the Killingworth colliery where he worked to allow him to build a steam-powered machine. Stephenson played
12390-502: Was agreed in February 1955 for 15 June 1955, although the line closed on 29 May due to a rail strike. An acrimonious battle between British Railways and the users of the Bluebell Line then ensued, and lasted three years. Shortly after closure, Margery Bessemer of Chailey discovered in the 1877 and 1878 acts the clause relating to the "Statutory Line", and demanded British Railways reinstate services. On 7 August 1956 British Railways reopened
12508-509: Was built by Siemens. The tram ran on 180 volts DC, which was supplied by running rails. In 1891 the track was equipped with an overhead wire and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station . The Volk's Electric Railway opened in 1883 in Brighton , England. The railway is still operational, thus making it the oldest operational electric railway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram opened near Vienna in Austria. It
12626-687: Was built in 1758, later became the world's oldest operational railway (other than funiculars), albeit now in an upgraded form. In 1764, the first railway in the Americas was built in Lewiston, New York . In the late 1760s, the Coalbrookdale Company began to fix plates of cast iron to the upper surface of the wooden rails. This allowed a variation of gauge to be used. At first only balloon loops could be used for turning, but later, movable points were taken into use that allowed for switching. A system
12744-408: Was carried out by DB Schenker Rail (UK) . At £25,000 per train and now undertaken by GB Railfreight , this practice continued periodically as funds became available. However, an increase in the landfill tax was announced in 2008, and this was due to take effect from April 2012. It would increase the cost of removal from £25/tonne to £90/tonne. So the society formed an appeal to complete the removal of
12862-426: Was given to start clearing foliage on the section of the tip between Imberhorne Lane and Hill Place bridges. In a public launch event, BBC news reader Nicholas Owen —a local resident and society volunteer—started removal of the actual waste on 25 November 2008. Initially rubbish was removed from the site by lorry, but, due to the substantial volume and cost of about £45/tonne, in 2009 a trial removal of spoil by rail
12980-625: Was in the region of £70,000 and the line opened on 7 July 1881. Initially, the service ran only from Westerham to Dunton Green where passengers wishing to travel to London Charing Cross (via Cannon Street ) would have to change. Formal ownership of the line was transferred to the South Eastern Railway in August 1881 at which point the Westerham Valley Railway Company was dissolved. In 1899, SER merged with its bitter rival,
13098-535: Was introduced in which unflanged wheels ran on L-shaped metal plates, which came to be known as plateways . John Curr , a Sheffield colliery manager, invented this flanged rail in 1787, though the exact date of this is disputed. The plate rail was taken up by Benjamin Outram for wagonways serving his canals, manufacturing them at his Butterley ironworks . In 1803, William Jessop opened the Surrey Iron Railway ,
13216-418: Was left in place and used for carriage storage, most notably the new Kent Coast electric stock prior to its introduction and later the steam-hauled stock that it replaced. After the line's closure in 1963, the trackbed was purchased in its entirety by a member of the local gentry. In the 1990s the society bought the abandoned trackbed west between Horsted Keynes and Ardingly from his estate. This included up to
13334-479: Was light enough to not break the edge-rails track and solved the problem of adhesion by a cog-wheel using teeth cast on the side of one of the rails. Thus it was also the first rack railway . This was followed in 1813 by the locomotive Puffing Billy built by Christopher Blackett and William Hedley for the Wylam Colliery Railway, the first successful locomotive running by adhesion only. This
13452-524: Was never realised due to opposition from the SER. The line was authorised on 24 July 1876 and the Westerham Valley Railway Company was formed to oversee its construction and to take over formal ownership. An agreement was then concluded in 1879 with the South Eastern Railway by which the latter would undertake the construction works and eventually operate the line. The actual cost of construction
13570-453: Was officially opened on Saturday 23 March, with a two-week opening festival starting that day. Originally built as a double-track line, it was electrified in the 1930s, with 2-NOL units used for the Seaford -Horsted Keynes service. The line between Horsted Keynes and Ardingly was operated as single-track in its final years, with 2-BIL/Class 401 and 2-HAL/Class 402 units. The second track
13688-742: Was tested on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in September of the following year, but the limited power from batteries prevented its general use. It was destroyed by railway workers, who saw it as a threat to their job security. By the middle of the nineteenth century most european countries had military uses for railways. Werner von Siemens demonstrated an electric railway in 1879 in Berlin. The world's first electric tram line, Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway , opened in Lichterfelde near Berlin , Germany, in 1881. It
13806-469: Was the annual rent of the line of £3,000. The estimate of £14,000 was revised upwards in August 1964, to a figure of £26,215 (equivalent to £355,800 in modern currency) which was to be paid by 24 August, otherwise works would commence to infill the cutting. In the meantime, the purchase of several former Metropolitan Railway coaches and a Class H 0-4-4T locomotive No. 31263 had been agreed and were awaiting collection. Initially, British Railways had allowed
13924-609: Was the first tram line in the world in regular service powered from an overhead line. Five years later, in the U.S. electric trolleys were pioneered in 1888 on the Richmond Union Passenger Railway , using equipment designed by Frank J. Sprague . The first use of electrification on a main line was on a four-mile section of the Baltimore Belt Line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1895 connecting
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