Spa Valley Railway Cuckoo Line Gala - June 13-15 2025

The U Class has arrived. The Ivatt arrived last week. The Class 33 is outside on the road ready to come in. The lorry is going to Dereham for 80078.

 

D6566

 

Presumably the tender is not far away!

It is amazing what you and all your colleagues are doing for this incredible event.

I very much hope that translates into great visitor numbers to cope with the very considerable costs that go with replicating the closure of the Cuckoo Line 60 years ago.

Bryan

 

It arrived and was unloaded first thing this morning.

 

Really looking foward to this, plenty of action going on!
A question for @Jonnie. Last year there was a 10mph TSR just after Coldbath Bridge, is that still in place at present?

 

No, we've just spent £70,000 last week on repairing a broken culvert and slipped embankment. The 25mph was reinstated last weekend. The only TSR is over Broom Lane and a 10mph behind the houses at Groombridge.

 

The Crompton was unloaded this evening; it is the first time D6566 has been back on the Southern Region since entering preservation (it's never left the West Somerset Railway up until now).

80078 was loaded and left Dereham around 16:00. It will be unloaded upon arrival tomorrow morning.

 

34050 now exists, the nameplates have been applied this evening 'Royal Observer Corps'.

 

Looking forward to seeing her tomorrow and/or Sunday.

 

The Standard 4Mt has arrived.

41313 is now 41319 and here's a pic of the ROC plates too.

 

Everything is in place and ready for the next three days. We know we're not in the premier league when it comes to railways or galas but we hope you enjoy the show!

 

I’m sure we will.

 

Very many thanks for the incredible work you and your colleagues have done to set this event up in the format and with the locos you have.

I'm really looking forward to the next three days.

Bryan

 

Very much looking forward to coming to the line again on Saturday, as I have been since the theme for the event was announced. The level of detail gone into organising the event is to be very much applauded.

 

Despite my mobility issues I have tickets for Saturday and applaud the level of detail in the planning . Brother Bryan has offered back up if needed for which I am grateful. Just hope SWR and SET are behaving

 

A superb day at the Gala today, albeit me leaving after the 15.20 Eridge had left Groombridge behind 31803 (aka 31806). That was mainly because I was suffering from the heat. But I also plan a full day there tomorrow and need to have time to rest a bit.

The packed timetable with six trains operating ran very well until what I was told was the afternoon crew change and some loco watering. Even then it had looked to have settled down to the planned operations running 15 - 20 minutes late before I left, and to me the lateness was of zero consequence. Groombridge station was its usual very friendly self, both the volunteers manning it and those fellow visitors I chatted with. And I managed a brief chat with @Jonnie who was driving 31803 today, during a Groombridge station stop. Visitor numbers grew during the day and I very much hope the enormous efforts put in by Jonnie and his team to plan and now run the event are rewarded with a decent income over the three days.

I was working to a very specific list of 31803 photos needed to match ones I took at Groombridge and a little further afield in 1962 (31852 and 31823). For comparative photos (1962 to 21st Century) in the short Groombridge chapter in my SR steam loco memoirs. That involved a lot of repetition as the shadows retreated and moved during the day. Until I got usable photos. I'll try and repeat some tomorrow if there is cloud cover in the morning, although my main target tomorrow is 80144 - I photographed that loco at Groombridge in 1962.

At one point 41319 doubleheading 34050 fitted in with the locations I was using, so a photo of that below waiting in the Groombridge loop.

Bryan

 

I was on that train.

 

I spent yesterday afternoon helping with what may be called the sideshow to the main gala - the temporary reopening of Heathfield Tunnel, which is situated within walking distance of my home. I did consider mentioning this on the Forum, saying "if you're planning to walk through the tunnel, do say hello" but felt (quite correctly, as it turned out) that hard-core enthusioasts would probably be spending all day riding or photographing the trains. Still, there was a steady flow of people all afternoon - a lot of locals plus a good number of people who remembered the Cuckoo Line when it was open. We received a good number of favourable comments, with people saying how much they had appreciated being able to walk through the tunnel. I did have to explain the connection with the Spa Valley to a few people - namely, that Cuckoo Line trains would have carried on from Eridge to Tunbridge Wells - and hopefully in the process encouraged a few people to come to the gala.

There is no doubt that the old route is remembered fondly by older locals and still attracts a lot of interest. Had the Cuckoo Line become a heritage railway, with its 1 in 50 gradients and lovely scenery (Especially north of Heathfield), it would have become one of the country's top heritage lines, but sadly this was not to be. Still, it's good that the Spa Valley has organised this event to commemorate 60 years of its passing.

 

I had an excellent day at the Spa Valley yesterday. Stayed overnight at the old station (now Smith & Western) so was able to do an early round trip after breakfast, pop down to Heathfield for a walk through the tunnel before lunch, and then spend the rest of the afternoon riding the trains.

The timetable was clearly ambitious, amazing how much it packed in given the constraints of the tight site at Tunbridge Wells and lack of run-round at Eridge. It meant I was easily able to ride behind each of the locos, have a trip on the DEMU and get a couple of runs on the brake van.

The timetable started OK, but had slipped by about 40mins by the time I left due to a few unexpected operational challenges (Ivatt taking longer to water than expected, brake issues on one set, and an 'unplanned thermal vegetation clearance event' just outside Eridge). All seemed to be dealt with well by the staff and, unlike a lot of heritage railways, the on-train PA on Spa Valley is actually clear and functional, so we were kept up to date with what was going on.

There seemed to be a good number of visitors on the railway and at Heathfield, so hoping it proves a commercial success for the railway.
I did only get my ticket checked once (on the first train of the day), so hopefully anyone travelling on the 'part day' rovers was honest and didn't travel outside of their validity.

Kudos to Jonnie and the team for putting on such an excellent event. It's certainly becoming one of my favourite lines to visit in the south and really feels like it's come on leaps and bounds since my first visit 15 years ago.

 

You have summed up my experiences yesterday perfectly @LittleRedTrain.

I was amazed just how much we managed to fit in by lunchtime which meant that come the afternoon we could just take things as it came so to speak. I thoroughly enjoyed watchimg all the movements at Groombridge - it all seemed so slick and had the challenges not presented themselves, I have no doubt that that it would have continued to run like clockwork.

One thing that stood out was at every station, there was something to read about the Cuckoo Line, the level of detail was second to none.
Final shout out to the Bacon Rolls in Kate - absolutely bloddy lovely they were!

Congratulations @Jonnie and your team, a very well done to you all.