Spa Valley Railway - Latest News

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I didn't realise it was so serious down there. As always, a good update from @Jonnie about the situation.

 

It's my train (set) and I will run whatever coaches I want (or can get hold of).

 

A Spa Valley Railway Update

Broom Lane Bridge
Back in October, we held a volunteer meeting to explain the critical need to replace the current Broom Lane Bridge to ensure we can continue operating our Railway safely in the future. There is currently a small but dedicated team of four working on the Project.

The previous focus has been on getting a document called the AiP (Approval in Principle) signed off by ESCC Highways. The process started some time ago and has now been agreed and signed off on. The AiP has taken an enormous amount of time to complete, but we are now over the line. Signing off on the AiP is a vital step towards replacing Broom Lane Bridge.

The next part of the project is the construction of the bridge, and we are delighted to announce that, thanks to generous donations, we have purchased the steel for the bridge and, as a Christmas present, construction has started! The next item is the cill beams, which will sit atop the existing brick abutments, and the new bridge will sit on.

There’s still an awful lot of work to do; there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work underway on licensing and access to the land to install the bridge, and we need all the activities to slot into place correctly.

Providing all goes to plan, the railway will operate each weekend from Saturday 17th January to Sunday 22nd February, including Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th February during the half-term. The last trains to pass over the current Broom Lane Bridge will be on Sunday, 22nd February.

We must then remove the track after service on Sunday, 22nd February and early the following week, as the replacement of the bridge will take place between Monday, 23rd February and Thursday, 2nd April. The P-Way Team has already been hard at work in High Rocks woods, building six panels of track (so far) to go in on the Tunbridge Wells side of the new structure.

Subject to no alterations, the railway will reopen across the bridge on Friday, 3rd April. We hope this to be an ‘Anything Goes’ type event.

It is very important to emphasise that the railway is not closing whilst Broom Lane Bridge is replaced!

We have five weekends that we must open the Tunbridge Wells West to Broom Lane part of the railway and operate to ensure we maintain an income; this includes Footplate Experiences that will use Bulleid Pacific 34053 ‘Sir Keith Park’ operating light engine, a Spring Model Railway Weekend (14th & 15th March), a Spring Real Ale & Cider Festival (20th to 22nd March) and Mother’s Day (22nd March) experiences, too.

· https://spavalleyrailway.co.uk/events/steam-footplate-experience/

· https://spavalleyrailway.co.uk/events/spring-model-railway-show/

· https://spavalleyrailway.co.uk/events/spring-ales-festival/

A further ‘Stride the Line’ event walk will take place on Sunday, 29th March, by which time the new bridge should be in the ground and you will be able to see the investment for yourselves. https://spavalleyrailway.co.uk/events/sponsored-walk/

Once Broom Lane Bridge has been replaced, that is not the final chapter. None of this is going to be cheap, and we don't have the funds to pay for it in one lump sum. It is thanks to those who have donated that our appeal has now reached over £98,000. Some of the fundraising income has paid for the design phase, and through this fundraising, we can pay the first invoice (of many) for the bridge's steel and construction at the end of December. The aim is for our fundraising appeal to reach £125,000 by the end of January 2026.

The Wealden Railway Company will then be fronting £150,000, and the Society has further increased this with £100,000, giving a total of £350,000 for the replacement of the bridge. We are not there yet, though, as it is still realistically over £150,000 short, as the costs have risen dramatically since we launched the appeal around one year ago.

So, even after the replacement of Broom Lane Bridge, the appeal MUST remain open, the trains MUST continue to operate, and we MUST continue to make money; if we don’t, the reality is we will cease to exist, albeit with a lovely new bridge across a road. That does mean that 2026 will be different, as will the years ahead, because if we want to continue to see trains travelling between High Rocks and Groombridge, we cannot afford to do anything other than make money.

Why are we saying this?

We are fortunate to be able to pay for the bridge over a set period. Therefore, there will be a fixed monthly outgoing that the Wealden Railway Company must meet, and to do so, we must have income from our events and experiences, including sales through our catering outlets, the shop, and on board the trains. Items such as guidebooks, a cup of tea, a bottle of wine, and, of course, ticket sales all add up.

Could we have found lottery funding? The unfortunate answer is no. We reached out to the HLF with an expression of interest, and we received the following reply: “Thank you for your Expression of Interest (EOI) for the replacement of Broom Lane Bridge on the Spa Valley Railway.The proposal has been considered by our panel for London and the South, alongside a number of other EOIs we have received.

We will not be inviting you to make an application to The National Lottery Heritage Fund at this time. After careful consideration, the panel determined that the application’s proposal to construct a new bridge did not address the National Lottery Heritage Fund's Investment Principles. We appreciate that this will be disappointing news and ask for your understanding that the competition for funding is very high and is expected to remain so.

Please note that we will not accept another EOI for this proposal, or a similar project, within three months of the date of this letter.”

We close this update with some positive news and pictures showing the new Broom Lane Bridge under construction in the factory and the design of the new bridge.

If you can help us reach £125,000 by the end of January 2026, please consider donating to the Broom Lane Bridge Appeal and helping your railway keep operating for many years to come.

On behalf of all the Managers, Directors, and Trustees, thank you to the project team who are working exceptionally hard on the replacement of Broom Lane Bridge and to everyone for all you have done throughout 2025 to ensure our railway could continue operating and for all you will do to enable the trains to keep on running for years to come. The replacement of Broom Lane Bridge is the most significant and challenging project we have ever faced, but together we are confident we can see it through to completion.

Best wishes, and we hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

Jonnie Pay
General Manager

 

Some other news!
BR Standard 4MT 80078 is working on 29th and 30th December with our post-Christmas Polar trains; they have sold well, with the 17:30 show having just left full (6 TSOs).

We then see 80078 head off to its Essex shed for Winter maintenance and a short period of closure whilst we de-Polar Tunbridge Wells West. Caledonian Railway 812 Class No. 828 is then working each operating day from Saturday, 17th January until Sunday, 22nd February with the Class 25 or 33. 828 is staying for at least the rest of 2026. It will be the main loco alongside 34053, which is out of service in January and February for maintenance and then running in March whilst the bridge is closed for the various experiences and events we are operating.

The Wealden Railway Company submitted its accounts a couple of months ago for the year 1st February 2024 to 31st January 2025. The company turned over a healthy profit of £108,570, all of which was then reinvested in the railway, mostly in infrastructure. £75,000 was spent on replacing a failed culvert and an embankment slip at Cold Bath. If we hadn't done this, we'd have been left with a 3/4 mile long railway! The other areas were spent in part on the design for Broom Lane and on sleepers urgently needed for Birchden Bank. It is amazing just how fast this money can be spent!

This financial year is looking set to break even. We are set to reach 82,000 visitors by the end of our current financial year on 31st January 2026.

 

I popped over to the B&M and Sainsburys at Tunbridge Wells West with my parents earlier and a Polar service arrived while we were in the former and plenty of people got off and plenty more gathering for the following service, although I'm not sure if the SpVR gets any revenue back from it, I saw a few merchandise bags from a couple of passengers as well, so glad it's still proving as popular as it has been.

 

Our Polar Express season finished on an incredible high on 30th December, with over 47,200 people taken to the North Pole last year. Our 2026 event is running to much the same format but with an extra TSO and a couple of additional dates.

As we take down everything related to Polar, we are looking forward to opening on Saturday, 17th January, which so far is looking very busy with advanced sales. We tend to find our busier period is from September to May rather than the Summer months, possibly because so much else is open at that time of year. We make money in the summer, but it's nowhere near as much as in October, when we have big events like the Beer Festival.

As mentioned in other threads, Caledonian Railway 812 Class No. 828 is staying with us in 2026 and possibly into 2027. It isn't visiting anywhere, going on and off lorries isn't in its best interest. We've done quite a lot of work on the engine during November and December, so she is ready to resume operations in a week's time. This has included work on the regulator to stop blowing by, injectors, various other cab fittings, the loco rear axle boxes and her annual boiler exam. It is a firm favourite of mine to drive and has taught me far more about locomotives than a book ever could.

 

I don't immediately remember which loco that is, so I went to the website for a reminder. Under the "Discover" heading, the subheadings include "Locomotive Roster & Stocklist" but that link goes to a page with no mention of the stocklist.

 

If you scroll to the bottom of that page, there is a link to 'Locomotives & Carriages' - perhaps not the most obvious way of getting to it, but the info is there!

 

I'm not sure why that happened. I just updated it to be clearer. It's a new website that went live in October, with the odd thing still needing updating from time to time.

 

Thank you.

 

https://spavalleyrailway.co.uk/events/dinosaur-weekend/

I've not had an invite, but 34053 is currently planned to be running, and as seen by dinosaurs in the few years before the 10 July 1967 asteroid disaster. So I do hope to get across there this coming weekend.

Just a question if I may please @Jonnie , is the Groombridge station kiosk likely to be open over the weekend?

Bryan - a still surving dinosaur - B

 

If anybody needs a heritage railway fix this Saturday or Sunday then the Spa Valley Railway is open.

Bulleid Pacific 34053 ‘Sir Keith Park’ and Class 33/0 33063 ‘R. J. Mitchell’ are in use with a train of 6 MK1s due to anticipated loadings and sold out dining trains.

Trains will be top and tailed with 34053 on the Tunbridge Wells West end leaving there at 11:15, 12:45, 14:00 & 15:30. On Saturday evening there’ll be further departures at 19:00 & 20:15. The line is open all the way to Eridge, Groombridge and its kiosk are open.

If you need an excuse to bring the family then the dinosaurs are visiting and appearing throughout the day at Tunbridge Wells West and on the train. Kids go free.

 

No issues with water at present for the railway I hope? I see South East Water are having yet more problems.

 

It’s intermittent and to be honest a huge concern but the 8000 gallon tanker is full as is 34053s tender. We have the milk tanker going to Eridge which holds 3,500 gallons and the other stations aren’t impacted.

Just another day in the life of the Spa Valley.

 

We have one well known dinosaur who regularly visits this thread - sounds like he has become an attraction in his own right. Do dinosaurs travel free as well?

Peter

 

I will stay in the background for any visit I make this weekend, as there is a much better variety of my peers visiting. And they look in much better condition than I do!

As I only visit heritage lines when the full dinosaur criteria is met, ie. locos that used to work on the BR SR pre asteroid disaster, and in 1960s numbering and livery, I always pay my way. It's how us dinosaurs say thank you.

Bryan

 

If you want a bit of a read regarding the state of affairs down here, the latest post from South East Water is below.

Water is, of course, critical to what we do, and we treat ours for use in the locomotive boilers. It did concern me in December as we had three different sources of water, and our water sampling equipment was seeing intensive use, and measures were taken to ensure the pH and TDS levels remained within spec. The blow downs on the Bulleid and 4MT are very effective.

"Urgent update for Tunbridge Wells: Further planned outage and home deliveries

Despite our teams working round the clock, the storage tanks are not refilling fast enough to stabilise the network. To fix this, we need to fully reset the system.

The new plan
We have developed a new plan that will allow us to refill the storage tank to a much higher level. This will mean keeping the booster pumps off for a further 36 hours. This is so we can work to increase the levels to a point where you have a consistent water supply from Friday morning.

Home deliveries are starting now
We are currently delivering water to all affected homes in Tunbridge Wells. You will receive two items:
Bottled Water: Safe to drink.
Grab bags: These are delivered FULL of non-drinking water. DO NOT DRINK THIS.

What is the bag for?
Pour the water into your toilet bowl to flush it. You can refill the bag from water butts, ponds or other external resources for future flushes.

You do not need to be home. We will leave supplies in a safe place.
Bottled water stations open 9am-10pm at:
• Tunbridge Wells Rugby Club (TN2 5LS)
• Odeon Cinema car park (TN2 3UW)
Full details and FAQs can be found here: https://orlo.uk/OYQE1"

https://aqualerter.southeastwater.co.uk/

Basically, they're now delivering water to every household in the area. I have no idea how they're doing that, but it is a huge area. We've had our supply go on and off or be a trickle despite the map above saying we're outside the impacted area.