Spa Valley Railway - Latest News

The Q and H might be back by the middle of next year.

Tom

 

John, re 75069 (which has already visited the Spa Valley) is also a member of a class which, to my knowledge, never worked over the Cuckoo line but appeared at TWW on a train from London via Oxted.

I took this photo of 75069 as it arrived at Oxted from London late in April 1962.

I can't find the route indicated by the headcode discs, so not sure where it was headed.

Bryan

 

Many thanks for that.

Bryan

 

They certainly did. I photographed D6581 on the thrice weekly (MWFO) freight at Heathfield on Monday 22nd April 1968. This was about six weeks before the planned closure of the remaining freight traffic traffic between Hailsham and Heathfield. In the event the line was forced to close at the end of the week due to a bridge strike near Horam on Saturday 27th April.

I went to Hailsham to see this train there and the resident shunter offered me a lift to Heathfield in his car. I was able to blag a ride on the loco for the return to Hailsham, my only ride beyond Hailsham on the Cookoo Line - all a long time ago now.

Peter

 

I'm pretty sure the discs indicate Victoria- Brighton via Oxted and Uckfield. The angle of the sun suggests the train may have been the 11.08 from Victoria.

 

A gloriously golden afternoon here at the moment; taken mere minutes ago, 828 crosses Lealands bound for the 'West'.

 

Cracking day at the beerfest today. Excellent choice of ales and some good thrash from the locos, especially 828.

 

Not long home from a fabulous day at the Beer and Cider fest. Started with photting the first train ex Eridge (10.15) with 80078, then went over to West Hoathly on the Bluebell just to get 80151 on a three car train - so a two BR Std class 4 2-6-4 t day for me - more about that in a day or fews time. Then back to the Fest in time for 80078 on the 13.15 ex Eridge at Forge Farm Crossing, and soon got to a very busy Groombridge station for coffee etc - I am teetotal - but many, many others were clearly not. And looked to be having a really wonderful time. I wanted to photo into the night and my selection of photos below include up to 80078 on the 19.15 ex Eridge at Groombridge. Very rough and very quick edits of those and all the other photos below.

A very busy timetable: I can't see how any more trains could have been run. And to me it looked like it all ran like clockwork.

An enormous thank you to the very large number of Spa Valley Railway volunteers involved in all aspects of the event, very much appreciated.

Hoping to get there again tomorrow.

Bryan

 

This event always sneaks up on me because Im on the other side of the country despite knowing someone involved with the planning on the beer side.

 

I enjoyed my visit on Friday, sampled 8 of the ciders and perries (the Monks Delight was particularly delicious and deadly!). I particularly appreciated a ride on the class 207 "Thumper" DEMU since it took me back to my childhood, about fifty years ago, when these units often appeared on the (still mostly unelectrified) Reading to Reigate route, which I used to visit my Gran.

Interior photo of Class 207 DEMU at Groombridge:

 

I managed to do all three days of the excellent and very well supported Beer and Cider festival.

The train running looked to go very well, with just a few variations from that. There was a large influx of fresh casks for Sunday after the thousands of visitors made significant inroads into the very large number of casks that started the event full! I think it was that which saw a timetable change for Sunday, as Eridge and TWW, but not Groombridge, were the serving points for that third day.

There must have been a great deal of very hard work on the Saturday night to not only obtain sufficient casks of a quality to satisfy the no doubt discerning attendees, and also to revise the timetable and associated operational issues. Despite that @Jonnie still found time during the day to replace the lamps etc on the front of 80078 with a single white disc. As used for trains I travelled behind with BR Standard class 4 tanks in 1966-67 on the Brockenhurst-Lymington Pier Branch, aka The Long Footbridge.

And with rain arriving Saturday, and Storm Ashley on Sunday, I was generally based around Groombridge station, which provided shelter plus a seemingly endless flow of hot coffee, snacks and the usual very welcoming company from the Spa Valley Railway volunteers there.

So an enormous thank you to @Jonnie and all the other volunteers for working so very hard to keep this event buzzing so well for all three days.

Some photos of Saturday and Sunday below - including a glimpse of the traction that took over from the claases of steam locos that used to work that area, including of course the BR Standard class 4 tanks.

Bryan

 

Thank you for your kind words Brian! Yes, Saturday wasn't expected, we sold out of over 11,000 pints in 48hrs which is insane for this event. Luckily, we have great friends at Kent Brewery, Tonbridge, Harvey's and Lakedown who got us fresh cask ale for the Sunday so we had some of the freshest beers you can get at a festival on its last day anywhere in the country and people came back for more or came specifically for this. My other half spent a lot of time on the phone as did others from our team of volunteers making this possible.

We all went for a train ride on the last working of the Standard 4 on Saturday evening to calm down and chill for a bit as we knew the next couple of hours would be full on. When we got back at 22:30 I called time and that was it, the racks were cleared of all the empty casks, over 100 of them, piled up as neatly as we could in the shed to work out what we actually had left, by 23:30 the lot was stripped and we knew what was coming so onwards it was writing the new tasting notes and printing new barrel end labels whilst others washed the floor down and tidied up the place from the onslaught of the day. We didn't finish until 01:00 on the Sunday morning but it was worth it as over 5,000 people visited us over the three days.

Personally, I had two immensely fun days on 828, it is a loco that I've now driven more than any other and I love every turn I do on it and where it has so much character it makes for a very enjoyable day. She was fresh from a water change so was on point and you could leave her pulled up to the 4th notch and gradually work your way to fully opening the regulator and when she gets to about 15mph she starts to get a gallop on and just wants to go, not bad for 125yrs old.

 

Your cider and perry selection was truly exceptional and very much appreciated by those of us who are not beer fans! I just wish I'd been able to sample more of them!

Anyhow, I'll be back next time - do you have a beer & cider festival planned in the spring or do we need to wait till next autumn?

 

It was a fun day choosing the ciders and placing the orders so I'm glad it was appreciated.

As much as we'd love to do two a year, the workload involved in incredible and the shed needs to be used for other things so Thomas is usually our bigger event in the earlier part of the year.

16th to 19th October are the 2025 Beer & Cider Festival dates.

 

Another wonderful day at the Spa Valley Railway. Weather I wanted as it gave visible exhaust all day and into the night, and no awkward shadows from the sun.

Started near the Fair View Lane bridge (first photo) before heading to Groombridge for refreshments from the platform kiosk and the usual very friendly welcome. Then a low light arrival 15 minutes before sunset from the well hidden sun (second photo). And finally 34053 passing through Groombridge at low speed almost two hours after sunset on the return of the evening Dr Frankenslimes Trick or Treat Express - that photo using 1/40th second and 51,200 ISO.

Bryan

 

I did all three of this year's last days of normal operations at this wonderful heritage line. One that does present a very good number of varied photographic locations.

A selection of photos below, with the last two continuing my move toeards and into full night photos to go with my very many night timing logs of SR 1960s steam loco runs. Which include 34053 on the up Mail train (22.13 Weymouth).

Bryan

 

Didn't know Spa did train of lights?

 

I do like a good cider but there were more ales I wanted to sample than I’d time for so had to give the ciders a miss this time. It was an excellent event and I look forward to next year’s event. Managed a trip behind both locos and the crew on 828 really made her talk.

 

Of course that's just a Bulleid pacifc with all the electric route indication lights turned on at the same time.

Bryan