Anke: Royal Tunbridge Wells

Inside the Spa Valley Railway

As David and I are working on the thousands of images from the Kent & Sussex Hospital photoshoot we think it's only fair that you don't have to wait too long to get your fix of life behind the scenes of Tunbridge Wells. So as a little bit of a treat we have put our gallery of the Spa Valley Railway online on our Tunbridge Wells Project.

Inside the Lathe Room. Click to visit the entire gallery.

Go visit every square inch of the Spa Valley Railway, from the workshops to the waiting room and from bed of the track to the bathroom, we covered it all.

A bird's eye view of the main shed. Click to visit the entire gallery.

Click to visit the Spa Valley Railway gallery on the Tunbridge Wells Project.

Heritage Open Day 2009 - Spa Valley Railway

Heritage Open Day Weekend 2009 kicked off today, so I dragged the wife kicking and screaming down to the platform of the Spa Valley Steam Railway for a free nose around.  Upon arrival we thought it polite to pop into the ticket office to say hello, and lucky we did as the lovely man behind the plastic roundel said it was quiet so how about a guided tour around the engine shed. Brilliant!

Even the wife got stuck in asking lots of questions about the half-finished locomotives and the rusting carriages sitting patiently in corners waiting to be restored.  Of course this is still a working shed therefore all the questions and answers had to be shouted over the grinder working its magic on the roof of an old British Railways slamdoor carriage.

Our tour guide told us all about the work the railway is doing to try and restore the line back to Eridge and all the great locomotives they are hoping to run on the line, but with just spare time to work on it it is taking many years to renovate even the smallest engine parts.  You must go and see the level of workmanship though as the restorations are wonderful and the level of enthusiasm is amazing, even if the new carriages are going to be painted blue and not in out tour guide's favourite green.

As we were talking the distinct sound of a chuffing engine became louder and louder so we all rushed over to the platform edge to watch a little GWR locomotive pull in to the station. The smell of the steam and the noise of the puffing chimney was fabulous. It was then he took us onto the train for a tour of that too!

We learned all about the different types of carriage and how they had restored them. In the final 1950s carriage, he said that it took them years to try to source the authentic lighting for above the tables but to either no avail or it was just too expensive, then they happened to find the exact replicas in Homebase across the road. Remarkable, who would have guessed that Homebase would get its design inspiration from a seventy year old British Rail car.

After a great tour we retired to the ever-present stationary buffet car for a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, well I wanted an iced bun but the man before me ate the last one.  The wife bought me one on the way home instead though, it seems she enjoyed it after all.

There are lots more places open this weekend for the special Heritage Open Day event, check out the website and go and visit something.  If you do pop into the Steam Railway, even though it's perfectly free apart from the ride on the train which is half-price, please consider dropping a few coins into the donation boxes or do as we did and buy lots of souvenirs of your visit.

If you'd like to see a couple more photos from the engine shed, just click here.

Spotted

Many many thanks must go to one of our great readers who sent in this picture of themselves on the Spa Valley Railway.  Anne, pictured here, can be seen carrying one of our famous tote bags.  Thanks for the wonderful picture, Anne, enjoy your glory!

All Aboard!

There we were at the supermarket at the bottom of the Pantiles. It was late, the car park was empty, it was quiet. Until we poured our bottles and cans into the recycling bins and created a racket that is. We tried to do it as quietly as mice for the neighbours benefit honestly. But then it struck me, looking around the desolate car park. This place hasn't always been this quiet.

Until 20-odd years ago, this part of town would've been noisy, smelly and thriving with activity. You see this car park used to be home a bustling railway station, Tunbridge Wells West.

Opened in 1866 by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, this station was built in competition with the main Central station which was owned by the South Eastern Railway company. The station ran lines to the coast at Brighton and Eastbourne and also into the capital at London Victoria. You could catch a train along the Cuckoo Line to Polegate, along the Wealden Line to Lewes, or along the Three Bridges line to Three Bridges and East Grinstead. All of these lines were eventually connected in 1876 to the main Tunbridge Wells Central station via a tunnel under the town and then through a link in the Grove Tunnel, allowing both companies to run down the lines. The rivalry between the two companies had cooled off by this point.

You can still see part of the line and tunnel that went to the Central station from the bridge across Montacute Road and also in Warwick Park. Go have a look.

The Grade II listed main station building itself was built on a lavish scale, complete with clocktower with louvred spirelet and weathervane, gas-lit booking hall and elaborate ornamental ceilings. And seeing as though they had plenty of room they also built stable sidings, carriage sheds and a locomotive depot.

The station wasn't always called Tunbridge Wells West. It obtained its suffix following the Railways Act of 1921, also known as the Grouping Act, which the Government passed to move the railways away from internal competition and the stations fell into the single ownership of the Southern Railway.

The station proved to be very popular over the next 40 years, frequently handling 100 trains a day, that was until certain routes from the station began to close. It seems the train just couldn't compete with the motor car. First of the lines to close was the East Grinstead to Lewes line in 1958, then the Three Bridges to Groombridge line fell in 1967, followed by the Cuckoo Line in 1968 and finally the Wealden Line in 1969.

Services were cut back drastically and following years of neglect and a lack of investment in the few remaining lines, British Rail decided that the cost of keeping the station was unjustifiable. The station closed on 6 July 1985.

You can still visit the station, as the main building has become a restaurant/pub and the engine sheds still occasionally smell of steam with the preservation of a small line to Groombridge (hopefully eventually Eridge) providing much pleasure to thousands of tourists every year aboard the Spa Valley Railway.
This is certainly an interesting part of the town's history and one I shall revisit very soon.

Full Steam Ahead

Today I dragged my wife kicking and screaming to the heritage Spa Valley Steam Railway running out of Tunbridge Wells West Station. Being a typically british Bank Holiday Monday the rain was following us all the way. But it didn't dampen our/my fun when I heard a distant whistle and the locomotive Fonmon came chuffing into the platform. Suddenly a gaggle of dads rushed out of nowhere with their excited young sons towing mum a good ten yards behind wondering what the all fuss is about.

All aboard then for the three and a half mile trip through Broadwater Forest, past the historic Stone Age encampments at High Rocks and farmland as far as the eye can see to the terminus at Groombridge.

Having not been on a steam train for quite a few years it was lovely to experience the rhythmic pulling on the carriages and smell the oil-laden steam funneling in through the windows.

The railway is operated by a team of volunteers who are making steady progress in restoring the old Eridge line and several locomotives out of the old main line station of Tunbridge Wells West. The original main line here was closed in 1985 due to a lack of patronage and revenue, the preservation society was formed a few months later to maintain a presence on the line for future generations.

As the locomotive turned itself around for the return journey from Groombridge back home again, I left my wife standing with all the other poor helpless women hanging around the station building completely bored and joined the other boys and men reliving a bit of their childhood at the end of the platform to stand, watch and listen to the steam spectacle. It was fantastic.

I heartily recommend you drag your other halves there this weekend and contribute to this great piece of our heritage, and the kid in you will love it.