Amberley Museum Railway
| Amberley Museum Railway Collection | |
|
Sussex | |
|---|---|
 'Peter' and a passenger train nears Brockham Station | |
| Gauge: | 2 feet |
| Grid reference: | TQ030122 |
| Location: | 50°54’2"N, 0°32’10"W |
| Track: | 500 yards |
| Information | |
| Website: | amberleynarrowgauge.co.uk |
The Amberley Museum Railway is a narrow gauge railway, with a 2-foot gauge, based at the Amberley Museum, an open-air museum near Amberley in Sussex.
Thye railway has a varied collection of engines and rolling stock ranging from 18-inch gauge to 5 feet 3 inches. It operates passenger trains at the museum using a mixture of steam, internal combustion and battery-electric locomotives.
History
Before the advent of Amberley Museum, the site was a chalk quarry operated by Pepper & Sons. The site had its own locomotive-worked standard gauge railway, which connected with the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway at Amberley station. Over the years Peppers owned a range of locomotives, including Marshall and Aveling & Porter steam designs, and a Hibberd Planet petrol locomotive. When the site was abandoned in the late 1960s the track was lifted.
When the museum opened in the late 1970s a small industrial railway was envisaged, operating typical narrow gauge industrial trains. The first locomotive to arrive on site was Hibberd Simplex 1980 from the City of Chichester Sewage Works at Apuldram. In 1982 the Thakeham Tiles company, located a few miles from the museum, donated its entire railway system including two Hudson Hunslet locomotives, several wagons and some track, a new conveyor system having started operation at the works. The donation was on the condition the whole lot were removed over a weekend: this was duly accomplished. Today some of the Thakeham track is still in use on non-passenger parts of the line, along with one of the locomotives (Hunslet 3653). The other, Hudson Hunslet 2208 is in store, having been used as a spares donor for the museum's other Hudson Hunslet locomotives. Also in 1982, the Brockham Railway Museum in Surrey closed down and moved its entire stock to Amberley. This influx, including several steam locomotives, gave the inspiration to expand the operation to a passenger carrying line.
A running line was built at Amberley from 1982 to 1984 running along one side of the pit between Amberley and Brockham stations. The inaugural train was hauled by Polar Bear, by that time back in steam. The Hudson Hunslet diesels 3097 and Blue Star were stalwarts of the passenger service in the 80s, until the arrival of Motor Rail Simplex 60S prototype 11001. In the mid-1980s Decauville 0-4-0WT 'Barbouilleur' entered service, and following Polar Bear's boiler being condemned around 1987, was the sole steam locomotive available until 1993. 'Polar Bear' re-entered traffic with a new boiler in 1993, and was joined that same year by 'Peter'. 'Townsend Hook' departed in 1995 to Eastleigh College for an ultimately ill-fated restoration attempt.
The railway expanded in the 2000s. In the early 2000s it was decided that First World Wa Baldwin 778 Lion, which had been in store for many years, needed an alternative home for it to be restored, as it was far too big for the sharp curves on the Amberley system. It departed for the Leighton Buzzard railway, where it is now in service. A new exhibition hall for the Amberley railway, built with lottery funding, was opened in 2003. This building also serves as a carriage shed; the carriage fleet had previously suffered severe deterioration when stored outside. A new running shed was also built, opening in 2005. It serves as a dedicated operating and restoration base for the passenger steam fleet, as well as a dedicated home and charging station for the battery electric locomotives. The steam fleet was bolstered in 2006 by the arrival of the Hampshire Narrow Gauge Trust's Bagnall 2091 Wendy. The running line was extended in the 2000s, with the extension round the top of the pit to the new Cragside station opening in mid-2007. In 2008 Hunslet diesel-hydraulic 8969 No. 12 entered service as the main non-steam passenger locomotive. The steam fleet grew again in 2009 when HNGRT's other steam locomotive, Quarry Hunslet 542 Cloister arrived. However both HNGRT locomotives left Amberley during summer 2012.
The line today
The main line runs from Amberley station near the museum entrance along the side of the pit past the De Witt lime kilns to Brockham station, currently the only intermediate station. From Brockham the line curves round the top of the pit, passes the running shed and ends up at Cragside station, across the pit from Brockham. The industrial (non-passenger) lines connect to the main line at Brockham station. At Amberley station there is a rarely used siding into the woodyard. Brockham has a small siding on Platform 2, as well as a former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway ticket office from Hove station. In addition there is the Betchworth Hall shed, used for the restoration of Townsend Hook; it will eventually be used as a museum to display the Dorking Greystone Lime Co. exhibits (Townsend Hook, Monty, The Major, wagons 10 and 60, and some miscellaneous items).
The railway holds its annual Gala Weekend on the second weekend of July each year, in addition to two Industrial Trains Days in April and October.
Pictures
'Polar Bear' on the headshunt at Amberley
'Polar Bear' and replica Groudle Glen carriages at Amberley
'Polar Bear' on the headshunt at Cragside
'Peter' and its passenger train at Brockham
'Jenny' on the headshunt at Amberley
'Jenny' runs round the train at Cragside
'Susan' at Amberley
'Susan' and 'Jenny' double head a train at Brockham
A Wickham trolley
In popular culture
The railway made an appearance in the 1985 James Bond]] film, A View to a Kill,[1] with the railway's storage tunnel appearing as the entrance to a mine. Later, engines HE3097 and 'Blue Star' were sent to Pinewood Studios along with a quantity of wagons to film scenes 'inside the mine'. Many of the railway's skip wagons still carry 'Zorin' green livery.
In 2010 four of the museum's Hudson flat wagons were sent to Pinewood Studios for use in the film, Captain America: The First Avenger.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Amberley Museum Railway) |
