Bluebell Steam Railway - Vintage Bus Day - 27th October 2013 45231 The Sherwood Forester

First uploaded in October 2013. Views to November 2020 29340 124 Likes 4 Dislikes
New upload November 2020 in higher definition.
Notable previous comment;
Colin Miles
Yep - absolutely brilliant! My old dad was a conductor at Godstone - just after WW2 to when they went OMO (One Man Operated). He did 36 years.
I spent many a day travelling on these buses. One day Rover 1/6d take you anywhere! If anybody has any photos of Godstone Garage I'd be delighted to hear.
As there was a free vintage bus service starting from my local bus station, I couldn't resist another day at the Bluebell Railway for their vintage bus day. I travelled on Peter Osborn's AEC Regent, RT4779. There were several services in operation, the main one being a 15 minute interval service between Brighton and Sheffield Park.
We arrived at East Grinstead just in time for the 10.45 departure, hauled by visiting Black Five, 45231 "The Sherwood Forester". On its second day of service for the Bluebell, this loco is visiting until next May. The other service train was handled by the mighty 9F 92212, which is on loan from the Mid-Hants Railway and about to return there.
The "Golden Arrow" lunch train was well filled as usual and a tour of the carriage works gave a close up view of the current restoration projects with Pullman car "Fingall" in the paint shop, almost at the end of a thorough overhaul and repairs to its wooden framework, will soon return to the Golden Arrow train. The very useful L&NWR observation car is receiving some minor repairs and a much needed repaint.
This day also marked the 50th anniversary, to the day, that the line closed between Horsted Keynes and Haywards Heath via Ardingly, this ended the British Railways electric service to Seaford and left the Bluebell isolated from the rail network until March this year when the extension opened to East Grinstead. Jump on a train at London Victoria and all this is all yours in under an hour, a great day out.
www.bluebell-railway.co.uk

[@MannyAntipov]

What a marvelous, professionally made video!