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Trainspotting in the engine sheds

Recording trains in our book

I well remember the engine sheds at Brighton which were a few hundred yards up the line from the station. As young train-spotting teenagers we would wander into the sheds to try and spot a new steam locomotive that we hadn’t recorded in our numbers book. There was a regular steam service from Brighton up-country on the old Bramber line, as well as a twice a day service to and from Cardiff (from memory) which used larger ‘named’ locomotives.

Wandering freely

Strictly speaking you were meant to check with the shed master before you were allowed alongside the magnificent parked locomotives which were there for maintenance, but often there was no-one there and we would just wander in anyway. No-one ever kicked us out as we wandered round – I’m not sure what Health and Safety would make of it these days.

Brighton station engine sheds. Click on image to open a large version in a new window.
Image reproduced with kind permission of The Regency Society and The James Gray Collection

Comments about this page

  • My dad, George Cook, drove a lorry for the railways in the 40s and 50s. It was often parked outside our house in Wiston Close, Whitehawk. As a kid I remember going with him to some of the huge maintenance sheds. Everything was on such a massive scale. They where full of dirt, soot, smells, fire, massive metal things and people. They were awesome! Is that graffiti on the side of that carriage in the foreground? Wow, even before spray cans.

    By Eric Cook (21/10/2012)
  • I well remember the the Cardiff trains to and from Brighton, but there were also steams to and from Bournemouth and Southampton; they used to leave from Platform 2 and used either Battle of Britain or Wwst Country Class Locos.

    By JOHN WIGNALL (20/03/2013)
  • You’ve all forgotten the 11.30 to Plymouth. I travelled a few times on that. What a lovely journey skirting north Dartmoor then down to the banks of the Tamar and into Plymouth. Sadly all gone, West of Oakhampton to Bere Alston. cX53Y

    By gil tipping (25/07/2013)
  • When I was “but a lad”, I used to “Locospot” the engines in the yard below the cliff where we sat on a brick wall on the cliff edge above the lines to Hove and beyond. this included the old “Horsham Flyer” usually with a couple of old coaches and (at that period) drawn by small locos such as the M7 0-6-0 tanks. it also afforded a panoramic view of the loco shed and yard , and beyond, to the London and Lewes lines and the loco works which, at that time were producing the 2-6-4 4F tank engines of the 80,000 series. These were the last engines built in Brighton works, which is sadly gone. I now live in Dereham, Norfolk which is the HQ of the Mid-Norfolk Railway – an 11 1/2 mile line ending up at Wymondham (pronounced “windham’) some 11 1/2 miles South. We currently have one of the preserved tanks in the shape of 80078 (built c 1954)and in regular steam. I believe that there are about 8 of this class preserved. In the early 50’s, there were, at Brighton, 3 of the old H2 Atlantics (4-4-2 wheel arrangement) , sadly now all scrapped. But thankfully, There is a brand new H2 being built (and almost finished), at Sheffield Park on the Bluebell Railway.

    By John Snelling (06/10/2022)
  • I lived in Cromwell Road in the late 50s/early 60s and a local lad persuaded me into buying a train spotters book and we spent hours in and around Hove station getting loco numbers, and walking over the footbridge as a steam train came through spewing out smoke and sparks. We occasionally used to walk up to New England Road and go in the Engine sheds where they had a massive turntable and loads of locos under repair. Two nine year olds stomping away that far from home and getting into the sheds without being challenged is a sign of the times.

    By Mick Wright (07/10/2022)

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