East Grinstead/Uckfield/Ore

[387star]

Hi

Both East Grinstead and Uckfield are terminus' but used to recieve onward services. Are these two stations both concerned with the same closure or a seperate closure by Beeching?

Why does third rail end at Ore as Ore is on the Marshlink non electrified line?

 

[4SRKT]

There used to be stabling sidings at Ore that the Central Division sets working in from Brighton or Victoria (4-VEP, 4-CIG, some 2-HAP) used to use. I guess that some services were extended to Ore simply as advertised ECS workings. The South Eastern Division depot at St Leonards was only used by DEMUs then, both on Hastings > Charing Cross (which wasn't electrified) and Hastings > Ashford services.

 

[yorksrob]

Hi

Both East Grinstead and Uckfield are terminus' but used to recieve onward services. Are these two stations both concerned with the same closure or a seperate closure by Beeching?

Why does third rail end at Ore as Ore is on the Marshlink non electrified line?

When the coast line was electrified in the thirties, there was a lack of storage space at Hastings, so a four road carriage shed was built at Ore and the third rail extended through to it. The current carriage shed at St Leonards was originally built in the 1950's along with St Leonards depot for the Hastings Guage DEMU's. When this route was electrified (in 1986), the electrics tended to use this shed and the one at Ore fell out of use.

The line south from East GRinstead was a pre Beeching closure in 1958, whilst the Uckfield - Lewes line was closed in 1970 to facilitate a road buiding scheme. This line had carried Tonbridge - Brighton through trains. There was also the Groombridge - Three Bridges route through East Grinstead which closed in 1965 (I think) so this was the only one which was a Beeching Cut in that sense.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
In addition to 4SRKT's post (which I notice I've duplicated ) I believe the hourly Vic - Hastings via Haywards Heath used to terminate there into the mid 1980's.

 

[4SRKT]

Services at Hastings/Ore in the 1985 timetable:

Hourly DEMU Charing Cross > Hastings.
Hourly DEMU Hastings > Ashford
Hourly stopping service (4-VEP) Brighton > Hastings
Hourly CIG/BIG formation Victoria > Ore

IIRR the Victoria > Hastings services ran either BIG-CIG, CIG-BIG-CIG or BIG-CIG-CIG from Victioria as far as Eastbourne, with the front 4- or 8-CIG (rear leaving Victoria) only going through to Hastings/Ore.

 

[yorksrob]

Services at Hastings/Ore in the 1985 timetable:

Hourly DEMU Charing Cross > Hastings.
Hourly DEMU Hastings > Ashford
Hourly stopping service (4-VEP) Brighton > Hastings
Hourly CIG/BIG formation Victoria > Ore

IIRR the Victoria > Hastings services ran either BIG-CIG, CIG-BIG-CIG or BIG-CIG-CIG from Victioria as far as Eastbourne, with the front 4- or 8-CIG (rear leaving Victoria) only going through to Hastings/Ore.

I think for a while, the Coastway service used early HAP's (with Bullied style bodywork) although this was sadly before my time travelling the route. By the time I staarted using the route in the late 80's early 90's the coastway stopper was always a CIG. Still lovely though.

 

[4SRKT]

I think for a while, the Coastway service used early HAP's (with Bullied style bodywork) although this was sadly before my time travelling the route. By the time I staarted using the route in the late 80's early 90's the coastway stopper was always a CIG. Still lovely though.

Some HAPs were modified in some way (corridors between cars?) for the Coastway route and reclassified CAP, presumably 'Coastway HAP'.

 

[yorksrob]

Some HAPs were modified in some way (corridors between cars?) for the Coastway route and reclassified CAP, presumably 'Coastway HAP'.

The 4CAP's were HAP units permanently coupled together but never had corridoor connections installed. These were BR designed HAP's as far as I'm aware. I believe the Bullied style HAP's were also permanently coupled together and became 4SAP's when they moved up London way (a Southen expert may be able to confirm this).

 

[4SRKT]

The 4CAP's were HAP units permanently coupled together but never had corridoor connections installed. These were BR designed HAP's as far as I'm aware. I believe the Bullied style HAP's were also permanently coupled together and became 4SAP's when they moved up London way (a Southen expert may be able to confirm this).

That's right, I remember the SAPs. 'Second class only HAPs' I believe. Additional 4-EPBs basically

I guess you may regard me as some sort of philistine for this, but I always preferred the BR design body on EPBs/HAPs to the SR variant.

 

[yorksrob]

That's right, I remember the SAPs. 'Second class only HAPs' I believe. Additional 4-EPBs basically

I guess you may regard me as some sort of philistine for this, but I always preferred the BR design body on EPBs/HAPs to the SR variant.

I certainly wouldn't regard a Thumper lover as a philistine I love both the Bullied and the BR design bodywork, but I think on balance I prefer the Bullied. The toplights were a very good innovation for standing passengers to see where they were.

Did the SAP's retain their corridoor compartment when they moved to London ? I think some of them had carriages re-used in the face-lifted EPB's.

 

[OxtedL]

It is before my time, but a quick flick through wiki suggests that East Grinstead through to Culvert Jn (where it met the Uckfield to Lewes line) was closed in 1958. However, East Grinstead was more complicated than that, as another line ran through from Three Bridges to Eridge, so there was a High Level station as well as a Low Level station, and this wasn't closed until 1970.

Uckfield to Lewes was closed much later, in 1969. The current Uckfield station did not, however, appear until 1991, when it was moved across the High Street to close a level crosssing.

East Grinstead was too early to be Beeching, and Uckfield was more to do with a road scheme near Lewes than Beeching.

Hope this helps. It's a bit messy really, the closures were complicated. I should mention that the Beeching report was directly responsible for far fewer closures than popular opinion would like to believe, and closures were steady for a while beforehand.

 

[pendolino]

The closure of the High Level line at East Grinstead was down to Beeching, which is why the A22 follows the old trackbed towards Tunbridge Wells along what is now called Beeching Way. Beeching actually lived in East Grinstead (and was given the title Baron Beeching of East Grinstead), which a cynic may suggest is presumably why he kept the line to London open - so he could still get to work (in much the same way as the closure of the line into Marylebone never happened because so many BRB members lived along the route) - and closed the rest.

(One of the station staff has created a nice display explaining all this, on the wall in the staff mess room on Plat 2)