Visiting Brighton

[platformender]

Hello all - newbie rail enthusiast here;

I'm travelling down to Brighton for a conference in a couple of weeks and I wondered what the opportunities were like at the station / surrounding area for spotting any interesting locos passing through or if anyone knew of good places to take pictures.

I realise this sounds a little vague - but if anyone has any good pointers, it'd be much appreciated.

Ta!

 

[davetheguard]

Not really any locos to be seen regularly here AFAIK.

Trains are operated by Southern or First Capital Connect (Thameslink); almost all are EMUs apart from the hourly Ashford International service which is a Turbostar DMU. Trains to London are very frequent - 7 an hour, I think. Cross Country no longer serve Brighton.

The station itself is very photogenic, with a superb overall roof last restored in Railtrack days. And I believe more work is going on at the moment to de-clutter the concourse and improve the view of the trains & roof by moving the departure board out of the way.

 

[NSE]

You get a couple of FGW DMU's each day heading for the West Country. I think the closest you'll find to a loco would be something like a passing NR test train, but Brighton isn't a through station, so not likely. Southern do own Dave Berry their Class 73 in GatEx livery. But I think that might be allocated to Stewarts Lane rather than Lovers Walk, outside Brighton.

 

[D841 Roebuck]

The Volks Electric Railway is worth a bash.

In three conferences, the only loco I saw at Brighton was 09026.

If its the PCS conference you're going to, there used to be a Cuban Salsa night event, with cheap rum provided by the brothers and sisters from the Caribbean - well worth going to...

 

[clagmonster]

There is always the Lovers Walk class 09. The following link should help you find it: http://shunterspot.***********.org/about2356.html

 

[sarahj]

Ahhh, Cedric. He is normaly to be found sitting outside of lovers walk between the sheds and the washer.

things to look out for. Three Bridges. The new super control centre and the sheds are coming along. Just outside of Brighton, on the other side to Lovers walks, more sidings are being built ready for our new super Theamlink trains. (not orded yet!!).

Stock will be all, 377's, 313,319 and 442. FGW have twice a day a 159, sometimes they send a 150 from ATW.

SJ

 

[NSE]

Actually FGW have 158s, which are all hybrid three car units, and Southerns 171s

 

[acg5324]

Depends if you are on foot or have a car.

Foot:
Brighton station carpark top deck:- good for mainline and East coastway.
Brighton station all 3 routes.
Dyke Road Drive road bridge:- good for mainline, Lovers Walk and Thameslink building work.

Car (and train)
Waterhall near the A23/A27 interchange, mainline only footbridge across the railway and A23.
Foot crossing between Hassocks and Bugess Hill nearly always a muddy walk to this.
Nightingale Lane bridge just south of Bugess Hill both mainline only public footpath
Beddingham, Lewes Eastcoastway only park on the road to Newhaven and there is a public footpath along the river. Tornado due on a charter from Lewes on the 28th of May.
Hove station Westcoastway only.


Plenty of photos from around Brighton on my websites, links below,