The Bluebell Railway: The First Preserved Steam Line to Run a Public Timetable

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway opened the Lewes and East Grinstead line in 1882. When it closed, a group of preservationists got trains running again over a four-and-a-half-mile stretch on 7 August 1960 — the first preserved standard gauge steam passenger railway in the world to run a regular public timetable. Volunteers of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society still run it, from Sheffield Park up to East Grinstead, as a living museum of the Victorian branch line through to the late 1960s.