Giants of Steam - Bluebell Railway

[BN9 BHA]

Yes, it is a viaduct, but it isn't the bridge crossing Hartington Road!

I see, apologies.
I thought the viaduct continued up that way, I honestly can not remember a bridge over Hartington Road.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Yes, it is a viaduct, but it isn't the bridge crossing Hartington Road!

This, on the other hand, IS the bridge across Hartington Road. Sadly no close up seems to be available.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=h...=oxoNWNKqKqfUgAbynZboAQ#imgrc=aK1HkOW3DXLG-M:

 

[GT49er]

I see, apologies.
I thought the viaduct continued up that way, I honestly can not remember a bridge over Hartington Road.

Well, I can assure you that the trains didn't jump over it!

 

[BN9 BHA]

Well, I can assure you that the trains didn't jump over it!

Seen the photos now.

 

[Cowfold Seagull]

I will take your word for it.


Great photo, it's hard to imagine seeing a station there now.
When I was a kid I went on the last train from Brighton to Kemp Town.

What line was Kemp Town actually on? Not being a Brightonian you understand.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Well, I can assure you that the trains didn't jump over it!

Just been having a read up on the Kemp Town branch line, the Hartington Road bridge was demolished in 1973, that's why I can't remember it. I obviously went over it on a train but I probably didn't walk up that road as a child.
I know the Lewes Road viaduct was demolished in 1983, but I had a friend that lived off Hartington road in the late 70s/ early 80s and wouldn't have seen the bridge then as it had gone.

 

[BN9 BHA]

What line was Kemp Town actually on? Not being a Brightonian you understand.

It was a branch line from Brighton.

 

[Algernon]

Sadly no close up seems to be available.

I searched Google and found a close up photo of the Hartington Road Bridge:











































Too close?

 

[GT49er]

I searched Google and found a close up photo of the Hartington Road Bridge:


Too close?

Plenty close enough to see it's not the Hartington Road bridge. Wrong type of bricks, and laid entirely differently. Apart from that....................

 

[GT49er]

Just been having a read up on the Kemp Town branch line, the Hartington Road bridge was demolished in 1973, that's why I can't remember it. I obviously went over it on a train but I probably didn't walk up that road as a child.
I know the Lewes Road viaduct was demolished in 1983, but I had a friend that lived off Hartington road in the late 70s/ early 80s and wouldn't have seen the bridge then as it had gone.

Fair enough. My granddad lived just round the corner, in Wippingham Road, and we regularly visited him up until he departed in the mid sixties, so must have passed under it many times on the way to the buses in Lewes Road.

 

[goldstone]

It was a branch line from Brighton.

And probably one of the biggest wastes of money of any railway line ever built in the UK. You could walk from Kemp Town station into central Brighton quicker than the journey by train. Cannot possibly conceive how a business case for the line was ever presented, let alone approved.

 

[Gary Leeds]

And probably one of the biggest wastes of money of any railway line ever built in the UK. You could walk from Kemp Town station into central Brighton quicker than the journey by train. Cannot possibly conceive how a business case for the line was ever presented, let alone approved.

It was built as a blocking line to protect another train operating company from coming into Brighton from that direction.

And considering the last passenger service was in the 1930s I am surprised you can remember how long it used to take by train

 

[The Birdman]

Railway are making a comeback crossrail HS1 and HS2 Bluebell into Haywards Heath I hope one day.I don't think it will happen but I would love to see the Uckfield line to Lewes now the Stadium at Falmer and help reduce the pressure on the Brighton to London line.
Also Eastgrinsted to Crawley line would help if we have a second runway at Gatwick.

 

[Biscuit]

Does the tunnel in the background still exist?

Yes it does, well that entrance is still there at the back of Freshfield Industrial Estate, boarded up though.

 

[LowKarate]

But the building that replaced the 'bridge' is called Old Viaduct Court!

http://www.housingcare.org/housing-care/facility-info-10448-old-viaduct-court-lewes-road-england.aspx

So it must have been a viaduct!!

 

[GT49er]

But the building that replaced the 'bridge' is called Old Viaduct Court!

http://www.housingcare.org/housing-care/facility-info-10448-old-viaduct-court-lewes-road-england.aspx

So it must have been a viaduct!!

The building didn't replace the bridge. They wouldn't allow a retirement home to be built across the middle of Hartington Road!

When it was built, they may well have had a view of the old viaduct, which wasn't demolished until some years after the bridge. Or perhaps they were just built and named by a pig-sh*t thick builder..........

 

[Colonel Angus]

The building didn't replace the bridge. They wouldn't allow a retirement home to be built across the middle of Hartington Road!

When it was built, they may well have had a view of the old viaduct, which wasn't demolished until some years after the bridge. Or perhaps they were just built and named by a pig-sh*t thick builder..........

But bridges tend not to float in the air. On the Southern side of the road was part of the bridge structure and this is where the care home is now.

I think you might be onto something with your pig sh1t theory though.

 

[Barry Izbak]

First day today.