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All steam ahead for the 57th Engineering Heritage Award

Over 100 members of the Institution gathered at the historic Sheffield Park Station in East Sussex on Sunday 22 August to see immediate Past President, Keith Millard, present the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society (BRPS) with the Institution's 57th Engineering Heritage Award.

This award was in recognition of the BRPS’s 50 years of work in preserving and restoring the railway line, stations, trains and carriages on this historic line along the border of East and West Sussex. 

On presenting the award, Keith Millard said: “It is truly the dedication of the Society, its volunteers and the work they have all done that has made the Bluebell undoubtedly one of the most famous heritage lines in the UK.”

The Award was made all the more significant with the Bluebell Railway celebrating its 50th anniversary in August, making it the oldest standard gauge heritage railway in the UK.

The Bluebell Railway line runs from its headquarters at Sheffield Park station to Horsted Keynes and Kingscote, a run of nine miles through the countryside and the 668-metre Sharpthorne tunnel. 

Today, the Society is working on extending the line to reconnect Bluebell with the national railway network at East Grinstead. This task will require them fully to restore the track and remove over 300,000 cubic metres of landfill placed on the line during the 1970s.

Golden Arrow Pullman ServiceThe Bluebell presentation also marked the first heritage test event staged by the Institution’s Heritage Committee.  Members were able to ride on the IMechE/Golden Arrow Pullman service and gain exclusive access to the Bluebell workshops, including work on the reconstruction of the Atlantic Class locomotive 32424 ‘Beachy Head’.

It is the aim of the Heritage Committee, upon receiving feedback on the Bluebell test event, to offer a range of heritage based activities for members in the near future. 

To find out more about the Heritage Committee or submit an application for a heritage award, visit the Engineering Heritage Award webpage on the IMechE website.  For more information on the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society, visit www.bluebell-railway.co.uk

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1 comment from readers

Richard Linkins

02 Sept 2010 at 19.25

I applaud the achievements of the Bluebell Railway in achieving 50 years as a passenger carrying heritage railway. I have been visiting the railway since it started and the visits always give me great pleasure. I am very impressed by everything the railway has achieved, especially the quality of the engineering.

However the report is inaccurate in one very important respect, it is not the oldest standard gauge heritage railway in the UK. That honour belongs to the Middleton Railway in Leeds. They carried their first passenger nearly two months before the Bluebell, in 1960. In fact the railway has been operating for 252 years this month and was the first in the world where steam locomotives were a commercial success. This achievement is all the more creditable because the Middleton is run solely by volunteers and has preserved many Leeds built locomotives.

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