Cavalcade Spectacular | Bluebell Railway '65th Anniversary Gala Weekend' - 10.08.25

The Bluebell Railway in Sussex would celebrate their 65th anniversary in style as they hosted a mini gala over the weekend of 8th-10th August, utilising their entire useable home fleet, tying in with the Rail200 celebrations.

The Bluebell began operations as a preserved steam heritage railway in 1960, originally running only as far as Bluebell Holt, before eventually reaching Horsted Keynes in 1961. In April 1994, the line would be extended to Kingscote, before eventually reaching the now terminus at East Grinstead in March 2013, which also gave the line a mainline connection for the first time in half a century. The line, which was the first preserved standard gauge passenger line in the world, now regularly runs steam services over the 11 mile route from Sheffield Park to East Grinstead.

The railway would mark this anniversary with an intensive timetable over the three days, with one set of services, mainly using the smaller locomotives, running from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes, while the bigger locomotives would run services from Horsted Keynes to East Grinstead, making Horsted Keynes, the biggest station on any preserved railway, a big transport hub over the weekend. The steam fleet would consist of 73082 Camelot, Standard 4 No. 80151, 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair, 32424 Beachy Head, O1 No. 65, and 72 Fenchurch. E6040 ‘The Bluebell Railway’, one of two diesels based at the line, was also scheduled to appear at the event but was unable to due to a fault, so 33108, visiting from the Severn Valley Railway, would step in to cover its duties.

The Sunday of the event would see the weekend end in style with a cavalcade of all 7 locomotives together, running through the station limits at Horsted Keynes twice, with a chorus of whistling throughout, making a great end to a well celebrated anniversary which was topped off with brilliant sunshine!

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