The BlueBell Railway is a wonderful Preservation steam railway in West Sussex. The line stretches from Sheffield Park to , not quite East Grinstead , I think it's about 11 miles long + or - some error to the nearest thou (some one contacted me (please could you re contact me as the contact form has been playing around, and I can not thank you personally, (the contact form forgot to give me your email address :-( ) and said I had it wrong at 15 miles (correct, that is, it's not 15 miles)... which I got from a mag, no names,... so it's now corectlly, 11 miles (when it gets to East Grinstead, 9 miles to Kingscote), doubly confirmed by the Bluebell website, the 11 miles that is, you never want to over estimate the length :-), thanks for the correction). It does not quite reach East Grinstead as of yet, but stops at Kingscote. There a few issues to overcome before the line can reach East Grinstead, one being the removal of landfill in a cutting. I have read this will cost millions of pounds to carry out!! In the last few weeks the track bed to Ardingly has been secured, fantastic. Here is their website.
This railway is a great place of young and old, my kids think it's great, we have to go there all the time. They have engine sheds you can walk round, a model railway, somewhere to get a pint. It's even possible to book a meal in the famous 'Pullman' coaches, whilst being transported up and down the line. I have not experienced this yet, but my parents have, the say it's wonderful.
Well here are a couple of pictures of their working 45 ton steam crane, which they use!!!
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Here is a map of the location of the main station of the Bluebell. It's located in Sheffield Park, West Sussex, England.