Hellingly Hospital Railway

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The Hellingly Hospital Railway was a railway owned and operated by East Sussex County Council, serving Hellingly Hospital[1] near Hailsham, via a spur from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway’s Cuckoo Line at Hellingly railway station. The railway was constructed in 1899 and carried passengers between 1903 and 1931, closing to freight in 1959.

Contents

[edit] History

In 1897, East Sussex County Council purchased from the Earl of Chichester a 400-acre (160 ha) site at Park Farm, approximately three miles north of Hailsham, to be the site of a new county lunatic asylum. Construction of the hospital began in 1900, to the design of George Thomas Hine,[2] who had previously designed the nearby Haywards Heath Asylum.[3] A 1¼ mile (2 km) rail connection to the Cuckoo Line was built by the hospital's construction firm, Joseph Howe & Company, for the transport of construction materials, and purchased by the hospital authorities for £2000 following construction of the hospital.[3]

The electric locomotive and freight cars, 1906
The electric locomotive and freight cars, 1906

[edit] Steam operation

During the construction of the hospital, Joseph Howe & Company had used an 0-4-0 saddle tank locomotive. The locomotive was purchased new in 1900, and sold in 1903 following the completion of the hospital and electrification of the line.[3]

[edit] Electrification

In 1902, the decision was taken to electrify the railway using power generated from the hospital's own power plant. The line was electrified using a single overhead line.

Engineers Robert W. Blackwell & Co provided a small 0-4-0 electric locomotive capable of pulling two loaded coal wagons. However, it is not known where the locomotive was manufactured, as Robert W. Blackwell & Co have no record of its manufacture; due to the design of the controls, it appears to have been imported from Germany.[4] A small railcar with space for 12 passengers was also provided. Both the locomotive and the railcar were fitted with pantographs.[4]

The passenger car was used for the duration of passenger services on the line, and the locomotive from the electrification of the line to the 1959 closure of the line. At the time of the line's closure, the locomotive was the oldest operational electric locomotive in the British Isles.[5]

Layout of LBSCR and Hellingly Hospital Railway lines & platforms at Hellingly station
Layout of LBSCR and Hellingly Hospital Railway lines & platforms at Hellingly station

[edit] Opening

A small wooden platform was built at Hellingly railway station, opposite the main line platform. This had no connection to the station buildings and was used for transfer between trains only, and kept chained off when not in use.[4] Coal yards and sidings were also built at Hellingly station. The hospital opened to patients, and the railway to passengers, on July 20, 1903.[3]

[edit] Operation

Passenger numbers using the railway gradually declined. Following the railway grouping of 1923, the LBSCR became a part of the newly-formed Southern Railway and the agreements between the hospital (renamed the East Sussex Mental Hospital in 1919) and the LBSCR updated. The wooden platform at Hellingly station was drastically shortened.[3]

Because service levels depended on patient numbers and the hospital's coal and food requirements, the line never operated to a timetable.[5]

There were only two minor accidents throughout the existence of the line; a car which collided with the locomotive whilst driving through the hospital grounds, and a wagon whose brakes failed whilst stabled at Farm Siding, which rolled down the line to Hellingly station.[3]

[edit] Closure of passenger services

By 1931, passenger numbers had fallen to such an extent that the hospital authorities no longer deemed passenger usage of the line to be economic, and the passenger service was withdrawn. The passenger car was moved to the hospital grounds, fitted with an awning, and became the hospital's sports pavilion. The wooden platform at Hellingly station was removed in 1932,[4] and the platform at the hospital end converted into a coal bay.[3]

[edit] World War II

On November 22, 1939, plans were put in place for a re-opening of passenger services on the line for ambulance trains to reach the hospital and authorisation given for their operation. However, although Park House was used as a hospital for the Canadian Army, in the event the ambulance trains discharged their patients at Hellingly station from which they were transported to Park House by road.[3]

[edit] Closure

In the late 1950s, the hospital – under the authority of the Hailsham Hospitals Management Committee since the 1948 establishment of the National Health Service – decided to convert the hospital's boilers from coal to oil. Following the conversion of the boilers, the railway was no longer needed to transport coal. The last load was delivered on March 10, 1959, the empty coal wagon being returned to Hellingly on March 25, 1959.[3]

Under the terms of the agreement between the hospital authorities and the LBSCR and its successors, the hospital authorities were obliged to keep the railway in good repair for LBSCR/Southern/British Railways wagons to be permitted to use it. With a greatly reduced need for goods traffic to the hospital following the conversion of the boilers, it was decided that the railway was not worth the expense of upgrading, and the line was officially closed on March 25 1959 following the departure of the last coal wagon.[3]

The line was used for irregular occasional excursions of railway enthusiasts for a short period, using the electric locomotive and a brake van borrowed from British Railways.[5] The exact date of the last running over the line is not recorded. The last recorded use of the line was an excursion organised by the Norbury Transport and Model Railway Club on April 4, 1959; however, it is known that further excursions were run on the line prior to the track being lifted.[3] In the early 1960s a railway society in Yorkshire proposed to buy the track as a preserved railway. However, given that the psychiatric hospital was still open, the request was not considered practical,[3] and the track was lifted in the early 1960s with the fittings and locomotive disposed of by H.Ripley and Sons of Hailsham.[5]

Route of the Hellingly Hospital Railway
Route of the Hellingly Hospital Railway

[edit] Route

The railway left the Cuckoo Line at Hellingly Station. Although the railway joined the Cuckoo Line at both the northern and southern ends of the platform, virtually no through trains ever ran. Because the line to the hospital ran northbound but connected to the mainline south of the platforms, passenger services to and from the hospital needed to reverse to the south of Hellingly station.[5]

On leaving Hellingly, the railway passed over two partially gated level crossings at Park Road and New Road, and then came to a single siding known as Farm Siding on the west of the line. This was used for agricultural produce in the early years of the railway, but fell out of use in later years.[5] Approximately halfway between Hellingly and the hospital, the line entered the hospital grounds, passing Park House Siding on the east of the line, which served the Park House annexe of the hospital.

As it approached the hospital, the line split, with a southern fork leading to a siding to the northwest of the hospital, and the other line turning sharply right through almost 180° and splitting again, with one fork running into a large workshop and the other leading to a short platform. This was initially used for passenger traffic, but after the suspension of passenger traffic was converted into a coal dock.[3]

There were no signals or automatic points on the line. When approaching the level crossings, the driver's mate would run ahead of the locomotive or railcar and stop traffic with a red flag; likewise, the driver's mate would operate the points by hand.[3]

[edit] The route today

Following the closure of the Hospital Railway, the Cuckoo Line itself was to close shortly thereafter, with Hellingly station closing to passengers on June 14, 1965 and to goods traffic on April 26, 1968. The station building (complete with platform) at Hellingly is now a private residence, and in 1990 the Cuckoo Line trackbed was converted to the Cuckoo Trail long-distance footpath.[6] Much of the former route of the Hospital Railway is also now a footpath.[7]

Although Hellingly Hospital itself remains open, services are drastically reduced. The main building and Park House are both abandoned and derelict. However, other parts of the complex remain open and continue to deliver mental health services.[8] Traces of the railway can still be seen today, notably a single remaining cast iron pole which formerly held the overhead cable, the railway's engine shed, and a short remaining section of track.[9] It is currently planned to convert the entire hospital site into complex of 239 dwellings.[2][10]

[edit] References & footnotes

  1. ^ Reflecting changing attitudes to, and terminology within, the field of psychiatric medicine, the hospital went through multiple renamings in its lifetime. Known as the County Lunatic Asylum prior to opening, it was opened in 1903 as the East Sussex County Asylum. On June 28, 1919 it was renamed the East Sussex Mental Hospital. Following nationalisation in 1948, the formal name gradually declined in usage, and by the time of its closure in 1990 it was always referred to as Hellingly Hospital. The Hellingly Hospital name was used informally (and in semi-official material such as staff publications) throughout the existence of the hospital.
  2. ^ a b “Former asylum to be converted to flats”, The Argus, 2007-02-07, <http://archive.theargus.co.uk/2007/2/7/227106.html> 
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harding, Peter A. (1989). The Hellingly Hospital Railway. Woking: Peter A. Harding. ISBN 095094145X. 
  4. ^ a b c d Mitchell, Vic; Smith, Keith (1986). Branch Lines to Tunbridge Wells from Oxted, Lewes and Polegate. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 0906520320. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f Stones, H.R. (1957). "The Hellingly Hospital Railway". Railway Magazine 103 (680:December): 869-872. 
  6. ^ The Cuckoo Trail. East Sussex County Council. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
  7. ^ Hellingly Walk. East Sussex County Council (2005). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
  8. ^ Cracknell, Pete (2005). East Sussex County Asylum. County Asylums. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
  9. ^ Catford, Nick (1995). Disused Stations Site Record: Hellingly Hospital Railway. Subterranea Britannica. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
  10. ^ Review Committee Minutes. Wealden Council (2004-07-19). Retrieved on 2008-06-06.

[edit] External links