Cooksbridge 1977

COOKSBRIDGE

(All 4.7.1977 Copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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Back in 1977 I was often out on my motorbike visiting the more obscure parts of the railway network in Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset.

A strange little line (to me at least) is the line that runs from Keymer Junction down to Lewes, stopping at Cooksbridge and Plumpton. This was a line I simply wouldn't use living in Littlehampton. It gives a (sort of) direct route from Eastbourne to London (now the Cuckoo Line is closed), but seemed like a bit of a backwater with few trains stopping at the stations outside of rush hour.

This was Cooksbridge in 1977. It still had the old style target nameplates (I can't remember seeing this anywhere else), a signalbox and classic station buildings. I even managed to catch a train coming through whilst I was there ...

Littlehampton 27.5.1986

LITTLEHAMPTON

7360 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

7334 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

7754 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

2107 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

7800 Littlehampton 27.5.1986

(All pics © Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

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When I lived in Littlehampton a favourite afternoon excursion was to the footbridge at Littlehampton station throat, and over the years I must have taken a few hundred photos from this point. This is an unrepeatable location, the footbridge was demolished many years ago and a newer (and I suspect far less useful) bridge has since sprung up closer to the station. Amazingly the signalbox and semaphores are still there, though the trains have completely changed.

So on an afternoon in May 1986 there was a regular procession of electric slam door units, boring at the time but I understand they are a lot more popular now - just as the current 'boring' units will be to the next generation.

If you're wondering about the open connecting door in picture three this unit is being driven into the large carriage sheds just behind me.

Littlehampton had (and of course still has) regular trains to Portsmouth, Bognor, London via Arundel, Brighton and London via Hove. All in all a fantastic service if you lived there, with two separate routes to London! We were very spoiled.