Museum of… Bluebell Railway Museum, East Sussex

The Bluebell Railway Museum is in the original waiting room on platform two of Sheffield Park station, near Brighton. Built in 1882, the waiting room was converted into a museum in the 1960s. 

A museum dedicated to the glory years of railways of southern England, in particular the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway. It also tells the story of the Lewes & East Grinstead Railway, which closed in the late 1950s. 

The museum originally opened in 1960 as an independent enterprise. Following funding from the lottery, it reopened with an extension in 2011.

Collection 

“The railway is the museum,” says its curator Tony Drake, who joined as a volunteer fireman and has spent more than 20 years in the post. The collection includes artefacts associated with building railways: sections of rails, signage, lamps, dining items, railway models, live steam and all manner of vintage printed matter and posters. There are popular displays in the new part of the museum, which relate to railways in wartime and the Bluebell’s part in film and television productions. 

“Among many other appearances, it had a role in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey and the remake of the Railway Children film. The museum has an active collections policy, with the assistant curator, Tony Hillman, keeping an eye on auction lists. Hillman and Drake met while working at the National Physical Laboratories and bonded over their shared railway enthusiasm. 

Highlights 

“It has to be London Jack, a stuffed dog,” says Hillman. “When alive, Jack spent much of his life at Waterloo station helping to raise money for the Southern Railway Orphanage at Woking.” Jack retired at the end of 1930 and died soon after, having helped collect more than £4,500. Owned by a Southern Railway driver, Jack met the trains at Waterloo with him when he was off duty. Now stuffed, Jack is still bringing in money, which is donated to Woking Homes, a retirement charity.

45,000 a year.

The museum is volunteer run. Drake and Hillman curate and there is a management committee responsible to the Bluebell Railway Trust, the parent body of the museum. Day-to-day operations are in the care of Drake and 35 stewards, two or three of whom are on duty whenever there is a train service operating. 

Getting a signal box, complete with its old lever-frame, lifted over the new railway carriage shed was a headache. “Having agreed to accept the offer of a signal box from an old signalman who had kept it in his garden for 40 years, we could only get it in by crane,” says Drake. 

 

“Change your displays regularly,” says Drake. “It’s necessary to produce stories that appeal to all people.” He also points to targeted events: from late November each year, the museum runs Santa-themed activities for families.