Eastbourne
Photos of the station in the spring of 2008 are here
| The London Brighton & South Coast Railway reached Eastbourne, Sussex in 1849 when two branches were constructed from Polegate on the Lewes-Hastings through line. The first branch was northwards to the market town Hailsham and the second southwards to the small town of Eastbourne. At that time Hailsham was expected to produce almost as much traffic as Eastbourne. In 1875 through trains started to operate and eliminated the need to change at Polegate. In 1881, the Hailsham branch was downgraded to secondary status, while in Eastbourne the town and the railway line flourished. The Brighton Railway had intended to build a carriage works at Eastbourne; however, local opposition forced the LBSCR to find another location and the carriage works were built at Lancing instead. The original roundhouse engine shed which was located opposite the station signal box was demolished in 1911 and a new engine shed was built about 3/4 of a mile outside the station on the land originally acquired for the LBSCR carriage works. In 1935 the Southern Railway electrified the line from both London & Brighton via Lewes and to Hastings & Ore. Goods working and the Tunbridge Wells trains were steam hauled until the 1960s.
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 In the 1950s, trains from London were formed of 2 6 car electric units, one with a Pullman car(6-PUL) and one with a pantry car(6-PAN). The rear 6 car unit then ran a fast service to Hastings. This image is a tribute to those lone 6-PUL units running from Eastbourne to Bexhill and Hastings.
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| The Station throat in 1969 taken from the end of platforms 3 & 4. A grounded coach body can be seen close to the site of the roundhouse.
photograph by Michael Taylor |
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| The north end of the yard used for passenger stock storage. A 4-CIG unit in green with small yellow warning panels can be seen in the background. The yellow arrow marks the grounded coach body.
photograph by Michael Taylor |
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| The south end of the yard in 1969 was still quite a busy place with class 08 D3273 shunting. Goods trains were worked in using Class 73 Electro-Diesels as seen by
this shot of E6044 entering
Eastbourne. The yard is now closed and has been turned into a shopping centre.
photograph by Michael Taylor |
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| The signal Box at Eastbourne in June 1999. Platform 4 disappeared under a road widening, the goods yard is closed, British Railways (Southern Region) is gone. Pictures allow us to remember when Southern Electric meant quick and clean trains. photograph by Michael Taylor |
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| Detail from a Judges postcard of 1907 showing the 1895 station which survives today. This is the fourth station building to occupy this site.
This picture is used with permission from Judges Postcards.
© Judges Postcards Ltd, Hastings, England, Tel: +44 (0)1424 420919. |
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| Eastbourne's coal yard was extensive and still well used in 1958, when P. J. Lynch took this view of E2 0-6-2T 32581 arriving from Tunbridge Wells at 4 p.m. This photo was published along with 3 other Eastbourne station photos in the July 1998 British Railways Illustrated Magazine.
Photograph used by permission from Irwell Press
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| RICKETT COCKERELL FOR COAL AND COKE. A detail shot, showing a wooden plank wagon amongst the steel sided ones, bags of coal for residential use and the combination weighing and bagging machine. Photograph used by permission from Irwell Press
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