Amberley Museum Railway

Pre-Preservation

Before the advent of Amberley Museum, the site was a chalk quarry operated by Pepper & Sons. The site had its own loco worked standard gauge railway, which connected with the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway at Amberley station. Over the years Peppers owned a range of locos, including Marshall and Aveling & Porter steam designs, and a Hibberd Planet petrol loco. When the site was abandoned in the late 1960s the track was lifted.

Early Days

When the museum opened in the late 1970s a small industrial railway was envisaged, operating typical narrow gauge industrial trains. The first loco to arrive on site was Hibberd Simplex 1980 from the City of Chichester Sewage Works at Apuldram. In 1982 the Thakeham Tiles company, located a few miles from the museum, donated its entire railway system including two Hudson Hunslet locos, several wagons and some track, a new conveyor system having started operation at the works. The donation was on the condition the whole lot was removed over a weekend. This was duly accomplished. Today some of the Thakeham track is still in use on non-passenger parts of the line, along with one of the locos (Hunslet 3653). The other, Hudson Hunslet 2208 is in store, having been used as a spares donor for the museum's other Hudson Hunslet locos. Also in 1982, the Brockham Museum in Surrey closed down and moved its entire stock to Amberley. This influx, including several steam locos, gave the inspiration to expand the operation to a passenger carrying line.

The Brockham Story

The story of the Brockham Museum starts in 1960, when the Dorking Greystone Lime Co. of Betchworth, Surrey, was disposing of its railway stock and the company's general manager, Major Taylerson, was keen to see the locos preserved. The London Area Group of the Narrow Gauge Railway Society purchased one of the pair of 3 ft 2 ¹⁄₄ in (972 mm) gauge Fletcher Jennings tank locos, 'Townsend Hook'. Initially this was placed on display at Sheffield Park station on the embryonic Bluebell Railway. However this was not a particularly satisfactory arrangement and efforts were made to find an alternative home. A site was found at a disused chalk pit in Brockham, only a stone's throw from Townsend Hook's old stamping grounds at Betchworth. Townsend Hook moved there in 1962. That year the two Orenstein & Koppel diesel locos from Betchworth were acquired: No. 6 'Monty' and No. 7, later named 'The Major' in honour of Major Taylerson. The Brockham Museum Trust was formed as a separate entity to the NGRS, although the NGRS retained ownership of Townsend Hook and later acquisition 'Peter' (Bagnall 2067) until the early 2000s. In 1967 the now-flagship of the museum fleet was acquired, 1905-built Bagnall 2-4-0T 1781 'Polar Bear', from the Groudle Glen Railway. The story goes that Brockham were offered both 'Polar Bear' and her sister, 'Sea Lion', along with all the carriages for £50, but the museum couldn't raise that much money and instead purchased Polar Bear and two carriages, along with many spares from 'Sea Lion', which had been out of use since 1939 to keep 'Polar Bear' in traffic. The museum continued to expand, becoming home to most of Amberley's current collection. However, by the early 1980s the limited access to the site forced a transfer away from Brockham, and Amberley was deemed the best location to move to.

The Combined Collection

A running line was built at Amberley from 1982 to 1984 running along one side of the pit between Amberley and Brockham stations. The inaugural train was hauled by Polar Bear, by that time back in steam. The Hudson Hunslet diesels 3097 and Blue Star were stalwarts of the passenger service in the 80s, until the arrival of Motor Rail Simplex 60S prototype 11001. In the mid-1980s Decauville 0-4-0WT 'Barbouilleur' entered service, and following Polar Bear's boiler being condemned around 1987, was the sole steam locomotive available until 1993. 'Polar Bear' re-entered traffic with a new boiler in 1993, and was joined that same year by 'Peter'. 'Townsend Hook' departed in 1995 to Eastleigh College for an ultimately ill-fated restoration attempt.

Expansion

The 2000s showed significant expansion for the railway. In the early 2000s it was decided WW1 Baldwin 4-6-0PT 778 'Lion', which had been in store for many years, needed an alternative home for it to be restored, as it was far too big for the sharp curves on the Amberley system. It departed for the Leighton Buzzard railway, where it is now in service. A new exhibition hall for the railway, built with lottery funding, was opened in 2003. This building also serves as a carriage shed, the carriage fleet having suffered severe deterioration when stored outside beforehand. A new running shed was also built, opening in 2005. This building serves as a dedicated operating and restoration base for the passenger steam fleet, as well as a dedicated home and charging station for the battery electric locos. The steam fleet was bolstered in 2006 by the arrival of the Hampshire Narrow Gauge Trust's Bagnall 0-4-0ST 2091 'Wendy'. The running line was extended in the 2000s, with the extension round the top of the pit to the new Cragside station opening in mid-2007. In 2008 Hunslet diesel-hydraulic 8969 'No. 12' the rest of the time entered service as the main passenger loco. Another addition was made to the steam fleet in 2009 when HNGRT's other steam loco, Quarry Hunslet 0-4-0ST 542 'Cloister' arrived. Both HNGRT locos left Amberley during Summer 2012.

The Line Today

The main line runs from Amberley station near the museum entrance along the side of the pit past the De Witt lime kilns to Brockham station, currently the only intermediate stations. From Brockham the line curves round the top of the pit and passes the running shed and ends up at Cragside station, across the pit from Brockham. The industrial (non-passenger) lines connect to the main line at Brockham station. At Amberley station there is a rarely used siding into the woodyard. Brockham has a small siding on Platform 2, as well as a former London, Brighton and South Coast Railway ticket office from Hove station. In addition there is the Betchworth Hall shed, used for the restoration of Townsend Hook, and eventually will be used as a museum to display the Dorking Greystone Lime Co. exhibits (Townsend Hook, Monty, The Major, wagons 10 and 60, and some miscellaneous items).

The railway holds its annual Gala Weekend on the second weekend of July each year, in addition to two Industrial Trains Days in April and October.

Locomotives

Listings correct as of May 2015

Engines marked 'In occasional use' are generally only operated at railway special events and are usually either on display in the museum building or stored in one of the sheds or the tunnel. Locos marked 'Air Fitted/Piped' are capable of hauling passenger trains.

Passenger Stock

In popular culture

The railway made an appearance in the 1985 James Bond film, A View to a Kill, with the railway's storage tunnel appearing as the entrance to a mine. Later, engines HE3097 and 'Blue Star' were sent to Pinewood Studios along with a quantity of wagons to film scenes 'inside the mine'. Many of the railway's skip wagons still carry 'Zorin Green' livery.

In 2010 four of the museum's Hudson flat wagons were sent to Pinewood Studios for use in the film, Captain America: The First Avenger.