NEWHAVEN LOCO SHED

My father was a shunter there during this time. I was lucky enough to get a few rides on the little steam engines. Sadly he passed away a couple of years ago.

Another story my late father told me was that during the last year or so of the sleeper service to Sterling, was that the yard was cleared and modernised. This included the removal of the turntable shown in the picture. The powers that be didn't realise of course that it meant that the large engine that pulled the sleeper now had to reverse all the way to Brighton to turn around, then reverse all the way back to couple up to the train. British Rail at it's best eh?

Part of the enjoyment of going to the east beach when I was very young was that of watching the radial tank (it might have been 503!) shunting on the sidings south of the Harbour Station. One day, I was invited onto the footplate by Driver Turner (Sylvia's grandfather) and Fireman Dickie Bird, and sat on the ledge at the back of the cab while wagons were shunted onto their respective roads. Unfortunately, I was too young and too nervous to enjoy the experience as much as I would have done later! So I am told, Newhaven's turntable was the best balanced of all on the Southern; I recall seeing Fireman David Creasey pushing a K-class Mogul round single-handed. The drivers' lobby, facing no.1 road in the shed, had been condemned many years before, yet was still in use. A new brick building (on the right of the turntable road) was constructed; I believe I am right in saying that it was completed about the time that the depot closed down.

I started as a cleaner age 15 in March 1949. The shed master's office (Alf Bluck who  came from Brighton each day) was a old Victorian carriage which stood where the new building mentioned above was & I guess this was his office. I left the railway at the end of 1954 and the old carriage was still there and often went into the loco shed for a time but can't remember ever seeing the new building. Just over a year ago I managed to get into the loco shed and looked into the drivers' lobby and took a couple of photos & it was exactly as when I worked there, the cast iron grate & sink etc. The four lane pits had been filled in but the rail tracks were still there. must say it brought back some memories & faces all long gone, well almost. The booking in & shift foreman's hut is still there.          

I have just returned from a few days stay at Newhaven / Seaford  and was sad to see the demolition of the engine shed, I started as a cleaner in 1949 joining Jack Hillman (my guardian) his brother Ted both drivers then, they started work at the sheet loft in 1911/1913. Brother in laws Ron Bass & Fred Wells 'passed' cleaners, we all worked on the same shifts. Ron then was a guard at Seaford until he retired at 65. A total of 165 years between us.