Trains at Balcombe (BML) - 19/02/2025

Описание: The 257th video of my train spotting adventures.
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This video follows on from the Three Bridges video, one stop down the Brighton Main Line to Balcombe railway station. A small, 2-platform DfT Category E "Small staffed" train station, it was opened in July 1841 by the London and Brighton Railway (L&BR), which became the London Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR) in 1846. The station was re-sited to its present position in 1848 or 1849.
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There's some neat station history on display in the small waiting room on Platform 1; I didn't note any of it down, but it notes that in the past, Balcombe station had a small rail yard, which sat on the adjacent carpark behind Platform 1. It was reached on rail by a small junction just to the north of the station, though whatever existed before has been built over, both by the aforementioned carpark and the extensions made to Platform 1; the track would've crossed to the yard just after the site of the supports for the bridge carrying the rails over the road which runs under the railway embankment. There were also other yard lines along the Platform 2 side of the mainlines to the north, but these have also long been removed, and today the station has only the two existing platforms and respective rails.
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The reason for the yard's removal was due to the rise in motor car usage; not specifically for building a new carpark, but because the yards - formally used for the village to bring in and send out resources from/to the rest of the UK - were no longer needed as trucks became popular.
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Filmed on the:
Brighton Main Line
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Services seen:
SR) Services towards Three Bridges, Gatwick Airport, Redhill, East Croydon, Clapham Junction, London Victoria, Brighton, Eastbourne and Ore.
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TL) Services towards Haywards Heath, Brighton, Three Bridges, Gatwick Airport, Salfords (Surrey), Earlswood (Surrey), Redhill, East Croydon, London Bridge, London Blackfriars, City Thameslink, Farringdon, London St Pancras International, and onwards to St Albans/Luton/Bedford and Stevenage/Hitchin/Cambridge/Peterborough.
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GX) Services towards Haywards Heath & Brighton and Gatwick Airport & London Victoria.
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Trains seen:
SR) Class 377/387 Electrostar
TL) Class 700 Desiro City
GX) Class 387 Electrostar
GBRf) Class 73
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