London Jack - collecting for the Woking Homes
London Jack collected money at Waterloo Station for the Southern Railway Orphanage at Woking. He was owned by SR Motor Driver Farley. Jack was born in 1917 and started collecting in 1923. He retired at the end of 1930 and died on 22 June 1931. In that time, he collected over £4500 for the Orphanage.
Jack was not alone, there were many dogs collecting around the Southern Railway area. As was common practice, when the dogs died, they were stuffed and put on display at a station and continued to collect money for the Orphanage. It was in 1967 when Jack was collecting at Bournemouth that it was decided that he was not an appropriate feature of the newly electrified railway and so a new home was sought. Jack arrived at Sheffield Park on 5th August 1967 after the Bluebell Railway was asked if they would give him a home.
Jack was an outstanding collector which was no doubt due to his appealing looks but also due to his ability to sense a wealthy American who had arrived via Southampton from the cross Atlantic liners.
Joseph Firbank’s Lamp
This is a very rare oil lamp. This lamp has been used on the Bluebell Line for some 145 years. We can tell by the plate on the lamp that it was the property of Joseph Firbank the builder of the Lewes to East Grinstead railway line and was used from about 1878.
It then passed into the ownership of the Lewes and East Grinstead Railway who first owned the railway and bears their plate. We know that from about 1884 it then passed into the ownership of the London Brighton and South Coast Railway when they acquired the railway as it also carries their plate.
We know it was then used by Southern Railway from 1923 to 1948 because of the stamped B (for Brighton) on the lamp. E was used for Eastleigh and A for Ashford the other locomotive works. There is no mark on the lamp to show that it then passed to British Railways, but it is very likely that it did. At some stage it entered retirement, but it is now back where it belongs. When you look at the lamp think of it being used and who used it over its many years on the Bluebell.
Victorian booking office
The booking office gives an insight into what a booking office would have been like between the late 19th century and the 1920s. It is a far cry from today’s railway booking offices. Buying a ticket to travel on the railway was only one of the many things that could be done here. You could post your letters here using the railway postal system, send parcels for delivery by rail and horse and cart, book railway hotel accommodation, arrange the transportation of just about everything including the complete contents of a farm, and even an elephant. In addition, international travel could be arranged, for example, a train from Sheffield Park to London and then on to Paris, or a ferry crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe.
There was a published tariff for everything, and the large tariff books would be consulted to find the correct charge.
Railways had telephones and telegraph ahead of that available in the community. If you wanted to communicate with the next village the booking office was the place to go.
ASLEF Timing equipment
In the past railway companies did not train their footplate workers. If an employee wished to progress from cleaner to fireman or from fireman to driver, they would have to acquire the knowledge needed. This was often done by self-help groups who would give night classes in the employee’s free time and at their expense. Later on, trade unions took on this role.
Understanding how the valves that let steam in and out of the cylinders that then provide the energy to the drive wheels was an important part of the knowledge they needed.
On display in the museum is a piece of training equipment owned by the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Fireman (ASLEF) that demonstrates how the timing gear works. Here visitors can operate it to find out how the timing of a steam locomotive works and how to make the locomotive reverse. The equipment was built in 1908.
Withyham Signal Box
Withyham signal box is a wonderful example of an early Saxby and Farmer signal box. It looks just like we expect a rural Victorian signal box to look like. Built in 1866 it served the small and quiet Withyham Station on the East Grinstead to Tunbridge Wells line.
Its lever frame, which was used to control the railway, was state of the art technology with sequential interlocking. This greatly reduced the risk of an error in signalling.
Restored to the original London Brighton and South Coast Railway livery with the levers displaying the colours used at the time of construction, it is an attractive sight.
The box was saved from destruction by the late John Whiting, a volunteer at the railway, who convinced the demolition contractor that for a purchase price of £2.50 he could buy and dismantle it. John subsequently donated it to the railway after many years on display with four working signals in his garden.
In the signal box you can experience the atmosphere of a small 19th century signal box and learn how to be a signalman.
Tumbleweed
Tumbleweed Connection is the third studio album by British singer-songwriter Elton John. It was recorded in March 1970, and released in October 1970 in the UK and January 1971 in the US. It is a concept album based on country and western and Americana themes.
The wraparound cover photo for the album was taken at Sheffield Park railway station. Photographer Ian Digby Ovens captured John (seated to the right in the photo but appearing to the left on the front cover, shown above) and Taupin (standing to the left, on the back cover) in front of the late-nineteenth-century station, to represent the album’s rural Americana concept despite the English location. Additional photos were taken from the interior of a train on the line for the album liner notes and libretto.
In August 2020, the Bluebell Railway announced that, to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of the album, it had restored the station to look as it did when the cover photo was taken, giving people an opportunity to re-create the scene in their own photos.
