Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 27, 2008

The Hellingly Hospital Railway was a railway owned and operated by East Sussex County Council, serving Hellingly Hospital near Hailsham, via a spur from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway’s Cuckoo Line at Hellingly railway station. The railway was constructed in 1899, and first opened to passengers on 20 July 1903, following the decision to electrify the railway in 1902. Following the railway grouping of 1923 passenger numbers continued to decline, to the point where hospital authorities no longer deemed passenger usage of the line to be economic, and withdrew the service. The railway closed to freight in 1959, following the hospital's decision to convert its coal boilers to oil, rendering the railway unnecessary. The route took a mostly direct path from Hellingly Station to Hellingly Hospital, passing through sidings known as Farm Siding and Park House Siding respectively. Much of the railway has since been converted to footpath, while many of the buildings surrounding the line have since been abandoned.