 Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm on a southern class 377 and I'm on my way to Eastbourne, we just left Handan Park. Today's an episode of Minutes of Railway Britain. We're going to the Eastbourne Miniature Steam Railway and we're going to get our first view of the railway in a minute from the train. The train we're on is going to go past part of the railway so we're going to get a very brief view of it and every time I come along here I always like to try and look out and see a train but I've never actually seen a miniature train from the big train but when we go on the miniature train we might see the big train so let's look out for it. So there's this road bridge here at some point after this road bridge. I think physically it's actually nearer to Handan Park station than it is to Eastbourne station so the railway itself is going to be somewhere on here. I remember coming here as a child when they were still running to mark one EMUs down here so I remember watching them go past and traveling down to Eastbourne one of them right the railway there's a bit of trees. It's coming up quite soon. There it is. Just there. Yes it was a very brief view and you didn't see much of it but when we get to Eastbourne and we go to the railway you'll see it all when we get there. So here we are arrived at Eastbourne on this class 377 not a winning unit. I have travelled on this unit before. Last time I was at Eastbourne was on a steam charter with a black five that was last November December if you want to see a steam train here at Eastbourne have a look at link on screen now. I do really like the station terminal station. We're going to go out conveniently the ticket barriers are open so it says you have to stop filming to get out the station. We're coming to here and this is the really nice concourse of Eastbourne station. I think architecture is one of the best stations there is in the southeast. I'm going to find my way out of here. I'm going to go and find this minute to railway. There we are I have just arrived at the railway. I've got a lift here from a relative who lives in the area but if you're coming here by public transport there are buses from Eastbourne up towards Hampton Park. In fact Hampton Park station might actually be slightly nearer to the railway than Eastbourne even though it's called Eastbourne when it's just seen railway. This is the car park so it's got quite a big car park if you were to come by car. That's the entrance just there so I'm going to go in there by my ticket and I've just noticed look some standard gauge vans over there. We're going by my ticket we're going to go and ride the Eastbourne Miniature Steam Railway. Now I've just paid to go in here's my ticket so I can have a ride on the train. It's a honn there so as well as there being the miniature railway which is obviously what we've come for it's quite a nice sight it's quite a few other things to do. They've given me this as a maze of a train and inside is a map of the site and if I get bored on the train the way home I can do a dot to dot so haven't done dot to dot since I was about five. So the train is waiting there's quite a few people on that next train so maybe I won't get that one I might get the next one. Let's have a look at the loco that we've got today. Oh look this little level crossing oh the train's going out let's watch the train go. Look it's a little level crossing gate so it's gone down. Sounds like the train's going. It's a little diesel high mech. A little seven and a quarter inch gauge railway diesel high mech. Let's watch the train go past. A nice happy bunch of passengers waving at me as they go off on their trip which is what we're going to do quite soon so there's so we've got these level crossing gates we think are great they're going to go up now the train's got they should go up yeah okay and this yeah look so it says nature walk platform to etc there's a maze here so we're going to go across the tractor so here's the railway station there goes the train oh this is the picnic area so perhaps on busy days look there's a platform too so perhaps they run two trains today is a off-peak weekday and let me go here it's an off-peak weekdays if I was to come on the weekend they run steam trains but I came here today because I knew they'd be running and just fancied the day out here so that's why they're running diesel today but if I was to come perhaps in the summer holidays or weekend day they'd be running steam so we'll perhaps come back here one day or maybe they have a gala it sucks here they have a gala perhaps we could come and see the other trains they've got um running the other locos there's the engine shed I think sometimes they have them out here um so if they've even got flying scotsmen it tells you what locos they've got flying scotsmen they've got a royal scott great western loco 3800 class schools class called eastbourne black five class 37 of britannia that's today's loco that one there they've got an o8 shunter so they've got quite a nice line up of locos but they're all in the shed so perhaps we'll come another ride with them one day so this railway what I've noticed it's a bit like along the lines of say the great cocker railway seven and a quarter inch it's one gauge everything is a replica of a standard gauge like there's no narrow gauge so it's all one scale oh and then look this must be the carriage it's up here and there's an o8 shunter so here's an o8 shunter and let's have a look can you see yes look there's some carriages inside the shed so you sit on top of the carriages so when there's no one on the carriages it's like a slightly larger model train which I think is quite nice let's go over this bridge there's a couple of things well obviously I want to go over here to get rid of the train when I've had a ride on the train my plan is to come back to here and explore the rest of the site because it's a sort of place where there's more than just a train ride so that's the station it's called windy ridge station and it is quite windy so it's quite an appropriate name there's a little gauge one model railway down there and then that way get a view looking out across the railways the train should be back fairly soon let's go down here there's some more model railways you've got that one there gauge one and then we'll go through here down to this shed this is the sidings there's some playoffs in here oh yeah now I came here as a child I think when I last came here in about 2004 they were still running the mart 1 emu to eSport and this is exactly as I remember it's what you do you put 20p and you can make these little layouts go that so perhaps I'll do that in a minute I'll put the put 20p in and the trains will go around let's do it now actually because the train it's gonna be a while since the train comes back we'll do that and then we'll go and have a ride on the miniature train I really enjoyed my trip around the railway line on the train just as I remember it really a few things have changed since the last came the track layout I think is the same the model railway in the sheds as I remember them the play area that's expanded a lot since my last visited that's not quite as I remember it I mean I wasn't really that interested in the play area anyway I was more interested in watching the trains but I think it really has expanded quite a lot you can go fishing here you can buy a day ticket and spend a day fishing as you can see some people are I remember that being a thing but I think you walked all around the lake in a loop I don't know if you can actually go all the way around the lake anymore because I'm sure I remember over there there's a tunnel I meant tunnel still there that mound where my finger is that's what the tunnel goes under and I seem to remember standing on top of that at least that's what I think I remember I've got three sisters and I remember them really having a lot of fun playing in the wendy houses which are over there I'm gonna give that a miss today it's not really my thing but I just remember it was nice because I came here when I was yeah too young to kind of go out on my own I had three sisters and it was a place that entertained all of us because I was entertained by the trains they were just entertained by the place itself there's another pond that was rowing over a nice bridge over it flows off the tunnel under the path into the river so you can have quite a pleasant walk here there's the lake which like I say you can come and fish here as we saw back there gentlemen had all his fishing gear we're going up to what's now called the woodland walk look at this and I seem to remember there being another little playground on the other end which was by the main line so I remember seeing the mark one units go past I want to go to there so says woodland walks keeps the pathways etc we can do that we get to here there's a junction from past also what we'll do we'll use this to do line sighting we'll watch see the transfer today nature walk grandma's garden the maze I think this is new I have a feeling this bridge may have been here when I last visited um but I'm not too sure the maze I think it said there would be a maze coming they were planting the hedges so that was going to come along soon what's this look so it still says grandma's garden her maze there's some like a there's creatures that almost like a grotto here I'm walking here and as well look at this oh look at that have an actual bottle going to here and if it was raining you could just sit in this cave which was quite nice this definitely wasn't here when I last visited let's get back out of here and um it's a waterfall see what it reminds me of somewhere very different it reminds me of a bit old grange up in Staffordshire national trust place which had a a grotto a bit like that but yeah very different so some fountains etc oh look at this this is quite cool there's like a fairytale sort of model village snow white and the seven dwarfs and that looks like Tom Kitten from the Beatrice Potter book sorry Beatrice Potter one or the other quite a there's a that's Jeremy Fisher I think there the toad from the Beatrice Potter books company Dumpty who hasn't yet fallen off the wall that bridge is really nice look that bridge that which we went over on the train and you've got another waterfall there's waterfalls everywhere and I've always liked water gardens so I feel quite at home here so what we'll perhaps do we'll see a train cross this bridge that's where we were a moment ago when I said there's you've got you've got another pond here look water flows off down there and into the lake I just want to walk around around the block see what's over there and then we'll do the maze because it's always good fun doing the maze yeah this is I really like this this was not like this at all there's another stream coming all the way down there I've just always really liked water gardens so to find all this here since I'll ask for the deraille for me is a nice surprise and look that's nice you're looking down towards that grotto again there's a lighthouse this is cool I like it here what I'm going to do now I might wait here see a train cross the bridge and then I'm going to try not to get lost in the maze which is over there that was nice to see the train cross the bridge now let's go in the maze on the last episode of miniature road bridge and went to the bridge view light railway in Coventry that one also had a maze and that was a bit of a strange maze because it got a bit dark and scary I mean if you want to see that have a look at link on screen now but let's have a look at this one so it says mate it's unsuitable for bushes and wheelchairs there was a little part that pushes railway signal you must find so we've got to find a railway signal so follow the paths that twist and wind and don't get lost my dear friend the winner makes it to the end nice little poem let's go and find this signal in the maze which is going to be quite fun so we're going to um now I've got two ways of doing the a maze I'm going to do I don't know how obvious it's going to be on camera I'm going to do my first policy which I actually that's a dead end I revealed in my last minute railway question video so if you want to see um well I'll tell you what my policy is a minute let's just put it to the test because it does two things around here you might actually be able to work out what I'm doing that's a dead end as well this either works that's a dead end or it doesn't it will tell me two things it's a bit of an odd shape maze I mean it's obviously a lot easier when you do a maze from above if you look at maze another dead end if you look at maze from above it can look a lot easier than when you're doing it but from the site plan you see there's the player and look there's those wendy houses it seems to me it's quite a long linear fin maze now so far okay we'll go down here I've only it's about there there was only about one way we got there so I don't think this will be yet I I find it quite fascinating the planning out of a maze so now we got to here there was about three different paths you may have worked out what I'm doing yet every time I get to a corner you may have seen how which way I choose to go get to a junction so I'm doing always going I'm always going left that's how I like to do a maze because if you always keep to the left I mean you could do it always keeps right because I'm left handed I tend to keep to the left if I always keep to the left I either come back to where I started or I come to the middle so if I come back to where I started it means there's northern one route around the maze but if I come to the middle it means there's only one way that's a definite dead end I'm not going to quite go to if it's an obvious dead end I'm not going to quite go to the end so I say this one's a bit easy to do than the last one because the last one I went to was genuinely quite scary because it was so dark because it had big coniferous hedges oh it's a bit awkward for me to put the camera ahead um there goes the train there's a bit of a mixture of different plants the other one was layered it was a square maze so so far I've been keeping to the left but I haven't been down every half I get to here and it's round another corner I think I can gather that's not going to go anywhere I think we might be near the end look there's a signal let's go down here and have a look and yeah there's clearly not enough room for me to hold the camera forward so apologies for that I think we might have found I don't even quite call this the middle but the end there's railway signal an upper quadrant signal so that's in the stop position if it was to go it'd go like that that would make it go I did a video about semaphore so not my semaphore signals but semaphore towers recently it's in Surrey I went to the channel here's semaphore tower and we I did put a few semaphore signals so I explained on that one upper and lower quadrant is so I think that is the end so it's not on middle of such but an end actually yeah there was a sign saying maze exit so we're going to leave the signal behind us there it is so I feel like I've achieved what I set out to do by going through the maze I did it by keeping left I didn't come back to where I started so I think if I if I was to I'm not going to but also do it again and keep right I would see slightly different paths I wonder which one's quicker if um if you ever have if there's if you ever come here and two of you if you if you do come here and you've done and done this please leave a comment you need two of you one to keep left one to keep right who gets to the end first which ways quicker keep a left or keeping right if you if you're someone who's done that you might be watching this video in 10 years after I filmed it you can be watching this anytime in the future if you do this two of you one keep left one keep right please comment and tell me which one's quicker I'm back to here now look that suspension bridge I'm going to do the rest of the walk now I'm going to go down and maybe see some trains on the main line so I've now made my way after doing the maze come back over the railway line that bridge we came to did a little walk through the woods and we're now running beside the railway very nice and neat some railways you know aren't as well kept to surface this is really nice and neat and you could just line side here if you're great if they had a gala and they're just running all the steam locos just watching them all come past one by one we'll definitely wait and see you know the high makes us out today go past somewhere along here and also just there look see that that is a collar light signal not for this for the main line where we got a brief view of the train of this railway from the train we are on so what I'm going to do I'm going to hang around here I want to see a train go past big or small preferably big because then the small train wings anywhere and then I'm going to continue walking up there if you look up there there's another foot crossing and that'll take us to the end of where this walk goes I think I just saw a Gatwick Express go past that was unusual must be being used on a normal service another junction we could go over there and follow the nature walk we could also go to a bird hide so this place is good if you like animals as well quite a lot of railway enthusiasts I know like birds I'm I mean I appreciate the interest but I wouldn't call myself a bird spotter um here let me see if there's anyone in there I won't we won't have a look but you could sit here watch birds birds if you're thinking if you like birds and railways go and watch trains as well so from the bird hide you're proving aware and earth am I now I'm as they'll turn around I just couldn't resist having a look in this little cool windy house look it's actually got stairs and upstairs so if you're a child it's basically like a full upstairs but at me at my height it's like half the size so you could play here like that's what I remember when I was little and I came here got three sisters I remember them playing in some of these wendy houses and as I said it worked well as a family day out because they could play in there all afternoon and I just stood by the fence watching the trains go past both big and small the main line as we know is only over there and in those days it was when they still ran the southern um EMUs the mark one EMU set so I'm really pleased that we did that trip when we did it because we came all the way down to London on a southern yet mark one set our embassy in class 73 is on the Gatwick express is and I remember the fun for so if I hadn't made that trip to eastbourne back in what I think must have been 2004 I wouldn't probably have that memory of southern region stock at all now notice something we have come from over there that's that foot crossing up there it was the bird hide it says no entry so I don't think it means that we're condemned to having to stay down here forever what I think it means is you know I said how I can hear that train again you know I said how we used to go around the lake you still do it's just it's a one-way system so I've got to follow the path that way and then we'd have circumnavigated the lake so the miniature railway goes around the lake clockwise we're going around the lake anti-clockwise I think there might be a train coming so let's watch the train get bused I'm just slightly further along the track from where we saw the high making man go so that way looks across towards eastbourne over there don't you feel to see there there's a residential tower block I understand when they built that the plan was to build seven of them to be like the seven sisters you got seven sisters cliffs they wanted to have seven sisters tower blocks but they never built one of them that's all sort of marshland across there and then say you've got houses if a train was to run along there now we would see it I can just see a colour light signal on the main line out of eastbourne there's that tunnel which we went through when we were on the train so as I said the train we actually see the station just there you know outside the lake so it's quite it's exciting doing it because as soon as you get going you leave the station around beside the lake you come to a tunnel you've got these nice long straight sections of track your mine glimpse of passing train on the main line and then you go around over the bridges and back to me so maybe again we've got choice of two ways to go we can go that way go up here of course going up here you know where we are we're on top of the tunnel and looking at the ground the topography you can quite clearly see where the tunnel is where it's got a little bit warm where people have walked over it so yeah that's the railway tunnel down there there's the lake kanda geese waiting on the lake and if we go down here we're coming to the other side of the tunnel I think this is where is that a train I feel I'm here main line train let's just run yellow okay there we go that's us across 377 anyway whatever the tunnel yeah look we're on top of it now so I'm going to follow the path now back to where we started and hopefully get a cup of tea got a coffee now while I was out um something has happened look the shed suddenly has some steam locos steam locos have come out which is really nice we've got a great west oh look and you just see a gatwick express over there on the main line I haven't realized you can see the main line from here so we've got a great western heavy freight steam locos we've got flying scotsman and we've got a 4f so that's really quite a nice surprise to see those and what I'll do I'm going to run over the other side we'll have a closer look here we are back over the other side so we can have a better look so we've got a 4f locomotive she's called Rachel might be wrong but I have a feeling someone in the family is of the people who run the railway are called it's called Rachel one of the daughters maybe flying scotsman no mistake in flying scotsman quite nice actually sitting there in the aisle green so we've got so used to seeing her the full size one in um a six and one and three that hymex is coming along let's just watch the hymex go past them or continue with the steam locos so there goes the train bringing some more happy passengers back to the station so yeah flying scotsman it's it's nicely flying scotsman I wonder if they ever bring the full size flying scotsman three spawn if they do make a great video flying scotsman steaming past on the main line this one could steam past maybe if that ever happens they'll do that and then we've got a great western heavy freight locomotive so we've got a really nice line up here of um we've kind of got one from each region although we haven't got a southern one out but we've seen southern trains so we've got like southern in modern day and then we've got great western LNDR and LMS so I hope you've enjoyed this video thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like subscribe and comment throughout this way do come and visit this miniature railway it's easy to get to you can get here by bus it's got a big car park if you want to drive so you can come by public transport drive very nice area in Eastbourne I don't think I'm going to get there as I see today because I'll probably catch the train back but I've had a great time here so from the Eastbourne miniature steam railway stood next to flying scotsman and a few other steam locos I think they're going to bed now so thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like subscribe and comment goodbye