Arundel 1973

7001 Arundel 12.5.1973

7359 Arundel 12.5.1973

Arundel 12.5.1973

(All copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

RAIL THING - BRITISH RAILWAY STATIONS AND BUILDINGS

Arundel is an intermediate station on the Mid-Sussex line, the first stop coming up from Ford. It serves the town famous for its castle, about a half mile walk from the station.

The train service has been fairly basic since I've known the station with EMUs making up almost all services. Back in 1973 there was still a bay line in place, which until the year before was used by the useful Littlehampton-Ford-Arundel shuttle which helped to tie in the various services in the area. I'd always found it useful but BR obviously didn't think the same! I actually travelled on the very last Arundel to Littlehampton train but sadly the photos didn't come out as it was pitch black!

The Mid Sussex is a very scenic route and highly recommended. There has been talk in recent years of building a brand new link from south of the station to the Coastway West route with a junction facing Brighton, to serve as a diversionary route when there's trouble on the Brighton Main Line but logic would suggest the Lewes-Uckfield link would be more useful as well as generating a lot of new passenger traffic. We'll see! 

The station building at Arundel still stands and was almost identical to the original Littlehampton station, which was demolished before World War Two.

Additional info (via Wikipedia)

Arundel railway station serves the market town of Arundel in West Sussex.

The station is on the eastern side of the town, about 550 yards (500 m) from the High Street, across the River Arun.

History

Opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, it became part of the Southern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. The station then passed on to the Southern Region of British Railways on nationalisation in 1948.

When Sectorisation was introduced in the 1980s, the station was served by Network SouthEast until the Privatisation of British Railways.

Services

The typical Monday-Saturday off peak service is:

• 2 trains per hour (tph) to London Victoria
• 2 tph to Bognor Regis

On Sundays this is reduced to:

• 1 tph to London Victoria
• 1 tph to Bognor Regis

amberley

(All 20.5.1977  copyright Rail Thing)

Amberley's a nice little station on the Mid Sussex line between Arundel and Pulborough. It's good that this village has managed to hang on to its station, although the building itself was fire damaged some time after these pictures were taken. There are regular trains to both London and to the south coast. Right next door is the excellent Amberley Chalk Pits Museum which has a lot of railway interest. The Mid Sussex line is quite a gem, south of Amberley it follows a course close to the River Arun cutting through the Downs, with views not possible from any roads.

The line sometimes acts as a (long) diversionary route when there is trouble or engineering work on the Brighton Main Line, though this role will diminish when the Uckfield to Lewes line is reopened and electrified.