TERRIER 32670 - STATION AREA

Some more good pictures, in the third photo where the engine is standing it can be seen that the lines are crossing the road. If you were cycling from the East side the curve of the rails had to be negotiated with care, more so if wet or frosty as many of us found out. The front wheel would often slide and down you went, if you managed to avoid this pitfall you had to keep between the lines to prevent the wheels from going in the rail "gaps". If not, over you went again, often resulting with skinned hands and a buckled wheel. Good old days!

Did 32670 have a name? Many years later whilst on vacation I took my children to a preserved railway line near Lancaster (I think) to ride on the old steam trains. We were invited up into the signal box and chatted with the signalman who was a retired railwayman and, as it turned out, used to be the signalman at Newhaven in the box pictured above. He had great memories of Newhaven especially tending the vegetable garden at the base of the signal box.

Yes Colin. Those rails had me off my a bike a couple of times on the way to junior school from Mount Pleasant.

In answer to question by Rob Patten, here is some information about the 'Terrier' locomotive. 32670 still survives and is the second oldest of these ‘Stroudley’ designed Terriers in preservation, (32636 originally named 'Fenchurch' being the oldest and preserved on the Bluebell Railway). 32670 is currently on the preserved Kent and East Sussex Railway at Tenterden as No.3 'Bodiam'. When built at Brighton Works in 1872 it was allocated the No.70 and named 'Popular' as all the classs were mainly intended for work on the East London line. There is more information on 32670 on 'The Terrier Trust' website.

A quick online search answered my own question. Terrier 32670 was called Bodiam, and is listed as being preserved at the Kent and East Sussex Heritage Railway.

Thanks Paul, here's another question. The Newhaven Harbour Company had a Terrier, was that 'Fenchurch' and did it stay in Newhaven when Southern Railways took over?

The Newhaven Harbour Company did own Fenchurch. It left Newhaven in 1927 for Fratton Shed, then in 1955 moved on to Eastleigh. 32670 wasn't originally called Bodiam, it was named Poplar by LBSCR.

Great photos, what was the wooden lighthouse structure used for? I still bear the scars from cycling over the railway lines. I have had a few pints in the Railway Hotel. I notice on the sign board it offers bed & breakfast and something about a garage, could you get your car under cover if you stayed there? I noticed on a recent drive through the town that some of the huts by the old bridge are still there not much seems to have happened there at all.