page_title: Hellingly Hospital Railway
section_title: Route
hierarchical_section_title: Hellingly Hospital Railway / Route
caption_attribution_description: Route of the Hellingly Hospital Railway
context_page_description: The Hellingly Hospital Railway was a light railway owned and operated by East Sussex County Council, used for transporting coal and passengers to Hellingly Hospital, a psychiatric hospital near Hailsham, from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway's Cuckoo Line at Hellingly railway station.
  The railway was constructed in 1899 and opened to passengers on 20 July 1903, following its electrification in 1902. After the railway grouping of 1923, passenger numbers declined so significantly that the hospital authorities no longer considered passenger usage of the line to be economical, and that service was withdrawn. The railway closed to freight in 1959, following the hospital's decision to convert its coal boilers to oil, which rendered the railway unnecessary.
  The route took a mostly direct path from a junction immediately south of Hellingly Station, past Farm and Park House Sidings, stopping places to load and unload produce and supplies from outbuildings of the hospital. Much of the railway has been converted to footpath, and many of the buildings formerly served by the line are now abandoned.
context_section_description: The railway left the Cuckoo Line at Hellingly Station. Although the railway joined the Cuckoo Line at both the northern and southern ends of the platform, virtually no through trains ran. Due to the arrangement of the lines at the junction with the Cuckoo Line, passenger trains to and from the hospital reversed south of Hellingly station.
  After leaving the main line immediately south of Hellingly, the railway passed over gated level crossings at Park Road and New Road. Farm Siding, a single siding on the west of the line beyond the crossings, was a collection point for the farm's agricultural produce in the early years of the railway, but later fell out of use. The line climbed most of the way from here to the hospital at 1 in 50. About halfway between Hellingly and the hospital the line entered the hospital grounds, passing to the west of Park House Siding, which served the hospital's Park House annexe.
  As it approached the hospital, the line split; the southern fork led to a siding to the north-west of the hospital, while the other turned sharply east and south through almost 180° before splitting again. One fork ran into a large workshop and the other led to a short platform, which was initially used for passengers. Following the suspension of passenger services it was converted into a coal dock.
  The line had no signals or automatic points to control the switching between lines at junctions with the main line and with the sidings. On the approach to a level crossing the fireman ran ahead with a red flag, to stop the traffic; he also manually operated the points.
caption: Route of the Hellingly Hospital Railway
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