History
The Forgotten Years
Like most areas left abandoned for some time it doesn’t take long before nature takes charge and returns the vegetation to how it was before the railway arrived. By 1973 Isfield station had been long neglected and with no up keeping the site gradually it started to fall apart and become heavily overgrown. Looking at the photos taken at that time it’s a wonder to see how how anything could have been salvaged from such a dilapidated site!
A particular building from Isfield station was its signal box which took a heavy beating through the harsh winter months and almost became reduced to a state beyond repair due to the collapse of the stairs and the missing equipment in the box which was later used at Horsted Keynes signal box on the nearby Bluebell railway. Thankfully that’s not the case now and the box is now classed as a grade 2 listed building!
The original waiting room on platform 2 was rescued from nature’s decay and taken to the Bluebell Railway where had been used as their model railway centre. The replica building that now stands in its place is now our gift shop and lies on the same spot as the original waiting room and looks exactly how it would have 80 years ago