Railway Day Trips: 160 classic train journeys around Britain. Julian Holland

       The first through train to reach Horsted Keynes, on the Bluebell Railway, from London for over 50 years arrives behind Class 66 diesel No. 66739 on 28 March 2013.

      LONDON VICTORIA TO BRIGHTON

      This trip follows the same route as the ‘Brighton Belle’ Pullman train in the BBC’s famous 1952 film ‘London to Brighton in 4 Minutes’, but takes a while longer! On leaving Victoria Station, trains for Brighton wend their way through the sprawling South London suburbs, negotiating Clapham Junction – the busiest junction in the world – to East Croydon. After continuing southwards through Purley, the alternative Quarry Line and Redhill Line part company, both heading through tunnels and under the M23 before rejoining at Earlswood. From here, the Victorian railway builders had to conquer the North Downs, the Wealden Ridge and the South Downs, an immense feat that was completed in 1841 and involved excavating deep cuttings, high embankments, 7 tunnels and the 1,475-ft-long Ouse Valley Viaduct.