Ale trail by train

Easter Monday 01/04/2002

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All photo's on this page are ÓJulian Martin 2002

We started our journey at Portslade Station where the sun was already showing signs of making it a nice day as South West Trains Class 170 "turbostar" speeds westwards on a Brighton-Reading service. Patrick on the other hand tries to hail our train to Brighton (a class 421 (3-COP))......with a creme egg!

At Brighton we had to cross from Platform 2 (the west Coastway) to Platform 8 (the East Coastway) where another Class 421 (this time a 4-CIG) was waiting to take us to our first port of call...Lewes.  Shortly after leaving Brighton the train crossed the London Road viaduct, a splendid structure which reveals an equally splendid view of Brighton (sadly through graffiti etched windows.....why can't they catch the morons that do this sort of thing!!)

The Pub we were looking for in Lewes didn't open until 12.00 so we found one (left photo) that was open to kick start the day.  As we had an hour or so to wait for the Lewes Arms (right photo) to open I decided to have a go with the time delay gadget on my camera.  The ale trailers then,  from left to right,     Jules, Pat, Chris & Elaine (not forgetting Ruby the sharpei who's ears you can just see above my left knee!).  At the Lewes Arms they had two of some of the oldest Pub games around "toad in the hole" & "Shove Ha'penny". So over a lovely pint of Harvey's Best or two Elaine & I watched Chris & Pat battle away at Shove Ha'penny (below).......

......until it was time to get back on the train. Patrick ever so kindly reminded us that we were at Lewes station by proving he could touch (or at very best pull off its hinge) the station sign. (note first full picture of Ruby who looked the other way in disgust!)

  Oh dear!!   ........

once on the next train,  (a 12 car formation of 3X 4-CIG units quite a rarity these days)  Elaine & Pat found a copy of the Times and decided that it was better to fight over it than read it.. the net result was more of a compromise than a winning situation Elaine got half to read and Pat got the other to play with!!!!!

It wasn't long before we got to our next stop at Berwick (The Sussex one, not  the "on tweed" one) where the Pub is very appropriately named "The Berwick inn!" .   I just had to take a picture of the delightful little signalbox which has for many years been guarding the Level crossing and is still painted and preserved in the old Southern Region Green & Cream colours.

Sitting in a rather chilly garden at the Berwick Inn

Then It was time to leap back onto the next train.. another 12 coach train made up of 3 x 4-CIG units

A breath of fresh air...  We got off at Polegate (name below) and found a pub called "The Dinkum" which not only liked dogs but served good beer too!!

Hooray for The Dinkum!

and hooray for a pint in my hand......yes that is my hand!.

Eastbourne was our Goal and after a bit of wandering around we found a pub with some good ale there.... It was so good I can't remember the name of it but my camera was whisked away from me and I got "photo'd" with my Algarve style silly smile!   A fitting end to a good day was the speedy journey home, courtesy once again of our Chauffeurs, South Central Trains ( a lot better than Connex!!).  I took the opportunity of taking a piccy of a  Class 205 DEMU at Eastbourne station which was in the stabling siding ready to "thump" it's way to Ashford early the next morning. .                             Once again I took advantage of the time delay on my camera and despite being somewhat "oiled" managed to get the camera in the right position to take the shot above right.   Our final port of the day (before we hit the Chinese takeaway) was the Evening Star in Brighton which was positively the last photo I was capable of taking........  If you like trains, real ale and a damn good day out, I thoroughly recommend buying a return train ticket between two places about 20 odd miles apart and explore the places wherever your train stops on the way... Just avoid "The Berwick Inn"!!!!....

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