65 years since Newhaven Boat Train “journey’s end”

According to Newhaven Museum: “The old engine hauled the Newhaven Boat Train for many years and made her final run from Victoria, drawing an extra-special train carrying over 300 railway enthusiasts from all over the country.”

Nicknamed ‘Puffin Billy’ by locals, the train was built at the Brighton Works in 1911. The engine is an “Atlantic” (no. 41) of the original series.

Newhaven is the nearest but one to London of all cross-channel ports, and a regular service of fast turbine steamers is maintained with Dieppe, on the French coast.

The line was developed by the late London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, in conjunction with the Western section of the State lines of France, who established their port at Dieppe on the French coast. Between the two fast turbine steamers employed on this service, some the property of the Southern Railway and the others of the French “Etat”, make the journey across in a little over three hours.

The working of the “Newhaven Boat Express” whether by day or night, was generally entrusted to the fine “Atlantic” engines of the late Brighton Company. There are two distinct series of these locomotives; the first, turned out in 1906, consisting of five engines - Nos. 37-41 - and the second of six - Nos. 421-426, totalling 11.

It was Mr. Earle Marsh who brought the design to Brighton from Doncaster, and the first series were almost exact replicas of the famous Ivatt “Atlantics” of the late G.N.R.