Tuesday 10th October 2023
A ride on the historic Volk’s railway along the seafront is a must for every Brighton visitor.
The mile long railway is “the world’s oldest working electric railway” having begun in 1883 by the pioneer inventor and electrical wizard Magnus Volk. It’s been running from the Aquarium east of Brighton Pier to west of what’s known as Black Rock ever since.
In its first five months it carried an incredible 30,000 passengers.
The railway is owned by Brighton & Hove City Council and received a huge boost in 2014/15 in the shape of a successful funding bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
This enabled a new visitor centre to be built at the western end of the line …
… which displays the background to Magnus Volk and acts as an anchor for educational visits.
This area also includes the ticket office.
Just east of the Halfway Halt station – halfway along the single track line where there’s an island platform…
… are the maintenance and depot sheds for the fleet.
These were becoming very run down at the turn of the century but the Heritage Lottery Funding enabled them to be completely rebuilt …
… with the working line passing through the middle so passengers can see restoration and maintenance work in progress.
The station at the Black Rock eastern end of the line …
… also has a ticket office.
Heritage Lottery Funding also went towards restoring cars 4, 6 and 10 to increase capacity on the railway and these can now be found working the line in single or double car formats along with car 8 which wasn’t in use on the day I travelled.
The service runs every 15 minutes with two trains passing at Halfway and where drivers hand over the tokens for authorisation to proceed on the next section of track.
There are two other passing loops – between Aquarium and Halfway….
… and between Halfway and Black Rock…
… which in theory enables a 7-8 minute frequency but the capacity can be provided by doubling up the cars and requiring less drivers on the more usual high summer 15 minute frequency.
A nice touch at the Aquarium station terminus…
… is a board showing the history of the cars that are out in service each day.
On the day of my visit during the summer Car 6 was joined up with Car 10. The former was built in 1901 with its electric motor installed in 1917 while the latter was more modern being built in 1926 “making it the baby of our fleet”. Both were restored in 2016 as part of the Heritage Lottery Funding. Operating in single form was Car 4 dating from 1910 with its electric motor from 1923. It’s the “drivers’ favourite as it’s the fastest car in the fleet”.
The line runs between Madeira Drive and the seafront beach with marked crossing points…
… including one underneath the tracks.
At one time it was a straight line all the way with a kink by Halfway station for a playground…
… and in more recent years another kink to allow for a leisure development along the roadside…
… which this year was joined by a lido …
… making for interesting races between the trains and swimmers.
It all makes for an interesting ride including watching the beach tennis as the train passes by the courts….
… and seeing Brighton Pier as the train leaves/approaches the Aquarium terminus.
At the eastern end of the route it’s a short walk from Black Rock to Brighton Marina …
.,,, and there’s often been talk of extending the line there including at one time high flying ideas of a monorail, but it’ll never happen. And there’s something nice and quirky about the Black Rock platform being in splendid isolation among parked up coaches on day trips.
The railway very much depends on its band of committed and loyal volunteers as well as the employed paid staff. The anonymous building set into the cliffs at the eastern end of Madeira Drive by Dukes Mound is used by the team as a store and pre the Heritage Lottery Funding was always a hive of activity. I had the pleasure of visiting it a few years ago as part of a Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport event and it was a fascinating Aladdin’s Cave of nostalgia.
Volk’s Railway has now closed for the winter, but when you’re next in Brighton in the “season” a ride on “the world’s oldest working electric railway” is a must.
Happy 140th birthday Volk’s. Magnus would be so proud you’re still running.
Roger French
Previous AtoZ blogs: Avanti West Coast, Blackpool Transport, Chiltern Railways, Delaine Buses, Ensignbus, Faresaver, Grand Central, Hull Trains, Ipswich Buses, JMB Travel, Kirkby Lonsdale Coach Hire, Lynx, Isle of Man Transport Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Nottingham City Transport, (London) Overground, Preston Bus, Reading Buses, Southern Vectis, trentbarton, unō.
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BusAndTrainUser 
Pedant’s corner: you forgot the apostrophe in Volk’s!
And talking of extensions, bring back Daddy Long Legs!
Mike M
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Thanks; now added.
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I assume that on Thursday a Blog Replacement Letter service will be used?
From Delenn
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A splendid little railway that I have had the pleasure of riding since my earliest visits to Brighton as a young lad.
It must be quite puzzling for visitors to see that the driver has a ‘steering wheel’ and yet he doesn’t use it to turn corners !
Nice tribute, Roger.
Peter Murnaghan
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I have never understood why the staff are not attired in more appropriate outfits representing the historic nature of the railway.
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Indeed, the staff used to be attired in very appropriate dress, including peak caps and a proper railway type uniform. But, as I was told sharply the other day by a scruffbag colleague, “this is the 21st century Terence, people don’t dress like you anymore!”. So “Anonymous”, we fight a losing battle.
The depot area was once itself a great tourist attraction as “Peter Pan’s Playground” was situated in the vicinity was it not? And as a child, I rode in those wonderful miniature Southdown coaches while the real things stretched towards the area from The Pier.
But confession time!! Probably the naughtiest thing I ever did was to lay pennies on the track to see them crushed….. fascinating to my young eyes, but please don’t tell anyone now……
Terence Uden
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East Midlands Railway, who seem more interested in trying to win marketing awards for their purple plushie thing than running trains in my part of the world, apparently tell their staff that they should “bring their authentic selves to work”, which is probably why their purple attire seems to be intentionally designed to be un-uniform and in many cases downright scruffy.
Still, downright scruffy also describe their trains – even those freshly painted purple externally – so perhaps scruffy is their intended image.
Next door Northern’s uniform seems to be based on the infamous 80s Scouser-in-a-shellsuit look. Who designs and signs off on this rubbish?
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I have just realised that the public part of the building at Aquarium station is black, but the station building at Black Rock is white ….
Steven Saunders
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I am old enough to remember the drivers controlling the motors by reaching up to a control knob above his head (the lower surface of the roof), The copper contacts were open and a driver could electrocute himself if a shade careless. The current master controllers were introduced later.
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