Railtours

This page last changed on Wednesday 2 September 2026

Tuesday 8 September 2026: 1066 Return

Our 4-car DEMU 1001 has been on loan to the Bluebell Railway throughout August. On 8 September it will return to St. Leonards Depot; you may travel on it both along the Bluebell line and thence to London Victoria and to Hastings, or any portion of its journey.

Travel is on a first-come, first-serve basis. We cannot carry standing passengers, so if all seats are taken you will be unable to board. Travel is as always subject to our Code of Conduct.

Tickets may only be bought on the train. A flat fare of £40 applies, except that for journeys wholly on the Bluebell route (between East Grinstead and Sheffield Park in either/both directions) a reduced fare of £20 applies. We accept cash and card payments on the train (though mobile signal on the Bluebell, required for card payments, is very unreliable).

Finalised timings have now been published for all parts of this move. These are our passenger stops:

East Grinstead (Bluebell): 1100 depart
Kingscote: 1108 arrive, 1120 depart
Sheffield Park: 1150 arrive, 1245 depart
East Grinstead (Network Rail platform): 1335 arrive, 1340 depart
London Victoria: 1500 arrive, 1516 depart
Tonbridge: 1635 arrive, 1638 depart
Hastings: 1743 arrive

Saturday 19 September 2026: HDL Megawatt Valley Venturer railtour

Our fourth and final railtour of 2026 is to Nottingham, and to the High Marnham Test Track near the Nottinghamshire town of Tuxford. For all details and booking instructions, please see the railtour’s own webpage.

Plans for future railtours

Possible dates for your diary (updated 25 August 2026)

The trips outlined in this section are unavoidably subject to cancellation, modification, or change of date (except where stated to the contrary), until a trip is properly advertised.

When a railtour is ready for booking, it will be fully advertised further up this webpage. It will be also removed from this section. Those on our emailing list & our followers on Bluesky will receive notifcation.

No bookings or reservations will be accepted yet for any outing which is still shown in this section. This is to ensure everyone has a fair opportunity to make bookings. Shareholders (and occasionally passengers on a current railtour) are given a couple of days’ advance booking ahead of a railtour being fully advertised, for which this restriction does not apply.

Further information and resources

Code of Conduct

It is a condition of holding a ticket for any outing on our train that passengers abide by the letter and spirit of our Code of Conduct (updated May 2023).

Leaning out of windows

We continue to endeavour to keep our passengers safe by not allowing them to lean out of our train’s windows. This notice (updated January 2021) contains further information.

Booking Conditions

By travelling on an HDL railtour or buying a ticket to do so, you are deemed to be accepting our Booking Conditions (updated April 2026) as well as our Code of Conduct.

Accessibility Policy

HDL’s 1950s-built train may pose difficulties to certain classes of user: our Accessibility Policy describes what these are and how they may affect users.

Folding bicycles

It may be possible for you to bring your folding bicycle on the Hastings DEMU, with prior written approval; our guidelines on carriage of folding bikes will help you to determine your bike’s suitability for carriage.

Railtour Archive

We can recommend a dip into the HDL Railtour archive, which contains details of all the previous “days out” which HDL has operated to date; you may also find interesting our YouTube Channel which contains 32 cab-ride videos featuring outings during 2016–18.

Those requiring further information about any HDL event are invited to contact us.

Hastings Diesels Ltd: Home