An important part of keeping the memory of anything alive, is the testimony of people who remember how things were.
Seen here are some of the recollections of how people choose to remember how The Kemptown Railway was, in their own words.
I moved to Belle Vue Gardens, Brighton with my family in 1965 as a 5 year old and I can vividly remember as a kid of about 6-7(in about 1966), going to Kemp Town Station with my Mum to pick up some small bottles of concentrated health service Orange vitamin drink, which were being given out at an old railway carriage on the eastern side of the Goods Yard that was being used to dispense it, by the Brighton NHS .
I remember there was a set of wooden steps set up so you could get from ground level into it, as it wasn't at a platform. I think they temporarily used as temporary premises whilst getting a new clinic built.
If I remember correctly, it was very nice to drink compared to most kids medicine of the day. Plus, I got to see lots of trains close up!
I was raised in a railway house at the bottom of Freshfield Rd that overlooked Kemptown goods yard. Quite often as a small lad, I sat on the outside toilet roof watching the steam engine shunting coal trucks. At times, the engine came so close I could speak to the driver.
Little did I know at the time that one day I would be the fireman on that engine!
When I was on that duty shunting Kemptown, if we finished early, my driver would get the engine as close to my house as possible in order to allow me to jump over the fence to pop back indoors for a cup of tea. On the return journey, two toots on the whistle was the signal for me to head back to the footplate.
Happy days.
I can remember that some of the goods trains were filled with boxes of cakes and sweets, such as Mr Kiplings cakes, Snow Balls, Wagon Wheels, hard boiled sweets etc.
Naughty kids were often seen on the tracks after dark. They'd climb the fence on the Sutherland Road side and run down the track to try and find the train with sweets. If they weren't caught, they'd take their stash and eat it in the grounds of Brighton Boys College.
