Bibliography - Simon Jeffs
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The Brighton Bells, by Stephen Grant and Simon Jeffs, published 1 September 2012 (2nd revised edition, 80 pp., Capital Transport Publishing, ISBN-10: 185414362X & ISBN-13: 9781854143624) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

To travel on the Brighton Belle was to travel in style, a style more closely associated with the Orient Express on extended ventures overseas than a journey between London and Brighton that took less than an hour. Businessmen used it, but so too did many people in radio, television and the theatre. Indeed it was a campaign to keep it running organised by a group of celebrities that saved it (albeit not for long) from the axe in the mid-1960s. It last ran on the last day of April 1972, by which time its magic had faded to some extent, but it is still remembered with affection today.

The Brighton Line: A Traction History, by Simon Jeffs, published 21 November 2013 (96 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1445619423 & ISBN-13: 9781445619422) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries

The London to Brighton Line was built to serve the leisure market rather than industry. It initially carried nineteenth-century pleasure-seekers from the capital to fashionable Brighton, and subsequent services such as the Brighton Belle, the Sunny South Express and the Gatwick Express continued in that tradition. However, it also became a commuter line with fast services that made it possible to work in the City but live in the expanding suburbs to the south of London, or, later, in Surrey or Sussex. As well as steam locomotives, atmospheric traction was used on the Brighton Line, and, from 1909, electrification, which had reached Brighton by 1 January 1933 as well as the diesel locomotives still in use today. In this book, Simon Jeffs looks at the various forms of traction used on the Brighton Line, which give it a special identity even to this day.

Bradshaw's Guide: Surrey & Sussex Railways London, Brighton and South coast, by Simon Jeffs, published 15 July 2014 (96 pp., Stroud: Amberley Publishing, ISBN-10: 1445640406 & ISBN-13: 9781445640402) accessible at: West Sussex Libraries & East Sussex Libraries

The LBSCR was the main route connecting London with Brighton and the pleasures of the South Coast resorts. In this latest volume Bradshaw takes us on the journey and, via the numerous branch lines, also explores the coastal lines, westwards to Chichester and eastwards, on the Brighton and Lewes branch to Eastbourne, St Leonards and Hastings. The network of branch lines within Surrey and Sussex reaches a number of destinations including Croydon, Redhill, Reigate, Dorking, Guildford, Epsom, East Grinstead, Horsham, Uckfield and Battle, and in the north of Surrey the LSWR loop takes in Richmond and Kew.
'Seldom has the gigantic intellect of man been employed upon a work of greater utility.' Punch, in praise of Bradshaw's publications.
Bradshaw's guide was published in 1863, not that long after most of the railway network had been completed. It gives the reader a unique insight into the world of the Victorian railways and goes beyond the engineering aspects to record the sights to be seen in the towns and cities encountered along the way. Local author and railway expert Simon Jeffs accompanies Bradshaw's original text with contemporary images and many new colour photographs of the same journeys today.