Train enthusiasts with deep pockets might consider it a dream buy, but, to everyone else, the auctioning of a disused railway line in rural East Sussex seems unusual.

A £10,000-plus guide price has been placed on the half-mile line set in almost six acres of land at Stone Cross, near Eastbourne.

The privately-owned railway has a bridge halfway along, near Rother Avenue, but prospective buyers should reconsider if they are thinking of running a train on the line because its track has been ripped up.

Trains last ran on it the late Fifties when Harold Macmillan was prime minister and the hula hoop was the latest fad.

James Emson, of family-run company Clive Emson Auctioneers, said: "It's the ultimate Christmas present for any train enthusiasts out there.

"Of course, you cannot run a train on it but it still might appeal to someone with a background in trains. Train spotters beware.

"At the moment it is a totally redundant piece of track. What anyone would want to do with it, I don't know.

"There is a possibility that a track could be installed on it but that would be subject to planning permission.

"The owner is selling it because he doesn't know what to do with it.

"It is attracting a lot of interest, mainly from people asking what can be done with it. People can come along and judge for themselves."

The railway line will be among dozens of lots from across Sussex auctioned at The Grand hotel on Brighton seafront on December 16.

It will feature alongside more conventional lots including vacant shops, cottages, flats, plots of land, garages and commercial investments.

But more intriguing items will also go under the hammer such as part of a beach and two former police boxes in Brighton and Hove with a guide price of between £30,000 and £50,000.

But it is the dismantled railway line that is attracting people's curiosity.

Godfrey Gould, secretary of the 50-strong Sussex Transport Interest Group, said: "It was a pity that the line was closed in the first place.

"I would imagine it would attract the interest of a farmer or a developer. However, it would appear to be no use as a preserved railway because it is too short."