I heard parts of this family's conversation, which I thought was in German. They seemed to be coping well with the process of buying tickets. Had they seemed to be struggling, I would have offered to help them, despite having no German language abilities! This station is the nearest to Newhaven ferry port, but the last ferry arrival had been two hours earlier. They looked equipped for a day trip - not longer.
The engineers' train is a frequent visitor to the area but usually very early in the morning. The diesel units have cargo areas which can carry a number of different modules - the autumn railhead leaf cleaning jets are examples.