So whats new at the Bluebell Railway?

I guess there were more adverts in the local press but I do wonder how living in Bristol my Dad knew to take me to Hereford or Tyseley.

 

I don't think anyone is demanding a blog for each department. Just a loco roster, not much. You're right, a blog post for a day's work can take over an hour to write and put together, it's a big commitment and not something many people want to do, so I agree, it's unreasonable to demand such a thing.

However the benefit *is* big. Quantifying the extra share offer money brought in to the GWSR by the blogs is difficult, but I'm certain it will have helped. There is one good example, of a supporter who avidly followed the lineside drainage blog. He was so impressed with the work he donated several hundred pounds to buy them some nice inspection camera equipment. As I said, that's just an example that's particularly easy to quantify, but it really has raised our profile and income.

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Firstly no Heritage Railway lives in a self sufficient bubble, They all need support, be it by bums on seats or fund raising or share issues, so they can fulfill their goals to extend, improve their facilities and maintain their existing stock. If more people engage with them through learning of the gradual progress towards these goals then they are more likely to be supportive when asked to contribute . Thats why individual blogs are important.

Secondly they are not that difficult to maintain. There are uniform software templates available so that all departments blogs look the same amd a neat professional impression is created. Most departments have someone who is enthusiastic enough to maintain them.

Lastly , a blog is a two way street, giving valuable support and positive fedback in the comments section from the readers. Look at the GWSR Broadway blogs, they are full of admiring comments from followers at the work done. This feeds back to the workforce and gives them self esteem, a valuable commodity in a voluntary organisation.

 

It's not just the income, but also the expertise that arises when we have a problem/query. Although he seemingly has not contributed within the last couple of years, we had an avid reader who was a former C&W Head of Department who was retired and living in (IIRC) Bolivia. When we needed to separate some bogie centre castings from the Bolster, I followed his valuable advice, and it worked.

We now have identified this additional problem, which may have to be addressed in a future year.



Essentially, a kernackered roller bearing on a wheelset from a Commonwealth bogie.

Who has the equipment/expertise to replace these?

I can remember a 'thread' on here where [I think] the Swanage Railway, for their DMU, had to source roller bearings from the US. Therefore the question is, once the roller bearings were obtained, who/where was the work carried out and at roughly what cost?

Sent from my nice comfortable chair with an oscillating fan in the corner of the room.

 

Sorry, with the latest Tapatalk update I can't seem to turn those damned messages off! And you're quite right of course, expertise is another bonus.

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Given that this thread (although touching on issues of relevance to all) specifically names the Bluebell it should be reiterated that there is the "Weekly train running information" - accessed from the "what's new" page and which does appear to be updated each week, regardless of what happens on the what's new page. This gives details of what locos and carriages are planned to be used (with the usual caveats about availability etc). Therefore it is not difficult to know what is running and the company website and the Facebook page provides more general info about timetables, events, etc.

The Bluebell's web presence is much better than many others, and as Tom has said there are other sites dedicated to providing more details about certain projects. Do they cover everything? No, but still better than some of the other big players. I should mention that my formal links with the Bluebell finished when I moved to North Wales in the mid 1970s, so I'm not grinding any axes here!

Steve B

 

Still worth pointing it out - plus if you want to open the debate there is always the option of e-mailing the editor of Bluebell News so that it appears in the next edition.

Regards,

Dan

 

It's a good point raised about social media. Most lines now do Facebook (including the Bluebell) pretty well, but I've not seen many take to Twitter quite as well. I've also only ever seen two preserved railways properly go in for Instagram and do that properly (the Severn Valley and the RHDR). Which is a shame as that is a medium which would be super-beneficial to preserved lines as nothing conveys the stuff quite like pictures / videos.

 

I wouldn't have thought that replacing these taper roller bearings would be much of a challenge. A decent bearing puller should remove them. As for putting them on, rather than the time honoured copper dolly and hammer, a bearing heater should do the trick, http://www.skf.com/uk/products/main...ers-for-mounting/induction-heaters/index.html They aren't cheap but you can hire them.
Can't comment on the availability of the bearing without an I.D. number but a decent bearing supplier should be able to help.

 

The GWSR has had a huge return on the effort expended on their many blogs - they have gotten some very sizable contributions from people who live far afield, but who (from reading all the various blogs, which give a real feel for the day-to-day goings-on there) feel a real connection to the GWSR.

Because this is a thread about the Bluebell? But to be serious, the Bluebell is not too bad, compared to some. Recently, the coverage of the re-laying the track in the station was quite good.

But it could do more: during the clearing of the cutting, there was a volunteer blog which was entirely un-associated with the railwway, without which those who weren't local would have seen far less of the effort involved.

Noel

 

I'd venture to suggest that the type of news is also a factor; I think the GWSR blogs are all excellent but the ones I read the most are the extension blog and the Broadway station blog- some fantastic work being done there. Personally I'm not overly interested in "all the windows being replaced in the next Mk1 in the works" as that is more "business as usual", although the detail and commitment shown is to be admired.

Likewise when the Bluebell was extending I was a regular visitor to the unofficial site but not so much these days.

Regards

Matt

 

I understand why many members feel frustrated with this perceived lack of information and sympathise with many of the comments made.
I am very lucky that if I want the very latest news and pictures from "my" railway, the West Somerset, I simply visit the excellent wsr.org.uk website produced by Steve Edge.
Stef.

 

I agree, I pop into the GWSR Drainage Chaps and Nigel Blacks picture sites as the work effort and results of these teams are quite outstanding. Preserved Railways often neglect the groundwork and track that their trains run on or just bury their heads in the sand over these areas life expectancy issues. As well as the above its why I also like reading about the investment in the track of the NYMR in the blogs by Nigel Trotter.
As a shareholder in Bluebell I was one of those who was concerned about investment in the existing line during the EG push but all the directors at the time could see was EG EG EG to the exclusion of all else. The results in flange root wear on locos and carriages , springs etc are now expensively obvious.
A bit concerned over the WSR as the Annual Report contains a lot of fine words about investing in infrastructure but elsewhere one reads that two re-railing jobs have been cancelled and capital works ban is now in force. One area that the Annual Report does highlight is the expanding WSR committees, to get expenditure approved one committee passes on to next and so on, yes one has to have control of expenditure but I am concerned the WSR is overdoing this.
Problem might lie in that they only have one Chartered Engineer within the Directorship for a company that is based on Civil Engineering and runs using Mechanical Engineering and his responsibilities' are nothing to do with Engineering aspects anyway.

Brian

 

Interesting comment about the WSR track there. I had a trip on the line yesterday and, riding in the coach, I was impressed by the quality of the ride. This was in sharp contrast to my trip on the GWSR the day before where the quality of ride was noticeably poor. (I don't think the contrast was down to the coaching stock.) However, I suspect that the WSR is still largely living on the quality of the track inherited from BR. On a visit several years ago, Mark Smith told me that the railway was still 99.5% bullhead (the 0.5% being a length of flat bottom put in after a bridge repair) and that track maintenance was largely a case of spot re-sleepering. Knowing how much the NYMR has had to spend on track in recent times, I can see that they have a costly mountain to climb. At about one mile/year, that's a 20 year programme of works. How much has been done so far?

 

The problem was there were two serious time-related issues surrounding the entire extension project.

1. Planning permission on using Kingscote station as a terminus was expiring.
2. George Osborne's landfill tax potentially trebling the cost of digging out Imberhorne tunnel.

Had the railway not gone full throttle for East Grinstead, it could now (in a worst case scenario) be a preserved railway running from Sheffield Park to Horsted Keynes with the world's longest siding to the north.

 

Work has tended to be resleepering concretes for life expired woods with a bit of FB on the curves around the old paper mill at Watchet as far as I can tell from the info you get on Mr Es site (very little info of this level of detail is sent to shareholders which I can understand). A previous Civil Engineer tried to eek out the remaining life of the rails by grinding as a training exercise by NR but carried the can for this when he did not follow up this work with a inspection and missed that the grinding had left sharp burrs on the rails on some curves and these had to be hand ground off but not until the longer wheelbased engines suffered bad flange root wear as a consequence. The recent Annual report does mention the need for a 20 year programme so perhaps dawn is coming.
I note the GWSR is going CWR bigtime which for longer lines has to be the way forward in terms of ride quality and labour saving, even my little line is planning on welding up every other 60' joint as we simply cannot see we will have the labour and resource to keep on top of dipped joints going forwards. However managements do have to cope with luddites standing up at AGMs and complaining FBs/Concretes/welded rails etc etc are not prototypical and the world will end if they are used.

Brian

 

On the NYMR the use of deeper ballast, new FB113A rail or even UIC60 in places, Welded into CWR or 120fts and new or nearly new sleepers coupled with the use of a Tamper fitted with a Track Design computer programme has transformed the quality of the track renewals on the NYMR over the last 5 years.

Increasing the amount of rail lubricators has also made a difference to flange wear.

One of the other benefits to be found is, I believe, a significant reduction in the amount of broken springs on locos. (Steve can you confirm this or not?)
Just need to find a way of reducing the wheel flats on coaches now.


Should also add that increasing the sleeper count from 24 per length to 26 or even 28 has added to the track stability.
Improved drainage and attention to the crossfall on the track bed during a relay also aids quality.

 

The Talyllyn Railway and the Middleton Railway also seem to do Instagram well in my experience.

 

For those wonder what is new, there is a fortnightly e-newsletter, tonight's issue available here: http://myemail.constantcontact.com/...ilway.html?soid=1108082818574&aid=vpwb5G9-xJw

Included:

- BRPS AGM round up
- An Ops perspective on the Flying Scotsman Flying South event
- Photos and videos from the Branch Line weekend
- News of further track replacement on Freshfield Bank to take place in June
- Latest developments in the ASH project
- Progress on Sir Achie's firebox
- C&W restoration work on the Camelot Society CCT
- Three paid job opportunities in the C&W
- Update on the new canopy project at Sheffield Park

So plenty going on.

Tom

 

They had a Branch Line Weekend? Who knew?