Bluebell Railway Giants of Steam, 28th-30th October 2016.

There's also Caley 419, which was an LMS engine although built by a pre-grouping company. Also, 44932 was on the north-facing end of the RTC train which visited the line and which featured 34046 at the south end. Furness No. 20 never lasted in main line service long enough to be an LMS engine, so it doesn't count.
However, I'm pretty sure that 48151 has never visited the line.

 

Does 47493 also count? It was due to take part in an S&D gala which featured 53809 (2008 I think it was) but failed prior to the gala so was on display in the yard.

 

48626 is the first stanier 8F to visit the Bluebell in preservation, 48151 has never visited. Who's to say what happened pre preservation!!

 

To save anyone making a futile journey tomorrow or Sunday morning, the track in the cutting immediately south of Imberorne Lane bridge will be in shadow (if ths sun is out) for the first train to EG. As it was a sunny morning today, I thought I would give it a try, as trains don't normally run this early in the day. Sadly, I came back disappointed. The sun is at the right angle but too low in the sky. You might get away with a shot if you have a very long zoom, but otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

 

My photos of the B12 on the 9.00am goods and the 8F on the 9.31am passenger departures from Horsted today. Not a wasted journey for me! However be aware that the 5mph speed restriction remains at Leamland Junction just north of HK so locomotives shut off soon after departing

 

The B12's lunchtime train has returned to Horsted Keynes and is currently sat in platform 4/5 waiting to reverse into the sidings. It has a problem, and got just past the 5mph speed restriction out of HK where she was stopped.

Until the B12 is moved, trains are at a standstill.

James

 

That doesn't sound good, must say the B12 was the star for me yesterday, it looked fantastic on the freight! Overall, yesterday was a good day with trains keeping time for most of it, although the 8F was put in the yard after one round trip as it had developed some kind of fault. Credit to the engineers though, it was back out on the 12:55 from SP, having swapped diagrams with 847. Well done to the bluebell volunteers and staff for making the event happen, een with the drop out of Oliver Cromwell, a very good event! Here are a couple of my photos from yesterday...

 

B12's train was put in the headshunt after some wagons removed.73082 attached to the rear of 30541's train and left at Horsted. 30541 has just left EG 15 minutes late after arriving 30 minutes late.

 

It was a blowing cylinder cover on the B12 (I was told at the time of the failure by a member of the footplate crew, it was later found to be only a minor problem). She was being coaled up and bedded down for the night at around 5 pm. So hopefully she should be out tomorrow. The 8Fs glitch on Friday was a gland packing, but was repaired pretty quickly so she could take over 847's train.

 

I too heard in the yard that was the problem and it turned out not to be as serious as they thought so could be out again tomorrow.

It was initially confusing for me earlier today because I was on 48624 and the crew were checking her over a couple of times when we got back to Sheffield Park and heard someone in the yard mention a failure so assumed it was 48624 but then heard someone say 'big green one' failed and then finally heard it was the B12. 73082 got sent up on the back of 30541's train to rescue 8572 so took over its duties and the 8F went solo as it was due to double head with Camelot.

Still had a good day though and managed to get behind the B12 before she failed and had a couple of runs behind the 8F and finished with a short run with 847.

 

Glad to hear it wasn't as serious as first thought. I too had a ride behind 8572 before she failed, the leak was self-evident but otherwise she was performing very well. A crisp, clear and even exhaust, and she certainly wasn't short of steam.

 

The official word on the Bluebell's Facebook page is that the B12 should be running tomorrow.

Tom

 

Happy days!

 

We spoke to, I believe a member of its crew at SP at around 5ish, he said that the steam leak it was stopped because of was not as bad as it appeared and was due to a bolt coming loose somewhere. It was stopped more or less for precaution as they were not sure of the severity of the issue. However it gas been resolved and 8572 will run tomorrow.

 

Not my best day, that's for sure. The 'failure' of the B12 was unfortunate, as the day had started off rather well with a couple of shots up at Imberhorne cutting. My plan for the day went out the window immediately after that, so spent the rest of the day riding around on the trains.

The only decent shot worth publishing is this one of 73082 replacing 8572 on it's last trip of the day, opening up just before Kingscote station. While the B12 would've been nice here, I'm a huge fan of '82, so having the Standard replace the B12 wasn't the end of the world...



Despite a 35 minute delay in the middle of the day while everything was at a stand around Horsted Keynes, the well thought out timetable meant that I left bang on time this evening... only for my train from East Grinstead to Clapham Jc to be cancelled! Thanks to all at the Bluebell for their hard work in getting the timetable back on track in such a short space of time and I'm glad there wasn't anything significant to repair on the B12!

James

 

That's not Camelot, that's the B12. It says so on the headcode disc and everything!

 

Lovely shot of the Standard 5 B12!
My Dad and I had a good day despite the problems with the B12 and the knock on effect they had on the timetable. We travelled down on the 11.00 from East Grinstead to SP with the Q (which for some reason was a really slow trundle throughout) and then had a great lunch on arrival at SP. Then we went back to HK on the delayed 1.40 service with the 8F. This service was due to be double headed with the Std 5 but she went to rescue the B12. I have to say we preferred to have the 8F solo. She did make a good noise on the climb to HK. We spent most of the day at HK before heading back to East Grinstead behind the Q on the delayed 4.10 from SP. This turned out be a spirited run from the plucky freight Loco and it was the highlight of the day.
We were a bit disappointed we didn't get a run behind the B12 but not as disappointed as we were when we got back to East Grinstead and found that the next service to Clapham Junction was cancelled
Anyway, thanks to all involved at the Bluebell for another great event and the visiting Loco owners.
A few phone pics from today:




Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

I know there's been a bit of angst among many people over the few years in the early part of the decade about the lack of Bluebell galas, but I think this weekend has proved why so many of us wanted to see more. Because when the Bluebell puts on a show, it really puts on a show. For me, the highlight was one I didn't capture, but coming back with the 8F in the pitch black and being held in the mist outside Sheffield Park while Newick fireworks were going off in the distance was an eerily beautiful thing, and to then watch Camelot storm away with the evening train was something spectacular.

Anyway, no pictures of that, instead you get these pictures from Friday and Saturday. More can be found at https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/Bluebellphotosets/Giants-of-Steam-October-2016/

 

A superb finale to Giants of Steam today, with all locos behaving themselves and performances (mostly) being spectacular - the double headers were something special! Decided to stick around at Sheffield Park until it got dark, some of the results of which are below, along with one from this morning's B12 and Camelot double header...

 

Video now online