Bluebell Railway General Discussion

It's funny how these things happen. I'd heard they used the Mk.1 for Dunkirk because the director didn't like the shape of the window, which made no sense; it being the colour of the interior sounds much more likely!
For John Carter of Mars they wanted the GN Directors Saloon, with seating removed and replaced by bench-type seating, and paid us a lot of money to repaint the ceiling brown (and strip it back and repaint white again after). When they turned up to film they found it much too dingy, and so suspended a white sheet under the ceiling!
Richard

 

I was up at the Severn Valley today. Fenchurch is proving a very popular visitor!

 

The latest edition of The Bluebell Times is now available to view for May.

In This Month's Edition:

• Help us in “Paving The Way” by sponsoring new platform coping stones for Horsted Keynes
• Car 54 enters service - with the help of GB Paralympic athlete Fabienne André
• The Plc board needs you - we have volunteer board vacancies for Chairman, Commercial Director and Carriage & Wagon Director
• The Branch Line Society visits - and their special train traverses (nearly) every inch of track on the Railway!
• The carriage shop is back in business in its new location
• Can we help you ensure the preservation of a historic photographic archive?

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/bluebell-times/

Also - note that the June issue will be a week later than normal so it can carry an update from the BRPS AGM, which takes place on what would be the day following the normal BT publication date.

Tom

 

Just thought post link to the latest news concerning getting the 4 VEP back on the mainline:

https://www.setg.org.uk/crowd-funding-and-one-trick-ponies/

Written in the usual inimitable style...

Steve B

 

Pie in the sky I know, but I've long thought to myself that a modified 4-BIG unit attached to the 4-VEP would make it a better going concern as a mainline unit. That set up would add a catering car, a second power car (possibly using the double doors as externally sympathetic access into a modified interior layout incorporating accessible saloon) and two more ordinary seating cars to add capacity. For the nerdy, it would also look historically accurate from the outside. Sounds easy eh?!?

Sent from my moto g(8) power lite using Tapatalk

 

Just made my first donation to "Paving the Way" I'd like to say that this is an extremely worthwhile project, and the donations are in affordable blocks. These York stone edging slabs will make such a difference to the authenticity of platform 1 when it is completely reconstructed, and I'd just like to urge others to think about sponsorship for something which will really last

 

For anyone who missed Erlestoke Manor at the branch Line Gala, it is scheduled to run again next weekend (18/19 May) at “Road Meets Rail”. It’ll be on the A service (three trips each day).

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/road-meets-rail/

Tom

 

I'm at the back and not keeping up with Bluebell steam matters as I should be doing.

But, does anyone have an idea if/when 34059 will be let loose again please. 80151 and 73082 are great locos, and I would love to be able to drive over and see one of those operating, but alongside the Bulleid pacific. ??

And a longer term question. I know its not in the current overhaul plan, but is there any suggestion of when 31592 might be up for overhaul please? Maybe a lot

That is one loco I really would like to see in BR 1960s livery/numbering/grime.

Bryan B.

 

34059 is due to be launched on Saturday 15th June as part of the Bluebell AGM I believe

 

The event guide on the website seems to suggest 7812 is on B set? Is that right or wrong

 

The departmental loco roster puts it on the A set. If the event guide says B, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. The loco roster has been wrong before.

Tom

 

One or the other either way

 

With regard 592, there is a general desire (commercially led, I believe) that one of the big Chatham locos is always in ticket. That means planning overhauls so that ideally one is coming into service a year or two before another goes out of traffic.

No. 65 entered traffic in mid 2017 so might reasonably expect to run until late 2026. No. 263 is in the works now and should probably enter traffic in 2025 (giving a year or so of overlap). So - and this is informed guess, not a defined plan - I'd expect the aim would probably be to have either No. 592 or No. 65 re-entering traffic in the early 2030s: much as I love No. 65, I suspect logic points to No. 592. So more waiting required, but maybe not too much more. There is of course a spare boiler which possibly helps any plan get a head start.

With regard BR livery: no chance. The terms of the bequests under which both 263 and 592 were given to the Bluebell Railway Trust require that they remain as far as possible in SE&CR condition.

Tom

 

OK Tom, thanks for replying in some detail. I enjoy 31065 too, especially as I first met up with that loco at Tonbridge on 10 June 1961. But my very earliest SR steam loco memory is from my push chair days in the early 1950s, when mum would push me down to the footbridge at Bromley North to watch 'Edward', as she called the loco I later found out was a C class, shunting the small yard there. But, alas, my chances of ever re-creating that scene on the Bluebell, or anywhere for that matter, seem to be zero!

Thanks again

Bryan B

 

Quick reminder that this weekend is "Roads Meet Rail" working steam festival - details here. https://www.bluebell-railway.com/road-meets-rail/

3 locos out on Saturday - 80151 and visiting 7812 on the service trains, plus Fenchurch shunting wagons at Horsted Keynes.. On Sunday, additionally No. 65 will be out on the lunchtime Golden Arrow - so four locos in steam as well as all the road steam.

On Saturday evening, we will be hosting live music, food and drink at Horsted Keynes after the event on this day. Everyone is welcome to this event so come along, wind down and enjoy the evening with us!

Tom

 

That’s also my first railway memory but from my father’s allotment next to the branch at New Street Hill, Sundridge Park. The light engine from Hither Green ran down to Bromley North around 2 o’clock and I would create merry hell if my dad wanted to go home before it returned with the branch freight. Later I would watch the shunting from the same footbridge as you.

 

Camelot runs in place of 65 tomorrow which was on washout.

The allocations are as per the event guide - 80151 on A, 7812 on B

 

With the eventual planned increase in weight of the Pullman set (BGZ?), that will put it slightly above the sustainable load limit for 65, but within that for 592.

 

The K&ESR have announced today that 65 won’t be attending their 50th Anniversary gala as it’s needed at home. I thought the Bluebell’s steam fleet was fairly comfortable at the moment with Camelot, the GWR thing, the Standard 4 tank, Fenchurch and Archie on its way back?

 

Archie isn't due in service for a bit longer but from what I saw over the weekend previously 73082 replaced 65 and a comment on Facebook states that 65 will run this weekend and that 6989 isn't in use at present...

Whether any of that bares any resemblance on the reason, I'm not sure.