Bluebell Railway General Discussion

When 950 came to the Bluebell it was purely for storage, as part of the deal that brought in the owner's O1 loco. It was already in a terrible state by then, with the steel underframe and bogies corroded to paper thickness in places. However the teak body structure remained relatively good. The owner declined to provide a tarpaulin to protect what remained, so the Bluebell Trust paid for one (they come in at around £4k per coach), which C&W staff and volunteers fitted. Following the owner's death we were able to establish that the owner's estate had no interest in it. It was a lovely vehicle in its heyday, but in the condition it's now in, is beyond our resources to recover - it's just a collection of body structure timbers with no roof, floor, interior or exterior, sitting on an underframe and bogies that are so corroded they are mainly holding themselves together by force of habit - we have three other Birdcage Brakes, all in far far better condition, so the decision was taken to dispose.
The KESR have recently disposed of the shell of their second birdcage to the IoW Steam Railway, where it will be converted (as were other Birdcage brakes shipped to the island) into an 8-and-a-half compartment non-brake coach. I have inquired as to whether the IoW would be interested in 950 as a source of spare body timbers or for any other purpose, and they are not. We will be recovering anything off it we can use for other restorations.

 

Morning. What is the timetable in operation today? Is it as on the PTI page or reduced to a one set operation? does anyone know the timings for the collection of the brake van?

 

Looks like passenger departures are 10:30 / 1:00 / 3:00 from Sheffield Park and an hour later from East Grinstead. (Class 33)

ED departs Horsted Keynes at 11:30 with brake van, arrives SP at 11:45

Fenchurch off shed at 11:30 to await arrival of ED and brake van. ED becomes Golden Arrow loco.

GA departs Sheffield Park at 12:30 (ED)

Tom

 

Thanks Tom. I assume the 13:00 exSP will be held at K to allow the GA through from EG, and will run to later times for remainder of the journey and the return from EG?

 

Oh, it does weird things looking at it! The 13:00 has a 12 minute (rather than the normal 2) at HK on the up journey. It then passes the down GA at Kingscote, with the GA having the wait and the service train just the normal 2 minutes. The service train thus gets to EG at 13:50 and departs 14:05. So essentially it runs 10 minutes later than expected from HK on the up, and gets 5 minutes of that back on the run round at EG.

Tom

 

First train (10:30?) left 30 late from SheffieldPark.

 

It's a shame that the owner allowed the coach to get so far gone , but there is only so many vehicles which can be restored (and if it wasn't for the efforts of the Bluebell the vehicle would have been scrapped years ago.) I presume the two unrestored birdcage brakes are undercover which should arrest their further deterioration?

 

That's based on timetable G which is used normally for Golden Arrow days.

It's been written quickly due to the short notice change.

It's also best to keep the 1300 departure from SP the same.

 

I'm told brake problems on either the loco or the stock.

Pretty much made time up by this evening.

 

Thanks for providing this further info Richard. Sounds like it was genuinely beyond repair--which is a great shame, but not the railway's fault. Ah well...

 

If anyone on here is in a senior position at the Bluebell, I think you need to have a word with your social media team.

After the rather dismissive responses I previously mentioned when people questioned where the 31 fit into the NSE theme (“Well it was never meant to be entirely NSE” - the publicity up to that point suggested otherwise), I noticed last night that they’ve also shown some attitude towards someone who has understandably queried the announcement of 41313 for Giants of Steam, and asked if they meant it was attending the branch line gala.

It’s a valid question, given 41313 doesn't fit into either the generally understood description of a 'giant' nor does it tally with previous guests at GoS - as it happens, it's simply a bonus, but that should have just been explained without being ar$ey about it.

I’m wondering if it’s a teenager who’s helping out with SM during the summer holidays because I really hope an adult/professional wouldn’t respond like that.

 

I am NOT in a senior position at the Bluebell, nor am I in the social media team. I make the below comments as an individual and not as a representative of the Bluebell.

I can understand your thoughts, and have noticed this recently. Whilst most info about recent service changes has been effectively communicated, there have been some errors, e.g. scheduled posts advertising steam services for upcoming events - obviously no more.

If I get the opportunity, I will informally mention your thoughts to those at the Bluebell who may be interested to hear them.

 

And having 12 minutes at Horsted Keynes is quite good if you want to pop into the Buffet, into the carriage shop, or the Carriage Works viewing gallery.

 

Brian Dandridge has a video of Fenchurch on the brake-van specials at Sheffield Park yesterday.

I understand these should be running every day when services are running (so daily except Mondays).
The water tanks fitted to the Queen Mary Brake had been placed there along with a fire pump, to run with 80151 (all the tender locos have a fire pump on their tenders through the summer) as one of our fire-risk control measures. Clearly it's sensible to keep that facility on standby now none of the tender locos are being steamed.

 

I wonder how many people know they can do those things though, or actually do!

12 minutes feels the wrong length for a stop: long enough that most people will be thinking “what’s the delay?”, too short to feel confident about getting off even to get a cup of tea.

My hunch is that most people don’t read the timetable closely enough to see there’s a stop in advance when they could plan for it. I know on occasions I’ve caught a train, it has stopped. You sit on for a while until after about five or six minutes, you start trying to find out what’s happening - at which point you only have five or six left and it is really too late to do very much!

My hunch is that these days most of our visitors aren’t used to looking at a timetable in depth: they just know you get on a train at one time and off at another. So I think if we do plan in long layovers, we need to find a way to make people aware of their options (and, as far as possible, reassure them that the train won’t continue without them!)

Tom

 

Unfortunately at present, this long layover has not found its way onto the public website. Hopefully, it will do soon.

On timetable G, where there is the 30 min layover at HK on the down, I've heard staff making announcements to advertise the wait and the posibilities for how to spend it.

I agree that most passengers do not thoroughly read the timetable. There are so often questions about what in my eyes would be basic and obvious features when the timetable is right in front of them - e.g. how long does it take to get to East Grinstead?

 

It seems these days it is not just timetables that passengers cannot read. When I was stewarding mainline tours at a station stop I was regularly asked which platform does the next train to X go from. Normally this happened whilst standing adjacent to one of the stations departure screens. Some people should just not be let out on their own.

 

Should any kind soul be able to provide information about the use of the Hastings demu during its stay at the Bluebell, I would be really grateful. I’m on grandchildren duties this week so would love to boost passenger numbers on the demu services!

 

There are no planned dates for the DEMU I'm afraid. It's 33108 this week and joined by E6040 at the weekend. And Fenchurch on brake vans at Sheffield Park of course.

To my knowledge, no Bluebell crew are currently competent to drive 1001. There aren't loads of drivers who sign diesel full stop. Might be a week or two before sufficient crew can drive the Hastings unit. I'm going to guess it might be out in mid-August. At the moment we aren't certain what will run from the 10th onwards, but it'll be diesel for at least that week.

This is my guesswork now, but I would say the 15th/16th Aug will either include the thumper or be back to steam. At present, the 'full' timetable is still advertised on the website. So the DEMU might well be the 'B' set that weekend (1145 & 1415 SP).

Ask again in a week or so and hopefully there will be more news!

 

I am truly grateful to you for this detailed and very helpful reply to my earlier question. I will take your advice and give it a week or so.
I do understand that many railways have huge problems to solve right now, but as one who loves the diesels and electrics of my earlier years, I will make extra effort to experience them once more!