Bluebell Railway General Discussion

More likely that there weren't enough working GW locos to have more than one event at once.

 

Most galas look the same.

PH

 

Agreed - but how many have four working locos from the same pre-grouping railway in matching pre-grouping liveries, with carriages of the right era...?

 

It'll be five from the same company, and the same livery if you squint bit ...

(I can't seem to get enough interest to paint Bluebell in Crimson Lake, even though it would be historically accurate for its pre-preservation existence ...)

Tom

 

Yes, I wrote five at first, but thought the pedants might be roused...
As to Crimson Lake, I didn't know that, please expand! It sounds marvellous...

 

Let's just hope that buffet cars, Pullmans and other similar "stuff" will be banished for this event, thus replicating the branch line which Lewes to East Grinstead was and the Bluebell has the means of recreating if it so chose.

PH

 

323 and 325 were the last two of the class to be finished. They both entered traffic in July 1910. However, they were finished earlier, but kept back in Ashford paint shop in May and June of that year to try out experimental liveries. 323 was painted Lake to match the Lake carriages of the time; 325 was painted in the standard green, but matched with carriages temporarily painted the same colour. The outcome was that the Directors didn't like the changes and the green carriages were returned to Lake; and 323 was re-painted the standard green. I don't know how much knowledge there is of the precise livery, but I think a good guess would be panelled and lined in the normal Wainwright style, but using shades of red for highlights rather than shades of green. Presumably 323 was steamed in that livery in order to allow shunting and movement to a favourable spot for viewing, but I don't think it ever left the confines of the works in that livery.

Tom

 

It would be good to see the LBSCR 6-wheel milk van in use for this event. Does anyone know if that's likely?

 

The "stuff" which makes money for the railway and gives most visitors what they expect, you mean?

 

Do BR Standards and Mk 1s count?

 

A few photos on the What's New page of the winter tracklaying:

http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/whats_new.html

For orientation, this is to the north of Lindfield Wood, a little south of Horsted Keynes (see map: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/map_grad.html) About two years ago, the curve through Lindfield Wood (generally known as River Slip) was relaid along with stabilisation of the embankment; I think this current phase of relaying starts immediately north of where that project finished and continues north for roughly 1/3 mile.

Tom

 

You're feeding the polemicist again.

 

Who merely thinks heritage railways could do with a bit more "heritage". A gala is an opportunity for this.

PH

 

Agreed and I hope that the Austerities and the Ivatt will be banished from the next IoWSR Gala thus replicating the sleepy Island line it once was. Similarly I trust the Welshpool will run an early BR era gala with no passenger trains whatsoever with just the Earl in steam on a short goods, thus replicating the rural backwater it used to be.

 

The problem is these lines would only be "authentic" with almost no passengers and no one on the stations so the galas would have to exclude visitors.

 

Very interesting, thank you. It would be fun to reproduce sometime. Mind you, I love Bluebell in her current version of "SECR blue". Has she now run longer in this livery than any other? Presumably only about 13 or so years in SECR green (and split between lined and post-war versions), about 25 in Southern liveries (green and then black?) and then a few in BR black? Meanwhile she has spent how long in blue since 1960?

 

Thank you for not degenerating into "rock throwing". I did not use the expression "authentic" by the way. Perhaps the Vale of Rheidol is the nearest in that respect but it cannot be absolute. Some places manage the balancing act better than others.

PH

 

I don't have the livery figures, but almost certainly she has had longer in Bluebell blue than any other livery.

2017 will, as I recall, be either the 41st or 42nd year of operation since preservation (i.e. she has run in 41 of the 57 seasons since 1960) which is the most active of any Bluebell loco - uniquely amongst our engines, she has run for at least part of every decade since the 1960s: in fact, she hasn't missed running for at least some of each decade since construction in 1910; I'm not sure how many other locos could make that claim?

She had a short spell in the SECR wartime green livery in the late 1990s in connection with the SECR centenary (photo: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/991c001m.html) but apart from that, I think she has been painted blue most of her preserved existence - though there have been variations, for example: http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/323.html The current variation is pure SECR, just in shades of blue rather than green: https://www.flickr.com/photos/beerdave1745/5703720559

Tom

 

323 did have a few years in SECR WW1 Green and ran in black with blue lining and Bluebell and 323 painted white on the tanks and bunker between 1960 and 1965 but apart from that has spent most of its preserved life in Blue.

There's also been 3 different Blue liveries 323 has carried. Personally I think the current one is my favourite.

 

I know, I can read.
The word is often used a propos of railway heritage matters. It means "concentrating on the thing I think should be presented as at a particular moment in the past as defined by me while ignoring all of the many other things which can't be of the same period and the fact that really this is just a fun hobby".
It declines irregularly as in "I am authentic", "you are pedantic", "he is/they are a disgrace to the preservation movement".
Meanwhile, back to SECR P Class no 323. Have any of the Talyllyn locos also worked in every decade since the Indian Mutiny (2 and 3 best candidates but think not)? How about Prince on the FR?
Having half a class preserved must be pretty rare too (feels like it with Bullied pacifics but let's not go there).