Brighton Atlantic: 32424 Beachy Head

BTW Cook's Pond looks a bit more solidly constructed than some of the aforementioned, Crumlin in particular looked to be built out of knitting needles, and Belah was little better - good riddance to both! Oxted is partly brick arch, and the rest much like Cook's Pond. Riddlesdown is the one that would worry me most...

 

And a little careful reading of the relevant threads and publicly available material would give you an idea of the scale of costs involved and the likely income. 6 miles on the Esk Valley is very different from 20 miles on the Oxford line plus 10 miles on one of the most congested lines in the country, yet Whitby represents a major stretch on NYMR resources.


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Worgret Jn to Wareham is a short distance on a moderately busy line. Grosmont to Whitby is considerably further but on a fairly quiet line. East Grinstead to Selsdon Road Jn is further still. Selsdon Road Jn to Victoria is a long way on an extremely busy line.

Edit: 35B got there before me, but with a typo "Oxford".

 

I thought it was a secret plan to by the GWS to escape from Didcot. The NYMR goes to Whitby, the GWS escapes to Witney

 

A further comment: the Bluebell's extension to East Grinstead was a huge investment but it brought substantial benefits; a convenient interchange for passengers from London and a physical connection for occasional railtours and stock transfers. Through running beyond East Grinstead would need a further substantial investment (though not as big as the extension) for some very marginal benefits.

I still hope that the Atlantic will have a chance to run at speed on the main line one day, but a Bluebell through service is not the way to do it.

 

There are many who wish that the NYMR had never taken the step of running to Whitby. It is great for business and gives a destination for the visitor but the price of doing so has been quite significant. And by that I don't mean the cost in money terms.

 

I this Belah was absolutely magnificent, and it's a great shame we don't have any of these type of structures left to admire. Which said, I'm not sure I'd have liked to walk across it...
http://disused-stations.org.uk/b/belah_viaduct/index.shtml

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Hear hear!

SP to Vic would be the exact opposite of the Whitby runs too, where the train starts on the NYMR and effectively just runs a bit further on, easily making Whitby and back in a day. SP to Vic would presumably mean either coming back empty or having to stay overnight in London with all of the costs and difficulties associated with that. Plus it isn't just the loco that needs to be registered for NR, the carriages would need either centralised locking or door marshals. Competent crews, potentially some sort of minder in London overnight, access to the network and to the depot itself (assuming there is space to stable the loco and train!), creating a Train Operating Company, actually filling the seats when a lot of people come to the railway by car anyway...

 

Sorry to bump the old post here, but the update does read as if the loco had air on the engine and vac on the tender - is that correct, or have I misread the following sentence?

"In lieu of a seat we have added two cupboards behind the driver. The lower one contains the vacuum air proportional valve for the braking on the tender and the upper one contains a vacuum reservoir gauge and an air reservoir gauge, together with the vacuum release valve."

 

good to see that the Bluebell haven't been slacking!!

 

Walking over Belah was the way to get the classic shot, signalman wasn't concerned.

 

With due apologies for quoting myself, a trawl of the Atlantic progress blog shows that then tender has an air brake cylinder pictured in the Feb 19 update, so I think we are safe to assume that the vacuum air proportional value is for train braking.

 

so, does that mean she will be duel fitted with both air and vacuum braking systems then, does the bluebell have any air braked coaches to allow the air system to be tested when it needs to be for certification purposes ?

 

There's the VEP...

 

I would think that as the Terriers and the E4 are both loco air braked as is 32424, that the Bluebell loco depot will have suitable experience. As for the dual braking the full train air brake test can wait until it has suitable stock to haul. Possibly the E4 had to wait for its train air brake test for when it was on loan to the IOWSR

 

When Doris (an ex Brighton Belle Pullman) was on the railway, I believe it ran at least one full line trip as a special with the E4 in air brake mode.

Of the two Terriers, Fenchurch has air brakes but Stepney is vacuum only, a pre-preservation modification.

As for Beachy Head, apart from the brakes, it also has an air-assisted reverser, so the reliability of the Westinghouse pump is of considerable importance.

Tom

 

Yes, the air/vac proportional valve applies the air on the loco when the vacuum is applied.

Out of interest, whilst I can see a need for demonstration with carriages, what would you actually be testing with carriages attached?

 

Where I was coming from is Air tanks etc need to be tested and certified, I assume this can be done off the loco, but is there a requirement for engine systems to be certified where its used as an activator , such in the case of Brighton engines

 

have you started digging out the headshunt at Wotton yet then Gary ,