Bluebell Railway General Discussion

Yes, but if the knackered boiler off a T1 counts then the wooden bits of the F9 count

More original stuff than on some 'rebuilds'

 

Far be it from me to decry such unbridles optimism!

 

Yes, the only decent loco they have and it's not working!

 

Or - Oh for a 395 and a 700 and an H16 - but not a Drummond 4-6-0 , please!
Pat

 

Didn’t the Bluebell have a choice of LSWR 415’s and went for 488 due to it being the most original one of the bunch.

 

So I believe. I think it was the only one with an Adams-pattern boiler at the time of withdrawal.

Tom

 

I always understood 488's Col. Stephens connection (having at one stage been EKR No.5) played a part in the selection. Do I recall another of the Lyme Regis trio had some sort of issue connected with slide bars?

 

Yes indeed and the Adam boiler steamed better than the Drummond ones.

 

As was also the received wisdom concerning the O2 class. Survivor Calbourne carries a much repaired Adams boiler, near miss Chale which also clung on into 1967, perished with a Drummond one.

 

Could I interest sir in one of these?

 

The originality of the boiler is presumably explained by the Col Stephens ownership (probably also original brake shoes and axle grease...)

 

Not really - the boilers swapped round in BR days, there are photos of 30583 with a Drummond boiler. It just happened to end up with a proper one at the time it was withdrawn.

The frames on the other hand … they probably are original, and contain strengthening patches added in EKR days. I believe the other two survivors had substantially new frames in SR days.

Tom

 

Gosh! I do love the EKR and the frankly shady actions of the coal promoters.

 

Sadly, someone will be daft enough to want to build one which won't get finished.

 

Lovely picture, that.
Even if replicating one was feasible (please not ) would any railway be willing to give it shed room?
Pat

 

To get back on Bluebell track the Jewel in The Crown appeal has reached/just overtaken its initial target see website news item

 

488 retained its original single slide bars, both 30582 and 30584 had been converted to double slide bars at some point in their history. Regarding the Drummond boiler, I have to again remind the collective that oddly, Drummond pattern boilers built during the man's lifetime were perfectly reasonably performers on the Adams engines, whereas 'Drummond pattern' boilers built under the SR were not. Bradley writes of boilers 916 and 921 (which appeared on all of the late Lyme Regis three at some point) "Unlike other Drummond replacement boilers, these two steamed freely, and were not prone to priming; consequently they gave excellent, trouble free service." He applies similar wording to two boilers fitted to O2s in 1907 and 1909.

 

Having trawled through about a dozen tears of Railway Magazines in their Archive I found this (I knew it was there, somewhere). Looks like the same boiler it carries now.
Pat

 

But they swapped around - there's a photo of her in 1949 (in Bradley) with a Drummond-pattern boiler. It appears to have been fitted with that boiler at its 1946 overhaul, after coming from the East Kent Railway.

Bradley also notes that 0125 and 0520 were fitted with new frames, cylinders, fireboxes, springing, tyres and well tanks in 1930 before being transferred to the Lyme Regis Branch. By contrast, 0488 retains her original frames (repaired in EKR days) and Adams-pattern single slide bars, as well as the Adams-pattern boiler currently fitted. The wheels are also thought to be the originals.

Bradley quotes 1,504,703 miles on withdrawal from BR; my records show an additional 40,091 miles in Bluebell service.

Tom

 

I know the boilers moved about. It just looks to me as though this one made a return visit!
I saw 488 at Swindon Works in 1973, I think it was. The driving wheels had a fair few cracks in the rims marked up. (There was an article in 'The Locomotive Magazine' of July 1906 * describing the making of built-up wheels - definitely a (permanently) lost art.
Pat
* added date. 1896-1923 issues available on disc from the Great Eastern Railway Society