Bulleid Pacifics - Past or Present

I fondly remember Donald Beale's story 34040 'CREWKERNE', while descending the Mendips on the Up 'Pines', and of her fire. The Firemen who attended managed to spray foam at a stone wall, instead of at the loco (the offending fire of which had been put out by the footplate crew). Donald shouted across to the Firemen "It's the engine that's supposed to be on fire, not the wall!"

 

Amusing typo in issue 334 of Heritage Railway magazine

 

Well then, it loooks like the Bluebell had better replace 34059 for a Merchant Navy to try and persuade @Jamessquared Tom that firing Bulleids can be fun!

Bryan

 

The SLL website Latest News page has been updated today, with news of all the locos. https://www.southern-locomotives.co.uk/News/news.html

 

Interesting bit of detail in there that suggests the restoration of 35009 is also moving along.

 

Trackside did a short feature on the new Riley's workshop a few issues back and it mentioned work restarting on 35009. I guess with the current mainline situation it might have led to it. Possibly helps having another Bulleid being worked on at the same time, albeit an air smoothed Light Pacific.

 

Better to work on that than a non-existent Spam can version!

 

I have no technical knowledge but I would imagine it's one of those situations where the similarities are enough that you learn the differences.

 

Doesnt 45212 have to come out this year for major overhaul, and at some point, 44871 is going need a ten year overhaul, and at the moment Riley's are the main supplier of steam to the UK tour companies, that use West Coast, 35009 i would guess will be replacing 45212, and to be honest, having a gauge friendly 8p that's air braked, should mean it should be very attractive to rail tour companies,

 

Again, no technical knowledge but if they're at the stage of dragbox drawings it sounds like replacing something later this year seems optimistic.

 

Is 45212 staying with Ian Riley? I thought it was due to be returned to the KWVR at the end of the 10year lease, but perhaps the lease has been extended? That would seem odd, though. It was leased to the Peter Best at the NYMR for 10 years prior to Ian Riley, so now has 10 more years of hard wear in its firebox at seemingly little or no real benefit to the KWVR.

 

Presumably they're getting a worthwhile amount of money from it that can keep some of the rest of the fleet in steam that might not be otherwise.

 

Pictures on Facebook today of 35009's frames being lifted with a mobile crane

 

Any link that can be shared/viewed?

 

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?st...wwYTcTevf5rUczKYTkkSZ9vMXl&id=100063698707206

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/173c1FKcP3/

 

I think there might be some on here (like me) who had imagined 35009 to be slightly more advanced in terms of restoration than what this image shows.

 

It looks like they've been pretty busy with other stuff so it's taken a backseat, which makes sense. There's not really been anything much seen since the finished bogie wheels a couple of years back. I've been checking as having a Merchant Navy local to me is quite a fun prospect.

I guess from where we are now we're looking at at least a couple of years. Riley's don't seem to hang about with a job once they get started but even for them going from scratch has to take some time.

 

I suspect that Riley's are working through the kit of parts, wheel sets are being worked on, now frames the bogie, is done, trailing truck I don't know about, I thought the loco was further on, so no, not as a replacement for 45212, but with the use 44871 has seen for the last few years, it must now be getting quite tired, so I would expect that at some stage the engine is going to need a more involved overhaul than can be managed in the short time slot every January , that the works has , with this in mind i would not be surprised if the decision to get on with 35009, is long term planning to enable one of the black fives to be in the works longer and to recieve a full works overhaul, and a full strip down, knowing that they still have 2 engines availible, and once both 5's are done, that gives Rileys a bit more cover and could reduce the miles the engines do, as it would be shared over 3, 4, if 45212 's overhaul is rapid,

 

There’s also the question of a tender. Borrow or build? Building a tender would obviously add more time to the project, but borrowing one could equally throw up problems (see 6880).