Kent & East Sussex Railway

Personally I'm not a fan of the BR livery, but I'm just grateful to see another loco on the K&ESR that works!

 

GCR-based '68067' is operational. Recently announced for Swanage gala.

 

Tom, you were far from the only one! We really need 30065 back in service, but I don't know how far away that is.

 

Hopefully won’t be too long until she’s back. Haven’t seen her in so long . Will be great to hear her roar up Tenterden bank once more.

 

There has been an update on both Terriers. Knowle is in the last year of it's boiler "ticket", but is out of service at present due to worn bushes on the rear spring hangers. Knowle will need a new cylinder block, as well as boiler work, at the next overhaul, and it is envisaged that the overhaul will go out on a contract. Bodlar (Bodiam/Poplar in shorthand!) is still awaiting new connecting rods. New ones will need to be made, and a repair off site is being explored. This would likely include new coupling rods, for which the new blanks have been bought, and are awaiting machining. Bodlar's boiler ticket is still running, so it is imperative to get this done as soon as reasonably possible.

 

Can you not make a good one out of the two, or are the critical dimensions for the rods only 'nominally' the same?

 

We tried this in the past with.... oh, I can't remember which two of Bodlar, Sutton and Knowle, but it turned out that the rods for one engine wouldn't fit another one. You also have the complicated issue of ownership. The locos are not wholly owned by the same group, so if something belonging to one group gets damaged while on the engine of another....

 

If 70 is Bodlar, shouldn't 78 be Knowbridge or Bemwle?

 

No, because it's only ever been known as Knowle on our line. Bodlar has had the two names.

 

Surely time for a un-named spell as “No. 3”, in the final version of KESR green. Not yet done in preservation.

 

We could also take the chimney off, and dump it in the open at Rolvenden for 10 years, for added authenticity.....

 

Something similar (Bodiam dismantled and left in the open for years) has already been done in the preservation era at various times in the '80s & '90s. Nostalgic though I am for the Col. Stephens era, hopefully not again any time soon

 

That was from 1986, when it was found that the boiler was life expired. In 1986 that was much more of a problem than it is now. Sat around until the deal with the Isle of Wight to buy two new boilers at once.