Bluebell Railway General Discussion

I think there is another point about life membership, which is that the CCBS structure is about providing a community benefit, and that makes it difficult to have tiers of membership that have different benefits. So for example you can have members and those members can get benefits, such as discounted travel - but you can't have some members who get discounted travel, and others who get free travel.

So the workaround for that seems to be that the CCBS will just have one form of member (with whatever benefits package is agreed); and for existing BRPS life members, they will separately get a kind of non-transferrable "privilege card" to reflect their former privileges.

That is then where the concept of a "liability" comes in, because the CCBS will in effect have a liability to provide travel for a group of people who have been given that privilege; but the liability will decrease over time as existing life members die but no new ones are being created.

So I think the term is being used in a formal accountancy sense, but there is no sense that people who have - perhaps many years ago - paid a life membership are in some way a drain, and there is a clear recognition that in many cases they represent people who are deeply committed to the railway and have - as @Spamcan81 says - often subsequently provided additional support, either in donations or volunteering or both.

Tom

 

And the wider, non monetary, debt owed to them is one of the factors lost by some in previous discussions on this theme

 

A few years back at an AGM I was discussing with another life member whether a nominal £5 payment should be made for things like galas. Very much in favour but I get the sense it's all or nothing with this approach, which probably a lot easier to manage.

I'm the same as @Spamcan81 - always take plenty of cash for the donation boxes and buy stuff from the supporter group stands plus the railway shop when at a gala, as well as on a normal running day. Life membership is a sense of commitment to the health and future of the railway but that's no reason not to back that up with financial support.

Regards,

Dan

 

As part of that assessment, here's something I wonder about - but I have no idea if the Bluebell has done it. Does anyone have any idea?

Look at the legacies that come in each year, and divide them into i) legacies that come in from life members, and ii) all the rest. The sum of the amounts in i), divided by the number of life members (either the total number, or the number that have been lost that year - I don't know which is more appropriate to use for this) gives a number for a major part of the 'value' of life members, that year.

The concept is that 'life members' likely feel a stronger bond to the railway, and are thus more likely to leave a bequest to the line. That's probably true - but it would be nice to confirm that with real numbers.

Noel

 

6 months according to another site

 

6989 "Wightwick Hall" returning to Bluebell for May half term week as part of the railways Wizard event

 

It’ll be running between the 23rd and 31st May on Set A.

 

One for @Jamessquared and/or anyone who knows what is booked for the Bluebell this weekend if I may please.

Is this what is scheduled to happen please? With no observation car on any train?




If so, and I can get the shot I need of 80151 drifting down into Horsted Keynes at the head of the right hand end of the stock shown for Set B, then (1) I may be tempted to make a very late change to my fully drafted BR SR Steam Locos Memoirs of a Gricing Dinosaur book and (2) suggest the refreshment room at HK stocks up on latte coffees and ready salted crisps.

Thanks in advance.

Bryan

 

Looks like it:

Saturday
A - 73082 - 6 Mark 1s (10:30 / 13:00 / 15:40 ex-SP)
B - 80151 - N-->S 100 seater + Brighton bogie 1st + 3 Maunsells (all SR green) (09:20 / 11:45 / 14:15 ex-SP)
WR - 65 - Wealden Set
Evening GA - 73082 - Pullmans

Sunday
A - 73082 - 6 Mark 1s (10:30 / 13:00 / 15:40 ex-SP)
B - 80151 - N-->S 100 seater + Brighton bogie 1st + 3 Maunsells (all SR green) (11:45 / 14:25 ex-SP)
Lunchtime GA - 65 - Pullmans

Monday
A - 73082 - 6 Mark 1s (10:30 / 13:00 / 15:40 ex-SP)
B - 80151 - N-->S 100 seater + Brighton bogie 1st + 3 Maunsells (all SR green) (11:45 / 14:15 ex-SP)
Morning WR - 65 - Wealden Set (09:30 ex-SP)
Afternoon WR - 65 - Wealden Set (13:45 ex-SP)

Tom

 

Looking slightly further ahead - timetable for Road Meets Rail on 16/17 May:

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/special/road-meets-rail/

Set A - 80151 + Green Mark 1s
Set B - 32424 "Beachy Head" + Maunsells / SR vintage carriages (+ Obo)
No. 65 - Goods set (Saturday)
No. 65 - GA (Sunday)

Normal fares apply - including kids for a quid both days.

Timetable: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Road-Meets-Rail_Timetable-2026.pdf

Will be nice to get on Beachy Head for the first time this year!

Tom

 

For Diesel fans, it's been announced that Class 33 33108, which spent the summer of last year at the railway, is returning again this summer and will also feature in the NSE themed Diesel Gala at the start of September.

 

Sadly not now coming back then - it appears it needs some maintenance before it comes back.

 

It's interesting to note that we are constantly amazed at the proportion of legacies which come in to the Trust where the individual is neither a shareholder nor a member, let alone a life member! And those are also sometimes the larger legacies (which range typically between £5,000 and £500,000). But I don't have a breakdown of legacies by membership status - purely that it's not infrequent to be asked "do we know what link X had with the railway" when we're notified of a legacy pending. The largest legacies typically do come from a small number of former active volunteers though.

 

I had wondered why the post on Facebook and the webpage was updated quicker than it was uploaded. Thanks Richard

 

I cannot believe it!

I have waited a long time for the chance of photographing 80151 heading into HK ex EG with a train of Maunsell carriages (althought not for the whole of the train this weekend).

Saturday I enjoyed a lovely family event at home. Yesterday I woke feeling just enough under the weather (NO, I have been teetotal for a very long time!) to make it foolish to spend time waiting on platform ends - and whilst almost ok again today, still a bit mindful of the need to stay at home away from whatever the weather may decide to do.

Such is life - the only consolations being that if I had got that photo it would have needed a significant re-structuring of several pages in the relevant chapter of my BR SR Steam loco memoirs book - even though that chapter has not yet gone to my designer. And also the thought that 80151 could have some sort of May the Fourth Be With You 'stuff' on the front; on Saturday via the webcams I did spot a bloke wearing a black cape and with an upturned black coal scuttle on his head at HK - along with some small people wearing what looked like white metal suits.

So yesterday was spent implementing my new back up system. And working on a trip to South Africa's Tweefontein Colliey in 1991 - that includes still images from video frame grabs of two GMA garratts slogging uphill with a heavy coal train - motive power that comes out as 4-8-2+2-8-4+4-8-2+2-8-4. Just a little bit more than the 2-6-4t I had hoped to photograph this weekend - but to my knowledge the Bluebell don't operate 2,500 ton coal trains on Cape Gauge track. Well, not yet anyway.

Lovely to see a quite well filled 11.45 depart HK this morning via the webcam, with a very friendly Bluebell lady platform staff member giving a cheery wave to the whole train as it passed her.

Bryan

 

Update: It appears that this is due to the filming schedule having changed, and the loco has now moved from Epping/Ongar to undertake more filming. It is then coming to the Bluebell, where it will have maintenance done over June/July in our works so it's available for various commitments for the remainder of the year; at least that's the latest from the Friends of Wightwick Hall facebook page.

 

Does anyone know what locos are planned to be out this coming weekend? Thanks.

 

With the usual caveats, should be 80151 (A); 32424 (B); 65 (dining services).

Tom

 

Cheers thanks.

 

I will just add that E6040 will run the first B Set round trip on Sunday as 32424 is being used on a charter on the Wealden Rambler in the morning. The WTT is available on the Public Train Information