Bluebell Railway General Discussion

I think it has a private owner. Presumably an agreement has been reached with the owner to have it overhauled and operated on the Wealden Rambler dining set. Interestingly, it is one of only a couple of the 70-odd coaches on the Bluebell not to have a Bluebell webpage. I understand that the trimming team in carriage & wagon at Horsted Keynes have been working on the seats for 3068 and I must say the moquete is lovely from what I've seen of it.

Hoping to get a chance to ride this coach before too long. It is likely to appear on standard services at least once per year, Giants of Steam, but may well appear more than that. It varies for galas when making up a 4 car crimson lake set whether they use the four from the Rambler, or two from the rambler and then 4957 (absolute dump) and 16012. No disrespect to C&W - basically every coach on the railway except 4957 and 35207 are absolutely gorgeous. Last year, the entire Wealden set formed the 'A set' for a month or so in the summer. I think that turned out badly with no accessible access / buffet / too much first class, so isn't being repeated this year.

I don't know the timescale for the completetion of 3068, but I'm certainly looking forward to it - maybe not as much as I was for the Hastings Brake!!

Maybe @RichardSalmon who is from C&W might know more?

 

Is there any further changes in regards to this weekends MRW roster or is it now unchanged since last time? Please and thank you/

 

It hasn’t been updated that I can see, so it’s still:
73082 - A
2999 - B
32424 & 72 - C

 

Camelot has been in use this week.
Lady of Legend was reported (I think on here) to be in light steam in the past few days
Beachy Head was on test yesterday as mentioned above
Fenchurch was in use on Wednesday

As far as I can predict these locomotives should be in use for MRW.

Stock (All S-N, I must clarify- some odd orders here)
A: 25728-16210-21246-4941-1818-4754
B: 387-412-368-394-3188-661-3360-114 (forgive me if 3360 and 3188 are the other way round - last weekend the set turned up not how I expected it to)
C: 1503-3687-7598-1098

A couple of things to note:
The brake (21246) of set A will now and ongoingly be marshalled in the middle of the set. This, I believe, is to make dispatch easier on curved platforms. Set A is soon to lose 25728 to become a five coach set, with the addition of the OBO or 25728 (or 43909) as required. For July the set will be S-N 16210-21246-4941-1818-4754 (not sure how I feel about that order.....)
At Horsted Keynes, when trains pass, it seems it is now protocol for up trains to use plat 2 and down trains plat 3. When only one train is using the station in either direction this will continue to use plat 3. I don't know why this is, and how long it will be for.

Here is the latest public timetable. Unfortunately, there are a couple of inaccuracies, which have not been possible to update.
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Model-Railway-Weekend_PTT_2026-1.pdf
73082 will work the trains marked 34059
Sets A and B are re-ordered as above
Up trains will use plat 2 at HK with the exception of the 0937. All down trains will use platform 3.
Beachy Head will depart SP LE at 0940 (plat 2)
Beachy Head will depart HK LE at 1630.
The 1645 departure from SP has been re-timed to run at 1650 and run 5 mins later as far as EG.

 

Here is the updated timetable, to the best of my knowledge. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED IN GOOD FAITH, MAY NOT BE ACCURATE, AND THAT I CAN TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ISSUES CAUSE BY ANYONE DEPENDING ON THIS TIMETABLE.
If travelling on the 1650 ex-SP, please ensure you are on board at least 5 mins before departure, as this is the advertised time. Ditto the 1710 ex-HK.
Where multiple platforms are given, the first is the Saturday platform, and the second is the Sunday platform.