Bluebell Railway General Discussion

My mistake missed that. Thank you.

 

34059 will haul dining trains this weekend

29th August - Wealden Rambler
30th August - Golden Arrow Luncheon
31st August - Golden Arrow and Wealden Rambler services

33108 still rostered for A turn and 1001 on B. The O1 rostered for the SP brake van rides

 

This is subject to sufficient rainfall, of course.

If weather conditions allow, further steam hauled services may be introduced over the coming weeks.

 

From Tuesday, a full steam service will be resuming. 34059 will handle the main services, and I was told 32424 will take the dining train on Thursday. Steam services will then take a weekend off for the Diesel Gala, and continue the following Tuesday.

If anybody is able to come and visit the railway during the rest of the operating year, your support will be very much appreciated. Almost every steam heritage line will be in the same position, but the railway is considerably down on revenue from the school holidays, and the rest of the year will be crucial to the railway.

 

There are mutterings that the field on the west side of the line just South of Horsted Keynes at Station Approach (New Road Bridge I think it's officially called?) is no longer accessible. This was opposite to the side with the public footpath through, and while there has never been a public right of way to the west side field I understand that use has been 'tolerated' provided people stuck to the edges.

It would seem people have taken advantage and also been leaving litter there, and so the farmer is barring any access at all - which they are of course entitled to do. If so, it is a shame that the minority have spoilt it for the majority.

 

Does anyone know the timings of the train movements to HK for the arrivals from the main line connection today and tomorrow for the weekends gala? Was hoping the PTI would have been issued for this week to show these but guess they would be very last minute timings and impossible to know until they happen!

 

Unfortunately, this information is not available to all volunteers, but rather only to a select handful directly involved with the movements.

You can approximate from the NR time; it'll take about 10 mins to sort the gates/points/crew at EG. Some workings go through to SP, others finish at HK. This can be worked out using the diesel gala timetable, and looking at where the engine(s) in question start on Friday morning.

I am pleased to report that the diesel gala public timetable includes every single in section movement, including light engines.

 

There’s two movements tomorrow - 73128 is booked to arrive at East Grinstead at 11:40. I don’t know when this will arrive onto the Bluebell itself - likely a case of whenever the service trains are out the way. 73128 should be going down to Sheffield Park.

60028 and 50026 are booked to arrive at East Grinstead at 23:15. These two should also be going down to Sheffield Park.

 

You really were behind the scenes!

That digitisation project is on my long list to write up, it really is impressive but a long and complex story to tell, of which the digitisation is only one part. There are some volunteer opportunities in that area which will be advertised in the forthcoming issue of The Bluebell Times.

Tom

 

OOh I can look at those Mogul drawings that my father 'acquired' many years ago and I passed on to The Bluebell

And just in case anyone has any 'junk in the attic' it seems that one drawing was just the one they needed when I sent them many years ago.