Bluebell Railway Giants of Steam 22nd-24th October 2010

Thanks for the information - hope to make it down on Saturday

 

Weather's not looking too great for Saturday, better for Sunday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/weather/forecast/2132

Regards

 

does anyone know if the bus service from East Grinstead will be running earlier than normal tomorrow. Have tried looking on the bluebell website but no information, in fact the whole website is not very helpful regarding this event

 

"* 473 Bus Service from East Grinstead to Kingscote with a special earlier train at 10.10am" - I assume they actually mean a special earlier bus, not train.

See http://www.bluebell-railway.com/event/giants-of-steam/

Tom

 

You could try the 270 service, East Grinstead to Haywards Heath which stop at Horsted Keynes Station.

http://www.metrobus.co.uk/timetable.php?route_id=18&type=week

 

I thought you had to make a request to stop at Horsted station at least thats what my Nan said when she used to use that bus.

Also is 30777 still scheduled for the first train tomorrow. (providing nothing goes wrong)

 

I see from the Bluebell Yahoo group that Standard 80151 had a failure today, does anyone know any more about this please?

Regards
Chris:

 

The Standard Tank failed with a leaking smoke tube so doubt it will run again this weekend. The C class had been lit up along with the P so guess they will stand in. Archie was in steam but dont know the outcome of that, could be a runner on Sunday.

Mark Tewkesbury

 

I gather 80151 has a tube issue and is not expected to take any further part in the gala. A relatively minor problem by all accounts, but it needs to cool down before repairs can be undertaken.

For those who have purchased a printed timetable, the plan for tomorrow is that 1638 will work Set A, 178+592 Set B, 30777 Set C, and B473 Set D.

Cheers,
Jon

 

Some pictures form yesterday uploaded here.
http://bantam61668.fotopic.net/c1909510.html

 

Just got home today with a mixed bag of photos, couple of nice shots of B473 and 30777 in sun and a few in dark, gloomy rainy conditions. Overall I thought the organisers did very well with the locos they had available, not helped with 80151's withdrawal and doubts over if 34059 can make tomorrow. What I will say is I really hope the powers that be will consider the future of Giants of Steam before the 2011 timetable/special event's list is advertised. Quite clearly we do not have enough large locos to run a "genuine" Giants themed gala anymore, 2008 had to be renamed "Autumn Gala" as we didn't have big engines back then, and this year's event could have basically been Branch Line w/e if you took 30777 out of the line-up. I'd hate to see Giants go but if we cannot provide five or six locos of Class 4/5 size or above and end up using locos of Class 1/3 size then the event really needs to be renamed "Bluebell Autumn Steam-Up" or just "Autumn Gala". I think our last genuine Giants gala was the Bulleid Fest back in 2007, but with emphasis now on running small engines we don't have enough of our large home fleet locos in steam to do such an event. Unless our organisers are going to commit to hiring in two if not three big engines for next year to go with 34059, 1638 and 847, sadly our Giants theme really must change until we can boast a home fleet line-up of about 5 engines of Class 4 and above.

 

Error

 

Well David, it's all relative. On a peak season weekend the Bluebell may have 4 or 5 locos in steam. For some railways that's a gala. For the NYMR or SVR, having 4 locos of class 7 running (with some smaller engines) would be a 'Giants'. But for the Bluebell, two Class 4s, a 5 and a 7 with perhaps a Class 2 taking part is about right, given the lesser length of the line, lighter trains and the generally smaller locos in use.

 

I wouldn't disagree with those comments. I guess I'm remembering back to our "glory years" of Giants of Steam when we could have the Standards, Q1, 21C123 and S15 in steam back in the nineties to mid/late 2000's. Now our loco fleet is dominated by class 1 to 3 sized locos, nothing wrong with that, but as a result we don't have enough locos to pull a "Giants" themed gala off anymore. I'd hate to see it go but really do think the theme name needs to change for the next few years until we get some big locos back in steam. All in all I really did enjoy today but take Sir Lamiel out and you'd been forgiven for thinking this was Branch Line w/e.

 

I got some quite good pictures earlier from the Paddock when experimenting with brightness. But my best came towards the end of the day. I must praise the Bluebell for how quickily they were able to produce a revised timetable as I got there after 9:30 and got one though there were quite a bit of delay towards the end of the day. The 4:30pm Sheffield Park to Kingscote with 30777 left 15 minutes late but I got off at HK. Very good day though.

Got the Tornado 21st Century Steam book (which the Bluebell seems the only place locally that has it) and it is very good and when I bought it said they hoped 60163 would visit sometime next year.

Thanks to 30777 i've worked out that my first visit was 1995 and I was 3 years old as 30777 had just arrived the day I visited and was in the shed (which I used to be scared of going in.) So I've spent 15 years visiting the Bluebell.

 

Bloody hell mate you were only 3 years old when 30777 first visited in 1995, I was 16! Now that makes me feel really really old now :-(

 

I think it was a Thomas event (because I have pictures of it at home) about April maybe and I would have been 4 that September. But going now I feel the same as you.

I'll try to upload images tomorrow.

 

Apparently I was also 3 years old when I first visited the Bluebell - I have no recollection of it and according to my dad I slept through most of the experience! It must have sown some seed for my future enthusiasm which developed after a visit to the Bluebell over 30 years later!

I go to a lot of galas these days but it's always nice to get back to the Bluebell. They always seem to put on a good show whatever is running. I would agree that the "Giants" theme didn't fit this year but that didn't detract from the event at all in my view.

Everything seemed to go OK today until about 3pm when there were water problems at Kingscote. For some reason 473 was running low and then 672 on the Imberhorne shuttle needed filling. The normal water supply seemed to have dried up and a hosepipe was used which as you can imagine took rather a long time!

 

Oh thats what the problems were. I was on 30777 most of the day (minus the 10:00 with 178/592) and we approached Kingscote and had to wait outside for a while and 473 is the loco waiting at SP or KC and it was around that time we stopped. I must say though that I wnet to SP twice with 30777 and both times it had to fill up with water. Were the N15s that thirsty or just a precaution by the Bluebell.

 

I was at Kingscote while you were waiting outside. You had to wait as 672 was still being watered in the "loop" platform. As for refilling 30777 I think it's generally the policy to top up all locos at Sheffield Park between runs but someone from the Bluebell can confirm I expect.

Incidentally this makes me wonder - will there be a water supply at East Grinstead when it opens? There seems to be a problem with the small tank locos in that they can't do a round trip without a refill.