Bluebell Railway General Discussion

There's a photo of 30536 at Eastleigh, 1962, in the relevant volume of DL Bradley. Interestingly, the BR emblem on the tender (late style of emblem) looks very small, as if the works didn't have one of the right size and just thought "well, the Beattie Well Tanks aren't going to get a repaint, we'll use one of those!" It looks rather silly!

Tom

 

Oh brilliant, another unique engine spoiled by BR livery. BORING!

 

It's black whatever era livery it carries! And it's only for a year.

 

The Cash for Cover Appeal is to raise money to make a substantial start on the Horsted Keynes Carriage Shed Extension, by constructing the shell and roof of the building. The overall project is known as Operation Undercover Phase 4.

Thanks to generous benefactors matching the first £125,000 donated to this project (the Double Donations Dash) and the rapid response to the appeal, we have now passed this total, and thus the target shown (on the JustGiving page) is now that to enable us to roof over the entire new shed. The "offline total" shown now includes match funding, gift aid, a legacy, and PayPal donations.

As of now, (Friday morning) the total raised (including the match funding and Gift Aid) is £291,828.

The aim is to put up the supports and the roof over four proposed roads and the current maintenance road. You can see the artist’s impression of how it will look on this page. We now have the £250,000 to put up the shed structure and half the roof, and cover 10 carriages. Constuction work will commence in 2015.

If by the time construction starts we have raised an additional £100,000 (so reaching the current £350,000 target) then we can complete the roof and thus provide cover for 20 carriages, meaning that virtually all of the pre-nationalisation coaches on the Bluebell can be placed under cover. That will not complete the project, of course, since we eventually will need to build a component store, office, trim shop, add walls and roller-shutter doors to complete the project, but this will be a tremendous start.

For larger donations the following donation methods are more cost-effective, since they avoid card fees charged by JustGiving as a percentage of your donation:

• You can make donations to this project online by PayPal, with GiftAid.
• You can download a Donations/GiftAid form should you wish to donate by cheque or standing order
• To donate £5 on your mobile phone (added to your bill, or deducted from Pay-as-you-go) simply text: COVR50 £5 to 70070. You can donate £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10. You'll also be able to add Gift Aid at no extra cost.

Tom

 

It will be the only working member of the Bluebell owned/based locos in a BR livery when it returns ( and until Camelot returns), it is only for a year, and will be earning addtional monies for the railway for not much outlay.It is go to see the Railway and the MLS are open to diferent suggustions to raise funds, particulary when they are after a significant sum for Stowe.

 

Couldn't it wait a year? That way all three working Maunsell locos would be in Maunsell livery. This will hopefully be the first time that three of the Maunsell Societies engines are in steam together, and yet they won't all be in Maunsell livery because the paint it BR brigade are at it again. Such a shame. Can't you people support the railway and the locos without it being in BR livery?
Daniel

 

Unfortunately that's what the photo charter people like, since the GWSR have been doing photo charters this year, only 7820 has had a look in, our only BR black engine, she's been on probably about half a dozen in not even a year. 4270 hasn't steamed in 60 odd years until this year yet no one is interested in running a photo charter for her (there was talk of her going BR black as she came into steam for our "Back to Black" event, but thankfully those rumours were unfounded!) Oh, the only other loco to take part in a photo charter was a visiting 3850 in, you guessed it, BR black!

So as much as I prefer the earlier liveries, it's only for a year, and will raise more money than otherwise. I'm sure that if a large enough donation was paid they might consider a change, but as it stands, it's their loco to do what they please.

 

Logistically, I suspect it is easier and cheaper to start with an all black loco with BR transfers and a smokebox numberplate and subsequently do the signwriting for "Southern" on the tender and the buffer beam numbers, than to do it the other way round.

Tom

 

The most likely reason they want the engines in BR livery for the photo charters is because of "when I was a lad" ie the colour of the engines when they were doing their engine spotting.

 

I'm sure it is Tom, but by the time it goes into Southern livery, 1638 will be out of traffic.
Daniel

 

My first thought on reading your post was that 4270 was being overlooked because a GWR-liveried engine wouldn't offer much to the charter brigade to a rake of Mk ! stock, but then, 4270 wasn't really a passenger engine. I suspect it has already clocked up more passenger mileage in preservation than it managed for the Great Western and BR put together! However, the GWSR has a decent rake of wagons, and 4270 would look the part with these in tow, so yes, it is a bit odd.

Anyway, going back to 30541 and the replacement of the Lemaitre chimneys by the BR Std 4 type,

Thanks for the clarification, Tom. Also to Paul42 for mentioning the Midhurst Belle. A more thorough trawl through my (many) books on Southern steam, I have found a few photos of the locos modified this way. Besides 30530's working, there was another special on part of the old Midhurst branches. this time the Lavant stub, double-headed by two Qs. The picture in my book was a tender-first shot, but at least one of the locos had the BR Std 4 chimney mod. Also found a picture of a similiarly modified Q on the Horsham-Guildford line, so perhaps they weren't as camera-shy as I had thought. The stovepipe on 30549 stuck in my memory as it was rather ugly, whereas the Br4 chimney isn't.

That's good news. I've yet to donate but intend to do so in the next week. Who knows, by the end of the Q's ticket, it might have a decent rake of Maunsell stock to match its SR Maunsell livery. Maybe it's better to run it as 30541 in its first year in traffic as this won't be the case next year.

 

I actually like BR black.......

 

Time to go home now Johnny

 

Why does everyone assume that the decision to paint 30541 in BR livery for 18 months has anything to do with photo charters?
Never assume anything!
Roger.

 

It was an assumption made based on observations on the GWSR. Given that photo charters draw in extra money for a loco owning group, and from what I've seen, photo charterists of late prefer prefer BR black, it's not unreasonable to think that they have painted it black to increase their chances of more money being raked in. after all, steaming fees on public trains are the same regardless of what livery or the number of passengers on the train.

Finally, why else would you want to paint a loco such a hideous livery if not to rake in some more money?

 

Perhaps 1638 could be painted BR black for last year in traffic. Then only 847 to repaint for a BR livery Maunsell set of three........

 

What makes this situation all the more ridiculous is that there is only one railway in the country which has the ability to operate large Southern Railway engines alongside authentic Southern Railway carriages and wagons.

It's just so dull. Totally and utterly dull. If variety is the spice of life, the preserved railway movement seems to want to overdose on vanilla.

Ironically, BR liveries are the ones which, apparently, the public least like.

 

Is it to appease David Wilcock after his moan in Steam Railway a few months back about L150 pulling the Arrow?

 

Changing the livery of a black engine thats black. Isnt too much hardship. Changing a loco thats in gwr green into BR or even GW green is much different. Paint jobs are costly and time consuming. 4566 was re painted through charter attendees/ supporters forking up the cash. Leave 1638 as is. Theres 1806 in BR black. Go and phot that one.
BR liveries are all the same. Once joe bloggs and his kids have seen 7812 at the SVR its a green engine with a name on the side then if they then visit the WSR and see 7828 they assume its the same loco.
Variety is the spice of life. If people are prepared to part with cash to help fund a repaint, do it. I know plenty of owners who will happily say yes to a repaint, if someone else pays for it.

 

But isn't variety another reason to put 541 into BR livery for a spell? We've all seen it in Southern livery before, isn't it nice to see it differently for a short while?