Bluebell Railway General Discussion

That must be a rough riding loco @Steve !

 

No, but at its most efficient. Work done is independent of speed, in any case.

 

You mean 4-6-0 right?
But I get what you mean, but still, it's not what I would consider to be a Branch Line engine.

However, I am still going to attend, perhaps a half Southern/Welsh theme maybe? The 4 tank being the intertwining?

 

The extra wheel was obviously for the inbuilt dynamometer drive for recording time against distance travelled.

 

Are you quite sure that gives a reliable reading? Do you not find that it is has a tendency to exaggerate speed downhill?

 

Only on small hillocks in Lincolnshire.

 

Just out of curiosity I was wondering if any of the Bluebell folk know how the Q ended up with the std 4 chimney arrangement?

I was looking through some pictures earlier and found a picture of it with the Bulleid/Lemaitre chimney at Barry- was this unable to be reused, or was it just felt that the Std 4 arrangement was a significant improvement?

Thankyou in advance

Chris

 

Quick note about services for this week:

Thursday 28 - Saturday 30 December

2 train, 4 departure service (+ SteamLights)
Locos: No. 6989 (A / SteamLights); No. 65 (B)
​

Sunday 31 December

2 train, 4 departure service (+ SteamLights + Golden Arrow Lunchtime)
Locos: No 80151 (A); No. 65 (B); No. 6989 (GAL / SL)
​

Monday 1st January 2024

3 Train + Good strain
Locos: Nos. 6989, 34059, 72 (passenger trains); No. 65 (Goods)
See: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Bluebell-Railway-New-Years-Steam-TT-.pdf
​

Carriage sets are I believe:
Set A / Steamlights: Mostly Mark 1s + Van
Set B - Obo + LSWR brake + Brighton bogie 1st + 100 seater + 3 LCDR four wheelers

For Jan 1st, the same except Fenchurch takes the Obo on its own.

Tom

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The reasons are explained on the web site:
https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/locomotives-under-overhaul/#q

 

Some places need something with a bit of extra grunt to pull those things called buffet cars about, FFS Paul, if you have the answers then every traffic manager from Wotten to Wick would like to hear them.
Here we go Paul, what would you like (within reason) as a visitor for the Bluebell’s branch line weekend? Bear in mind this seems a recperical deal

 

If there is a refreshment facility at a convenient station there is no need for a buffet car.

 

If you look at the branch line Polegate to Hailsham you could have anything between a Terrier and a Battle of Britain/WC pulling a 2 coach train !

Sent from my SM-A526B using Tapatalk

 

Well it was very careless of the SVR to end up 16 miles long, obviously the solution is to magically make all lines shorter...

 

Thanks for that detail Tom.

In view of the short time between the end of Steam Lights and the operation of that coaching set (A/Steam Lights) is it likely that set A will still have the Steam Lights event lighting on it for the 1st January event? I do appreciate that staff/volunteers will be in need of a well earned break after all the hard work in running what I hope have been financially successful Santa and Steam Lights events for the Bluebell.

Bryan

 

On that last note, a Manor hasn't visited the Bluebell before, although I think 7822 has visited the KESR a few years back.

Off the top of my head the previous visiting GWR locos have been 6989 (on loan until Late 2024), 3440, 3205, 3650, 5199 (extended loan), 4561, 5521 (extended loan), 5643 (extended loan), 813 and 1450.

 

There's a SteamLights on New Year's Eve I think, so almost certainly the lights will still be on the carriages on New Year's Day.

80151 gets repainted in the new year

Tom

 

The big three. Over-extension, Big chufferitis and now Covid-19.

 

A little while ago I compiled this list of visiting locos, which runs to at least 106 steam locos - but no Manor before.

There's a few missing from gala and film visitors that I have noted below; I think I missed them because the mileage may not have been recorded in the annual mileage stats.

Some caveats:

• I only included steam
• Only locos that actually ran in revenue traffic are included. So for example, the Taff Vale 0-6-2T that came for Branch Line Weekend 2020 isn't on the list as it never ran, even though it spent six months in the loco shed. Likewise Jinty 47493 that came but was failed on arrival.
• I haven't got good records about various "Thomas" and "Percy" locos, so there may be some additional ones there, i.e. different specific locos.
• There was some debate on Facebook about the Caledonian Single 123 and T9 No. 120. They came as far as Horsted Keynes on an incoming rail tour in 1963, but at that time Horsted Keynes wasn't in Bluebell possession - it was still owned by BR. They didn't (as far as I am aware) venture south, but instead went off to Brighton for servicing. So I haven't included them, but arguably you could.
• I've split the list into "home fleet", "long term visitors" (i.e. bought in for traffic purposes); "gala visitors"; "rail tours, filming etc.". Where a loco has visited several times under different categories, it is only included once - examples include the GNR J52 (came on a rail tour in the 1960s then subsequently as a gala visitor); Furness Railway No. 20 (came as a gala visitor and then for a specific filming contract); "Tornado" (came on a rail tour and also a gala visitor).
• Missing off the list: "Maude" (should be in the "filming" section); "Martello" (not sure why I missed that); "Invincible" (in the gala section).

Corrections welcome.

Tom