Bluebell Railway Giants of Steam 11th-13th October 2024

Yes indeed, the one of the double header at West Hoathly in particular. I was on that one.

 

Not seen the railway as busy as it was on Friday and Saturday for a very long time, probably only beaten in recent times by the Flying Scotsman visits (and even then it might have topped last year's)

A question which occurred to me though, is this the first Bluebell gala ever (apart from the very opening day at least) where every participating locomotive carried a name? Normally an O1, C, Q or S15 has snuck in somewhere over the years to keep the unnamed quota up, but everything running this weekend is a "namer". Can't think of when it might have happened before, if ever.

 

Photos of the event now up at https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/Bluebellphotosets/Giants-of-Steam-October-2024, a selection below



Plus one which didn't make the cut, but I quite liked it...

 

I can be a stickler for having discs rather than lamps when 34081 is running but in this occasion I couldn’t get hung up about it.

 

An enjoyable day at the line, all the trains involving 60007 were either standing room only or in the case of the last run, virtually full. Had a nice trip up to Horsted in the Obo behind 6989 in between my solo run behind 60007 and the double headers with 34059.

Plenty of people at the stations and both the Bluebell' own 60007 merchandise and the SNGLT stand seemed to be doing good business.

A few mobile photos from the day. 32424's temporary trouble provided an unexpected photo opportunity in the first one with 34059.

 

Great day at the railway today. Good conditions for sound recording so set up my equipment near Horsted House Farm. This intrigued one of the horses and it came to inspect the microphone. While doing this, it let out an almighty fart. Peter Handford never got one of those on Railway to Riccarton.

 

Sent from my XQ-BT52 using Tapatalk

 

A top show from the locomotives over the weekend, and great to film an A4 along the line. Big thanks to all involved for 60007s visit and all required to run another successful event:

 

From that incredible Bluebell event, this coupling of a photo I took in the 1960s and one of the same loco of the first train of the day on Friday was totally out of the blue! I have spent a lot of time trying at a number of old SR locations to match shots from the two eras, often in a much better way than that below. It was only when I checked the photo later on the Friday that I realised 34059 was carrying Waterloo-Bournemouth-Weymouth headcode discs. Enough of a match for me!

The top shot was 34059 on the down fast at Brookwood. Big brother @gricerdon may have an idea of the approximate date when we were probably gricing together there as I think we also covered some of the bridges between Brookwood and Woking on the same day(s).

Bryan

 

I do like the head-on shot (from 19.10) of 34059 climbing Feshfield Bank.

Bryan

 

I was thinking about that too. I don't think it has happened at the Bluebell before. I thought of the 2007 Giants of Steam with 4 Bulleids but that had other non-named locos running. In fact the only time I can think of previously with all locos named was this year's "Simply Bulleid 2" event at Swanage.

 

I think at that gala, there were four Bulleids; “Stepney”; “Birch Grove” (but running in BR livery so unnamed for the event), 80151 and 1638.

Tom

 

A short film I’ve cobbled together from phone footage.

 

Aaah Tom, nice to see you are coming round to my way of thinking.

Looks truly wonderful in the correct livery. 12 August 2007.

Bryan

 

Heres My Video from the Gala with 2 days footage.

 

Wish I had taken a dose of this before catching the train! Sign at Sheffield Park of course.

 

I've made a start editing my photos and videos from this year's Giants of Steam' and here's a video of BEACHY HEAD departing from Horsted:

RD28229vid. 32424 BEACHY HEAD at Horsted Keynes. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

Hope you like it.

Ron.

 

SIR NIGEL and SIR ARCHIBALD double-heading a non-stop train through Horsted Keynes:

RD28236vid. 60007 & 34059 at Horsted Keynes. by Ron Fisher, on Flickr

Ron.

 

Just realised I never posted my video from the event, so here it is