Bluebell Diesel Gala 15 - 17th April

Further details, with final visiting locos, available here:

http://www.bluebell-railway.com/event/diesel-weekend/

If you scroll right to the bottom, there is a PDF download with the full timetable and loco allocations.

Tom

 

I would just like to thank Gbrf and the Bluebell for today had a fantastic day everything did as it was told until one of the 20's became emotional but I got everything I went there for and even the 73 translater locos were providing power so if you needed them you could scoop them in as well, top day

 

Some photos from the event - https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/PreservedModernTraction/Bluebell-Railway-GBRF-gala/

And a video...

 

Thanks Bluebell and GBRf for an excellent diesel gala yesterday. Shame a few of us missed the first train out of EG due to the large queue for tickets ( maybe a few roving sales staff accepting cash only for busy weekends in future?) but it didn't impact on the day much and I think everyone went home satisfied

The failure of one of the 20s provided a surprise bonus on the form of double headed 73/1's on a single train which were only supposed to be there as brake translators (another fascinating aspect of the day; new locos don't work with old coaches!)

20905 ( I think; the one without headcode boxes) did get back into service hauling an unlikely combination of the 73/9 66 and the 4TC back to SP rather sedately. I've not done diesels much in the last 30 years and I'm amazed at what a following they still have given their almost zero use on passenger trains!

out of interest what else does the 4TC work with there days? it only seems to have a buckeye coupling which now only works with 73s and 33/1s which I'm sure is not what LUL use it for.

thanks again

 

An excellent day out on Saturday, though it is a shame that the spacing of the stations means that there is a 20 minute wait at HK in one direction, still can't be helped when attempting to put on an intensive service.

A few of my pictures from the day...

Not a site you often see, that of a Class 20 solo running nose first.

Bluebell Diesel Gala - GBRF CL 20 - 20 905 by Tim White, on Flickr

Wouldn't it be good to have platform 1 in use rather than just storage, presumably it'll be needed for Ardingly?

Bluebell Diesel Gala - GBRF Class 73/1 - 73 107 by Tim White, on Flickr


Bluebell Diesel Gala - GBRF CL 20 - 20 901 by Tim White, on Flickr

 

I didn't look in detail at the timetable, but I think there were loco swaps going on at HK in the down direction weren't there? That would help explain the longer than normal wait.

Indeed: if you look at the track plan, platform 1 only connects to the Ardingly line - there is no direct connection from platform 1 to the Sheffield Park line.

http://www.derekhayward.co.uk/Blueb...-Tours/Horsted-Keynes-Signal-Box/i-NPcvGqc/X2 (Not my photo)

Tom

 

Indeed there were, but there was plenty of spare time as the other direction simply came in and went again. So regardless of the loco swaps we would still have been waiting.
I guess the runaround procedure at either end wasn't helping - they had to swap the order of locos to ensure that the brake translator was in the right place.

Acording to this:
http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/track_horsted.html
there never has been a connection from P1 to SP, it would still be nice to see it in use.