Bluebell Railway General Discussion

Marvelous film, shot largely on the Isle of Mull in the days before car ferries and the mass tourist invasion. Just how I remember it as a child. I also remember travelling to Oban on those LMS sleepers in the late '50s.

Peter

 

Our Santa Specials have finished for another year! Thank you to all our visitors who came and enjoyed our various Christmas services. For this year's Santa Specials we:

• Ran 60 Santa Special trains
• Welcomed 18,500 passengers
• Handed out 11,700 mince pies
• Wrapped and gifted 5,300 presents
• We have also cooked around 2,000 Christmas dinners for our Christmas dining services!

We hope everyone had a fantastic time.
Please note we are also running trains between Christmas and New Year.

Merry Christmas!

 

Thinking of visiting the Bluebell tomorrow but checking the timetables I find that the Bluebell train departs EG a few minutes before my train arrives from Victoria. This means a lengthy wait for the next one. Not impressed.

 

Check NR and Southern notices .... there was something about problems between Hust Green and EG t'other day

 

If the problem lays elsewhere, I’ll forgive the Bluebell but still unlikely to make the trip on this occasion.

 

No network trains between East Grinstead & Hurst green owing to landslip, replacement bus service in operation.

 

That explains it. Pity the NR journey planner doesn’t mention the buses.

 

Trains are running to East Grinstead, I just saw the arrival of the 16:20 from Victoria. There was a railhead cleaning train in the other platform which had arrived at 16. 03. There are speed restrictions in place passed the landslide, which based on the photo on National Rail Enquiries is adjacent the upline just before Cook's Pond Viaduct.

 

Speaking of landslips and speed restrictions I noticed quite a few new slips South of Sharpethorne tunnel with associated speed restrictions. The guard said it occurred as a result of the heavy rain that affected Sussex and the South of England just before Christmas.

Hopefully the remediation work can be done around the planned track relays.

Regards,

Dan

 

I personally accounted for at least 8 or 10 of those 11,700 mince pies...

 

Visitor for Branch Line Gala: Taff Vale Railway No. 85, courtesy KWVR. Another visitor is planned.

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/whats_on/branch-line-weekend-3/

Tom

 

I have put the dates in my diary

 

An infrastructure update for the post Christmas Winter work:

https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/ext/inf_news.html

This is relaying track in the vicinity of Three Arch Bridge just south of Horsted Keynes; the plan is for up to 26 panels (i.e. 520 yards) to be relaid. This is in addition to the 13 panels relaid north of Horsted Keynes in November, i.e. potentially almost 1/2 mile of new track could be laid by the end of this winter.

There is also some further progress on the OP4 building at Horsted Keynes.

Tom

 

Do you know which of the home fleet would be operating?

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

 

Not at the moment - haven't seen any diagrams or timetable. Reasonable assumption though that it would include 65, 263, 178 and probably at least one of 80151 or 541.

I've put a dedicated gala thread up at https://www.national-preservation.c...ranch-line-weekend-3-to-5-april-2020.1417564/

Tom

 

As an addendum to the above, the southern limit of this work is in the vicinity of Caseford Bridge, where last winter’s work finished. The northern end will be some way north of Three Arch Bridge. Much of that distance is in a cutting, and there is a lot of work to improve the drainage in the area with new cross drains being laid into a ditch that runs down the eastern side of the track. A combination of local springs and clay sub soil historically makes track maintenance hard in some areas, particularly cuttings, hence the general working practice of all the recent relaying that sees extensive drainage work and use of geo textile matting as part of the work, particularly in cuttings. It is more than just rail, ballast and sleepers. By the end of this winter, roughly 2.8 miles of track between SP and HK will have been totally relaid in the last decade, as well as some of the line north of HK - plus of course all the section north of Kingscote.

Tom

 

Interesting news to note that the SECR E Class project has been given approval by the Bluebell Railway board.



While I must admit to having been initially not too keen on the engine's looks and proportions, the more I've seen images of it, the more it's warmed on me... certainly I would agree that if there's one part of the Southern Railway's wider heritage the Bluebell has been lacking, it's a representative of the 4-4-0 design which was more widely adopted and used for far longer in the southern region then it was for the rest of the UK's railway network. So having such an example will be a great asset to the railway I feel.

Still won't deny it, my excitement for seeing a Brighton Atlantic is and will probably be WAY higher then it would for an E Class.

 

While the news of the E class is fantastic news and look forward to it, I think I would have gone for the E1 locomotive, but beggers cant be choosers and are grateful for the E class.

 

Adding the superheater for an E1 adds a six figure sum to the initial build cost, and also makes the loco more expensive in ongoing maintenance; those costs can't ever be recovered in reduced coal consumption given the nature of our workings. The E1 also has piston valve cylinders; I believe that the E class (with slide valves) has a cylinder block that is all but identical to the C class, for which a drawing exists (a replacement set of cylinders for the C class was cast a handful of years ago).

Tom

 

Valid points, well made. Those pesky 'real world' considerations are a downright pain in the proverbial!