Brighton Atlantic: 32424 Beachy Head

Aha! I was wondering from the first small flickr pics if the frames had been lifted from the wheels to lessen the load that the crane was hoying about... The second (large) photo confirms it's now a wheeled and boilered loco... Well done to all concerned! The PROPER way to go about a newbuild loco! This is the perfect excuse I need to visit the Bluebell, never having been before.

Richard.

 

I think the next time Atlantic House will be open for visiting will be for Giants of Steam in mid October.

Tom

 

Oh boy, are you in for a treat! Do yourself a favour and don't overlook C&W ap at Horsted Keynes.

 

Obviously it could prove to be incorrect, but Steam Railway are reporting Beachy Head being on static display at Giants of Steam paired with it's tender, but that would require loco and tender being taken out of Atlantic House, but I don't know when a slot in the main workshop would be available for 32424 (after 34059 perhaps?).

 

32424 to be moved to workshop sometime next year according to Trackside.

 

I guess “paired with its tender” could include “side by side”

I haven’t spoken to any of the leading lights for a while, but my sense is that is convenient both for the Atlantic team and the main workshop for the loco to stay in Atlantic house for as long as possible, and only move when there is no option not to given the remaining tasks.

Tom

 

Steam Railway reporting the same and saying it's feasible the first steaming will be late next year, but will partly be influenced by works capacity at the time.

I guess it could mean side by side, Steam Railway suggests it will give a close impression of what the loco will look like when complete.

 

Latest update; the story of the boiler lift:

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/brps/atlantic-latest/

Tom

 

Thanks for posting Tom.
It looks fantastic with the boiler in position and outside in full view.
Sods Law about the rain!!

 

What a fantastic machine! Well done to all concerned

 

I'm drooling...such a handsome locomotive, I always thought they were. Can't wait to see it move. I'm sure it will a very emotional scene to all those involved on this build when that happens.

 

"It is a high lift because the boiler has to be lowered down through the cab front angles. Those angles come within about 1/4″ of the boiler itself, the clothing sheets butting to it on both sides. Also the throatplate clothing actually touches the splashers when the boiler is correctly positioned within the cab front."

Just when you thought the tolerances couldn't get any tighter !

Seriously impressive update there.

 

Absolutely brilliant! And not one part of a restorable GNR Atlantic butchered in the process! Well done, I can't wait to see Beachy Head in steam.

Richard.

 

Well done to all involved! Looking very promising, can't wait to make a visit to see her once she has a fire in her boiler!

I'm sure I'm not the first person to ask this, but... why is Atlantic House roughly perpendicular to the other sheds and main running line? Is a lorry going to be required to move the loco out of Atlantic House when the time comes or is there some other scheme planned / possible?

 

Basically space constraints. There are three parallel projects along there, all roughly perpendicular to the running line (27 / Wainwright Villas group; 84030; Atlantic Group) but the Atlantic is comfortably the largest!

Don't know for certain, but my hunch is that it would be done by crane rather than lorry. From what I've seen of lorry moves and how much space you need behind the lorry to build a suitable ramp, I can't imagine that there is the space to do it - the lorry would end up on the tracks the other side of the inspection pit.

The two things I'd guarantee is that the (1) the team have thought about it, at least in principal, since the building was built and (2) by time they get to do it, it will run smoothly due to a lot of prior consideration of the details.

Tom

 

(Photo: Melvyn Frohnsdorf)

This surely has got to be one of the images of the year? Nice one Mr Frohnsdorf.

The Atlantic project I have kept up with for many years, dropping pennies in on my way into the BR, always taking some time to ask them questions on open days. Its one of the most fabulous recreations and it has been done in the best possible way.

What an achievement it will be when it is complete and steaming down at the BR.

 

I think that the outcry over poor Thornbury Castle would pale into insignificance in comparison to the scale of the potential hoo-hah had a GNR Atlantic been dismantled to help create No. 32424!

And so say all of us! Although the LB&SCR is well represented in terms of the number of surviving locos, 10 of them are Terriers and no Marsh or Lawson Billinton locos have survived, so the new Beachy Head will help plug a very significant gap.

 

When the time comes, whatever method is used, i'm sure the group will have it worked out to the finest degree, I would have thought slewing the track, round in a curve then a shallow ramp might be the easiest option,

 

Not so sure...its not as if 251 is ever going to be let out, is it.

To prove this really is an LBSC Atlantic, I would like to see it with "Big Maisie" nameplates

 

I'm going to jump in before Tom says it ..... no Craven locos either!

Although I think it was criminal no I3 was saved (surely superheating classed as 'significant' even in the 1950s for crying out loud!), the one I feel would've been most appropriate to the Bluebell in particular would've been an I1x. Unfussy, unsung locos that did what they were (re)built to do and just got on with it for 30 years. Ho-hum. Can't win 'em all!