Bluebell Railway General Discussion

As I understand from a FB post there is a plan but it's longer term, 1st priority is to get it up and running northwards. Also I am led to understand P1 was never able to serve Sheffield Park in any case.


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You're quite right. P1 was only ever served off the Ardingly branch, so its of limited use, but will be very useful on gala days for brake van rides/ services from HK to EG. The "Change here!" experience of steam age travel.
Incidentally, something I really appreciated from Sundays visit was the respective station staff calling the station name on arrival, rather than relying on tannoys. A very wartime touch.

 

There are articles in Bluebell News and possibly online that detail it better, but my understanding is that there was a plan in the 1910s to connect P1 to the Sheffield Park line, and the platform was rebuilt to accommodate this at the south end but the plan was scrapped. This left the south end of P1 with a very strange shape and caused the sagging coping stones and the platform being barricaded off in 2023.

The south end has now been rebuilt to the original alignment but the track at the south end hasn’t yet. Its more of a priority to make sure the platform is rebuilt in time for the Rail 200 Exhibition Train, so the south end has been left for now.

 

There has been a fair amount about the rebuild of Platform 1 in the winter 2024 issue of Bluebell News, and also online - this page gives a good overview: https://www.bluebell-railway.com/horsted-keynes-platform-1-and-2-refurbishment/

AIUI, the southern 32' of the platform, plus the ramp, was rebuilt ca. 1914 with remodelling of that end of the station in mind. The result was a sharp kink in the platform wall, with the curve of the platform maintained by the coping stones having a much larger than ideal overhang, and a fairly sharp curve into the platform.

In this latest refurbishment, the Bluebell has reinstated the platform wall more or less along the original (pre-1914) alignment. A consequence is that the point that gave access to P1 from the Ardingly branch is no longer in the right place; my guess is it will have to move south by a few tens of yards to give a more natural alignment into the platform - presumably there being sufficient clearance in front of the signal box.

Tom

 

Services this weekend:

A - 80151 - Mark 1s
B - 32424 - Maunsells / Obo
WR (Sat) / GA (Sun) - 73082 (WR or Pullman stock as appropriate)

Saturday evening GA is 80151.

The Bluebell's Facebook is advertising an "early evening Goods Train" on Saturday evening but the weekly traffic notice hasn't appeared yet, so I don't know what the motive power or timings are yet. I'll update if I find out more.

Tom

 

Thanks for this. Presume 73082 is vice 34059. The latter being shown as rostered on the website.

 

I guess so - our documents say 73082 in any case.

Goods train timings on Saturday 7 June:

Loco - 73082

SP dep 4:30pm light engine
At Horsted Keynes, pick up goods from down yard ready for departure from P4/5
HK dep 5:05pm
EG arr 5:35pm

At EG, run round and shunt to swap brake van to other end of train.

EG dep 6:00pm
SP arr 6:50pm

At SP, run round and swap ends with brake van.

SP dep 7:30pm
HK arr 7:50pm

Shunt goods set to down yard.

HK dep 8:10pm light engine back to SP

80151 will also be out on an evening arrow, so if the weather is nice, quite an enjoyable evening to be had by the looks of things.

Tom

 

I believe the weekend workings have now changed due to the unavailability of 32424 and 73082.

34059 is.now back in action due to run on set A, 6989 is also back in action and was tested/ran in yesterday evening is on set B and 80151 is on the WR/GAL (Sat/Sun) and the Gds tonight

 

Many thanks Tom. I'm planning to take things easy this weekend as, it all goes to plan, there is a lot of activity due at the Spa Valley Railway over the next two weekends. I am having to accept that this ageing nonsense does slow me down just a little!

But I hope to get the Bluebell back on my radar again later in June.

And in any case there must be plenty of others here who very much welcome your very helpful weekly updates.

Looking at Ben's subsequent post to yours it is a shame the Bluebell is suffering what seems to be unplanned? availability of some locos.

Bryan

 

32424 back in service on B duty today

 

I know. I was on it

Tom

 

From an operational point of view, how does Beachy Head compare to the rest of your operational fleet? I would imagine there has been a learning curve of how to fire it, how to get the best from it, without using too much coal and water, and what sets it apart from say, other engines of a similar power rating,

 

Not surprised

 

In a sense Martin, there are no other locos of a similar power rating. I suspect the Atlantic is our only Class 3 engine, it slips between the smaller class 2s like the C, H, 01, E4 etc, and the larger class 4s, 541, U Class, standard 4s and so on!

I've got my first proper go on it on the 28th, will report after that.

 

I think I've had 8 days on it, totalling 306 miles which I think all but 22 I've fired. I've not driven it yet! One of those was the half trip to Horsted for familiarisation, so really seven full days.

As @andrewtoplis says, it's not really like anything else, so hard to compare. In power terms, it's a class 2 - we give it the same load limit as the E4, C class or a visiting Ivatt (185 tons; we allow the O1 and H class 150 tons). But in boiler capacity it's like a class 4. So in many ways it's a fireman's dream: with the loads we give it, it is just about impossible to beat the boiler if you fire it right. That's in marked contrast to, say, the O1, where if we put a big load on, you always beat the boiler. (That may not be immediately obvious. But, for example, if you leave Horsted Keynes with a full pot of water and the needle on the mark, and put the injector on round about Horsted House Farm, then by time you emerge from the tunnel you probably have about 1/2 glass water - less if things go badly. If the climb were much longer, you'd only manage it with both injectors running and being absolutely on the money with firing).

From the fireman's side, it is easy to prepare. You'd think a big grate that you have to slice out would be a problem, but in reality it seems quite light work, I think because the box isn't very long, so the fire irons aren't too heavy (hello S15!) and the grate is flat without an awkward change of slope (hello Wightwick Hall!) The ashpan is absolutely cavernous and thus far I've never had a day when the fire has clinkered to any extent.

For a trip, the technique is to build the back corners up as much as possible, but keep it thin everywhere else. If you get those done right at Sheffield Park, you don't need to do anything else with them all the way to East Grinstead, it is just a question of firing as required to the rest of the box. With the current hard coal and firing thin, the loco does seem to have a tendency to burn out in a strip right across the box about a third of the way down from the back, so it is worth concentrating on that. I suspect that is about in line with where the trailing axle is and a shelf in the ashpan.

There's only one damper to worry about (a front damper), the control mechanism for which has about 5 or 6 notches. With the current hard coal, I've found you never need it open more than one notch, or two at most, but with plenty of top air through the firehole door. (Which is an oven door style thing, inherited no doubt from Doncaster when Marsh came from there). No doubt things would be different with different coal.

In all the trips I've fired, I can only think of two occasions when the pressure has fallen significantly (say down to 150psi) running up north of HK (which is the hardest bit of our line). On one occasion, the damper had wriggled itself shut without noticing, and opening it again sorted the issue. In the other, a couple of shovelfuls in each back corner got the pressure back, I think it had just burnt down there.

The injectors are the same as on a BR standard and work really well, picking up cleanly. You have to be careful not to carry the water too high because of the small gap between the top of the glass and the bottom of the safety valves. The water doesn't drop too much going over summits (short stubby boiler I guess) so managing the water level is easier than on the O1, where on our hills, it is always out of sight - if it isn't, you have too little. On the Atlantic, you can run with it in sight all the time.

The loco is quite noisy. Apart from the air pump, the safety valves make a distinctive hooting sound at about 167psi, just before it blows off. I think that is probably caused by the shape of the safety valve casing acting like a trumpet. Apparently there is archive sound recording of the original back in the 1950s and it did the same thing.

Given the narrow flap to fire through, the wide firebox and the driver's heat shield which gets in the say of firing to the right, the fireman needs a lot of space to work in, which is why our risk assessment only allows three people in normal use. The third man can stand behind the driver and allow the fireman the whole other half of the cab.

There's not much I can say about driving as I haven't driven it. From little things I've picked up, the loco is prone to centering - far more than any other loco we have. If you get held at either of the home signals approaching Horsted and have to restart on a hill, it seems you have to give it a lot of beans to get going.

Overall, from a fireman's side, it is very good, really enjoyable to be on and without too many vices. You can relax a bit more than you can on the O1, and won't get physically beaten up like you do on Archie. Would be interesting to hear @andrewtoplis view in due course.

Tom

 

I’ve had a couple of third man turns on it now, and my all round experience of footplate work isn’t enough to compare it to other locos - but I concur with Tom’s comment about the cab! There’s basically nowhere to stand - if you’re behind the fireman you’re in their way any time they try to swing the shovel, and if you’re behind the driver then you’re in the way every time they notch up. If that happens at the same time you’re really in trouble!

Second turn I had the driver showed me a little perch on the tender which helped - but did mean he and I got intimately acquainted when he used the reverser…

I don’t know how everybody else feels, but had to pinch myself a couple of times that I was getting to work on a brand new Marsh Atlantic - been a while since anybody has been able to say that!


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Hopefully the original photographer (Brian Dandridge) won't mind me sharing this photo from yesterday - all nicely under control with the Maunsell set (3687 leading) and Obo, approaching Kingscote.



Tom

 

Probably a silly question - when a fireman refers to the 'back' and 'front' of a firebox, is that relative to your viewpoint (so 'back' is furthest from the door) or to the boiler (so 'back' is closest to the door)?

 

Relative to the boiler - so the back is closest to the door. (But when they first get on an engine, it seems everyone gets it wrong - so first time you say to a green cleaner “put some in the back” it goes wanging down at high speed to exactly the wrong place. The good ones only need telling once …

Tom

 

The only things I can think of where the back is farthest away from you are wardrobes, cupboards and draws. I always tell new cleaners that it is a loco, not a piece of furniture when discussing this.