Bluebell Railway General Discussion

Ah yes. I forgot to add it in.

 

There are some photos of Blue Circle and Typhoon during the 50th gala here.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mark1309/albums/72157617053701509/page2

 

I watched the cavalcade at Horsted on the Sunday of the 50th and I remember there effectively being 2 cavalcades.

The first was as Tom mentioned with 55, 672, B473, 178, 592, 1638 and 34059. The second had the petrol engine, Blue Circle and Baxter running individually on the headshunt alongside the 2 main running lines.

 

My photo of FR 20, Baxter and Blue Circle on shed at Horsted Keynes, 6 August 2010.

 

Evening running will be a pleasant addition if the "12 hours" thing comes true

 

Blimming hell, Tempus fugit and all that I was at the 10th Anniversary though can't remember much about what was running then as I was selling car park tickets in the lower field IIRC. Will so try to get to this one as I missed the 50th.

Chris

 

Just an inquiry, is the North London tank still on the Bluebell not heard or seen it on my visits over the last few years.

 

Yes at Horsted Keynes.

 

Latest on the landslide between East Grinstead and Dormans from Network Rail


This is East Grinstead landslip site from our drone (actually there's 5 slips but 3 in the picture). It's a massive job but passengers travelling with
@SouthernRailUK
TLRailUK
will be pleased to hear we have a plan to get the railway operational again for 30 March. /1



We've got multiple piling rigs on site banging 30m sheet piles into the ground to build steel walls to hold the railway up. The black soil is the ash the embankment was built of over 100 years ago, and the reason it collapsed so badly in the storms. /2



Ash is being replaced by stone, seen here being dropped from a train. You can also see how remote the location is, albeit our neighbours will still hear us down the valley - so many thanks to them for their patience. It's a big job but we and

BAMNuttall
are up for it. Thank you.

 

Thanks for cross-posting that update; very informative.

It's interesting to see another line having problems as a result of poor original embankment construction quality; not that I'm dumping on the original creators, I expect it's mostly that much less was known back then. My best wishes to all those lines struggling with this issue, and may your repaired infrastructure be sound for many a year to come!

Noel

 

@Paul42 fantastic drone pictures - really shows how massive the job is. Good luck with the repairs.

Keith

 

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...-and-forest-row-west-sussex-mystically-fruity

Let’s move to East Grinstead and Forest Row, West Sussex: mystically fruity

 

Normal practice would be that you tried to balance earth dug out in cuttings and that needed for embankments; however, that wasn't always possible, and if you had too little earth, ash was a substance that the railway companies had an abundance of for no more than the price of transport, particularly for secondary lines where money was a concern. (Both the Lewes and East Grinstead; and its northern companion the Croydon, Oxted and East Grinstead, were relatively late construction, not in the first flush of railway engineering when to a degree a lot of infrastructure was very over-engineered. So ash was used in places for embankments).

Hopefully we never see anything on the scale that Network Rail are dealing with! The Bluebell does have some embankments made of ash though, and has been working over the years to stabilise them, most recently in the section north of Leamland.

Tom

 

According to the Bluebell website and social media pages, the railway is following the example of others and understandably given the current situation, is suspending services and is closed until further notice.

 

From the e-Newsletter:

21 MARCH 2020

The Bluebell Railway is suspending its train services and closing until further notice.

The Railway had originally decided to stay open and run a minimal service during the weekend of 21 and 22 March, including the planned Mother's Day service, with enhanced health protection measures in place for staff, volunteers and visitors.

But the Railway announced on Friday it was suspending services because of the national and global situation with the coronavirus public health crisis.

Bluebell Railway Plc chairman Chris Hunford said: “The health, safety and well-being of our staff, volunteers and visitors remains our priority.”

He added: “Some people have been calling and asking if we’re open and saying they still intend to travel this weekend although several people have also called asking to defer their bookings. Taking all this into account and the latest government advice, we have decided to suspend all services this weekend and the Railway will close until further notice.”

During the closure, there will be no trains running, and the shop and catering outlets will not be open to visitors, although the Railway’s online shop will continue to trade. More stock is being added to the online shop over the next couple of weeks.

The special commemorative book for the Railway's 60th anniversary—Sixty Years of Progress—written by Bluebell News editor Colin Tyson, is already available online.

Mr Hunford said the Railway would keep the situation under constant review in the coming days and weeks and assess the situation as it evolves.

Branch Line Weekend planned for 3-5 April has been postponed and all other events will be reviewed.​

 

And from Facebook - a means by which supporters can help the railway through these times, by donating through Virgin Money Giving:

Following the news yesterday, a number of people have been in touch to ask how they can make a donation to Bluebell Railway while our services are suspended.

Coming after the early part of the year when trains are not running, our finances are already at their lowest ebb. We are therefore appealing for donations to help keep the essential services of the railway running at a time when, unexpectedly, we have no income. We have many ongoing costs and expenses which do not stop when we're not running trains.

If you would like to support us by making a donation, please see our page here: http://ow.ly/pNnH50yRRNj​

Tom

 

Latest on the landslide - video from Network Rail can be found : -

https://twitter.com/i/status/1242140998425292800

 

That was not a small job!!

 

Good pictures, but the voice-over was utterly useless.

Noel

 

More on the landslides north of East Grinstead. Video covers two jobs near each other, at Edenbridge on the Redhill - Tonbridge line and (starting about 6'45") Dormans on the East Grinstead line. Suffice to say both jobs are huge!



Tom